North Carolina’s
Two-State Governor
John Branch was also Ihe first Xortli
Carolinian in the U. S. Cabinet.
By FRED HARDESTY
John Branch of Halifax County was
the first North Carolinian in the U.S.
Cabinet and the only one to be gover-
ernor of two states. Appointed Secre¬
tary of the Navy by President Andrew
Jackson in 1 829, he held that post un¬
til 1831 when Jackson dissolved the
Cabinet because of the furor over the
Secretary of War's wife, Peggy O’Neal
Eaton, who was not socially acceptable
to wives of other Cabinet members.
Three times Speaker of the North
Carolina Senate, three times Governor
of North Carolina, a member of the
U. S. Senate and House of Represen¬
tatives. a leader at the North Carolina
Constitutional Convention of 1835.
last Governor of the Territory of
Florida and first Governor of the
State of Florida. Branch was born Nov.
4. 1782, in the town of Halifax and
grew up at Elk Marsh, his father’s plan¬
tation at Enfield in the same county.
After his 1801 graduation from the
University of North Carolina. Branch
returned home to study law under
Judge John Haywood of the North
Carolina Supreme Court. He soon gave
up law for politics and the management
of his extensive country estates. In
1803 he married Elizabeth Foort of
Halifax when he was 20 and she was
16 and already wealthy in her own
right, her father having died before her
marriage. The parents of three sons and
six daughters, they have many descen¬
dants in Halifax County and elsewhere.
Of their early marriage one of their
granddaughters wrote: “They were al¬
most children, yet they were happy
children. Never was there a more hos¬
pitable home, and besides their nine
sons and daughters, two orphan nieces
of Mrs. Branch’s and five of Mr.
Branch’s nephews and nieces, as well
as several cousins, found a home and
a father's and mother's loving care un¬
der their roof."
Pardon Refused
John Branch first entered public life
in 1811 when elected State Senator
from Halifax. He was re-elected many
times. In 1817, while in his third term
as Speaker of the Stale Senate, he was
elected Governor; he was re-elected in
1818 and IS 19. In that role he fought
for public education, internal improve¬
ments. a better banking system, and
reform in the state's unjust and oppres¬
sive criminal laws.
Although Governor Branch ab¬
horred laws that inflicted severe pun¬
ishment for trivial offenses, he refused
to interfere in punishment he deemed
just. In 1820 practically the entire
white population of Raleigh petitioned
him to pardon a young white man sen¬
tenced to hang for the murder of an in¬
offensive slave. He refused and the of¬
fender was hanged.
In 1823 the North Carolina Legis¬
lature appointed Branch to a six-year
term in the U. S. Senate. In 1829 he de¬
clined a second term to become Jack¬
son's Secretary of the Navy, an ap-
John Bronch wo» born ond roi»cd in Halifoa
County, and it buried in the (amity cemetery ot
En(ield.
poiniment hailed with jubilation
throughout North Carolina. It is a coin¬
cidence that during his tenure the Navy
Department began a drive to prohibit
the shipboard use of liquor by enlisted
men. while Josephus Daniels, the last
of North Carolina's five Secretaries of
the Navy, issued a similar order for of¬
ficers in 1914.
“A Ladies’ Quarrel"
Branch's premature exit from the
Cabinet had its origin in 1829 when
Major John H. Eaton married Peggy
O’Neal Timberlake, who grew up in
her father's tavern in Washington and
whose first husband, a Navy purser,
had committed suicide.
General Jackson and Major Eaton,
old friends, often visited the O'Neal
tavern. When Eaton consulted Jackson
about the propriety of asking Mrs.
Timberlakc’s hand in marriage. Jack-
son favored it despite widespread gos¬
sip that linked her with a number of
men.
A few months after the marriage,
Eaton became Secretary of War, to the
consternation of female members of
Washington society. The other Cabinet
wives refused to invite Mrs. Eaton to
their parties. When Jackson asked Vice
President John C. Calhoun to suggest
to Mrs. Calhoun that she soften her at¬
titude toward Mrs. Eaton. Calhoun re¬
plied it was a ladies’ quarrel in which
he would not interfere. Branch made
a similar reply.
Jackson and the Eatons had the
same problem with the foreign minis¬
ters' wives, although bachelor members
of the diplomatic corps, especially
those from England and Russia, often
gave dinner parties for Mrs. Eaton.
Jackson threatened to send home the
Dutch ambassador when his wife left
a dinner at the Russian embassy be¬
cause Mrs. Eaton was there.
Balked in his efforts to secure social
recognition for Mrs. Eaton. Jackson
dissolved his Cabinet, which had held
office little more than a year. To show
his good will toward his Navy Secre¬
tary. Jackson offered to give him a
foreign mission or make him Territorial
Governor of Florida. Branch declined
these honors but became Governor of
Florida some years later by appoint¬
ment of President Tyler.
Civil Rights Champion
Branch represented Halifax County
at the 1834-35 North Carolina Con-
( Continued on page 21 )
THE STATE, August 1973