Red, White & Blue American Heroes S1 E2: Floride Calhoun

Today's episode is about Floride Calhoun the wife of first cousin John C. Calhoun, former Vice President of the United States. Floride was a Southern Belle Socialite and leader of "The Petticoats" , a clique of wives whose husbands were members of Andrew Jackson's first term cabinet. Floride didn't like the new wife of Jackson's Secretary of War John Eaton. Peggy Eaton (nee O'Neill) whom she felt was unfit to become a "Petticoat" due to her ill-mannered appearance, uncouth attitude and unladylike fashion. In reality she was a proto-feminist who was self-educated, liked to talk politics and history with men and disliked the common fashion of the Southern Belle. This caused Floride and the other wives to disassociate and later shun the Eatons in public.
The drama and later random gossip caused by Floride Calhoun went from the wives to the husbands when John C. Calhoun and John Eaton nearly came to blows over the Tariff Act which led to the Nullification Crisis. Andrew Jackson's Cabinet itself was falling apart due to some members siding with Eaton while others took Calhoun's side. Eventually this was too much for Jackson to take and all of his loyalists resigned from their positions forcing the others to quit as well. Jackson went on to recreate the cabinet that was full of men loyal to him while Calhoun refused to resign as Vice-President except near the end of his term when the Senator of South Carolina resigned to become governor and offered his old spot to the VP and he took it, becoming a thorn in Jackson's side throughout his second term.
Floride Calhoun was the epitome of Southern class and charm. Her role in squashing the proto-feminist movement makes her a true American Hero.!