The Breath of Suspicion

The Breath of Suspicion is a true story, meticulously researched and historically accurate, about a major figure in U.S. history that few people know of. Peggy Eaton rose from the bottom of society to keep company with Presidents, ambassadors and royalty in the White House and the courts of Europe. She was charismatic, intelligent, sexy, witty and saucy. But when she lived, those characteristics were not acceptable in a woman. She was shunned and scorned by Washington Society.

Her marriage in 1829 to Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War brought Peggy back into Washington’s society and set off the Petticoat War in which women fought at government receptions, Cabinet members exchanged duel challenges, and the Secretary of War chased the Secretary of the Treasury around the streets of Washington with loaded weapons and intent to kill. The Petticoat War that raged about Peggy Eaton involved and complicated national politics, and helped to create political divides that led to the Civil War.

The Breath of Suspicion follows the historic course of events and contains dialog and scene settings quoted from source documents. Footnotes appear as (1), (2) in the text in Kindle format, and the footnotes are at the end of the book, along with a full Bibliography.