John Eaton
John Henry Eaton (June 18, 1790 - November 17, 1856) was an American politician of Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee. He was born near Scotland Neck, Halifax County, North Carolina.
He was a Democrat lawyer. He served in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812. He was a member of Tennessee state house of representatives from 1815 to 1816 and a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1818 to 1821 and again from 1821 to 1829. He resigned his Senate seat in the latter year in order to take up appointment as President Andrew Jackson's Secretary of War, a post in which he served from 1829 to 1831, when resigned from the Cabinet over a scandal concerning his second wife, Peggy, that was known as the Petticoat Affair. He was later Governor of Florida Territory from 1834 to 1836 and United States Minister to Spain from 1836 to 1840.
Eaton, a Freemason, died in Washington, D.C. on November 17, 1856. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Eaton County, Michigan is named for him.
