United States of America Official White House Historical Association Sterling Medal First Lady – Emily Donelson 1972 FM Proof Silver Medal 37mm (33.03 grams) 0.925 Silver (1.00 oz. ASW) EMILY DONELSON 1829 1836 FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES, Emily facing 1/4 right. Emily Donelson 1807-1836 Niece of President Andrew Jackson’s deceased wife; only 21 years old, she was one of our nation’s youngest First Ladies.
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Emily Donelson (June 1, 1807 – December 19, 1836) was the niece of Rachel Donelson Jackson, the daughter-in-law of U.S. President Andrew Jackson. She served as White House hostess and first lady of the United States.
On September 16, 1824, seventeen-year-old Emily married Andrew Jackson Donelson. Donelson was Emily’s first cousin and a ward of their mutual uncle and aunt, Andrew and Rachel Donelson Jackson. The couple had four children: Andrew Jackson Donelson Jr. (1826-1859), Mary Emily Donelson (1829-1905), John Samuel Donelson (1832-1863), and Rachel Jackson Donelson (1834-1888).
It has been speculated that even before Rachel Donelson Jackson’s death in 1828, Jackson had planned for Emily to accompany them to Washington to assist Rachel in the duties of White House hostess. The Jacksons had maintained a similar arrangement with Emily at The Hermitage, their plantation in Tennessee. The death of Rachel Donelson Jackson caused these plans to be abandoned and Andrew Jackson asked Emily to take over all the responsibilities of the White House hostess, which she did with the aid of her niece Mary Ann Eastin.
Emily arrived in Washington at the age of 21. Her husband, Andrew Jackson Donelson, served as President Jackson’s private secretary. The first months of Jackson’s administration marked a period of mourning for Rachel Donelson Jackson. The unofficial period of mourning ended when Emily hosted a New Year’s party at the White House on January 1, 1830.
In 1829, Washington society began to buzz with rumors surrounding Peggy Eaton, the new wife of Secretary of War John Henry Eaton. The rumors alleged the couple’s relationship had begun as an extramarital affair, and that Peggy’s first husband had committed suicide when he learned of their relationship. Medical examiners concluded that he had died of pneumonia, but the rumors persisted.
The growing scandal, soon to be nicknamed the Petticoat affair, began to split Jackson’s Cabinet. The wives of several members of Jackson’s cabinet, most notably Floride Calhoun, the wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun, refused to receive Peggy into Washington society, and snubbed the couple.
President Jackson viewed the treatment of Peggy Eaton as unwarranted and unfair. He also drew comparisons to the treatment of his own late wife. Unbeknownst to the Jacksons, Rachel was still legally married to her first husband when she married Andrew Jackson, as he had begun divorce proceedings against Rachel, but the action was not finalized. This fact was discovered by supporters of John Quincy Adams during the election of 1828. They mercilessly attacked Rachel as an adulterer and a bigamist. Although Rachel had suffered from ill health since 1825, Jackson blamed her death in December 1828 on the stresses of the campaign. Jackson believed that Washington society was treating Peggy unfairly just as it had treated his late wife.
Jackson began to pressure his subordinates to accept the couple. Emily had sided with the group that wanted to snub the Eatons. When Jackson confronted Emily, she relented somewhat and included Peggy in White House functions, but Emily extended to her the basic courtesies and nothing more. The situation came to a head when the Eatons declined Jackson’s invitation to a White House dinner in early 1830. When Jackson inquired why they had declined his invitation, Peggy cited Emily’s cold treatment.
Emily and Andrew Jackson traveled to the Hermitage for a vacation in the summer of 1830. By then the rift between the President and Emily had grown so great that Emily refused to stay at the Hermitage, instead choosing to stay at her mother’s house. When Jackson returned to Washington, Andrew Jackson Donelson accompanied him, but Emily did not. Jackson asked Emily to come back and resume her duties. However, she refused to do so as long as Jackson continued to insist on Peggy Eaton’s acceptance in the White House.
Beginning in 1834, Sarah Yorke Jackson, President Jackson’s daughter-in-law, served as the White House hostess. There are conflicting accounts about Emily Donelson’s absence from the White House during the three years that Sarah Yorke Jackson served as hostess. A cohort of scholars believe that the cause was her treatment of Peggy Eaton, while others argue that it was her worsening tuberculosis.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles (9.8 million km2), the United States is the world’s third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe’s 3.9 million square miles (10.1 million km2). With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital’s federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world’s 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century. The United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, and the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776. The war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. The United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, and gradually admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848.
During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery. By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, and its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish-American War and World War I confirmed the country’s status as a global military power. The United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. The Rights Acts of 1964, 1965 and 1968 outlaws discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U.S. Moon landing. The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world’s sole superpower.
The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a federal republic and a representative democracy. The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States (OAS), and other international organizations. The United States is a highly developed country, with the world’s largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for approximately a quarter of global GDP. The U.S. economy is largely post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world’s largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U.S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country.
Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank very high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, and worker productivity. The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, and is a leading political, cultural, and scientific force internationally.
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