Jackson was inaugurated on March 4, 1829, becoming the first president-elect to take the oath of office on the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol. Embittered by his defeat, Adams refused to attend. In his inaugural address, Jackson promised to protect the sovereignty of the states, respect the limits of the presidency, reform the government by removing disloyal or incompetent appointees, and observe a fair policy toward Native Americans. Jackson invited the public to the White House, which was promptly overrun by well-wishers who caused minor damage to its furnishings. The spectacle earned him the nickname "King Mob". Reforms and rotation in office Jackson's administration believed that Adams's had been corrupt and one of Jackson's first acts as president was to initiate investigations into all executive departments. The investigations revealed that $280,000 (equivalent to () today) was stolen from the Treasury, and the reduction in costs to the Department of the Navy saved it $1 million (). One of the people caught in his investigation was the Treasury Auditor Tobias Watkins, a personal friend of Adams' who was found guilty of embezzlement. In the first year of his term Jackson asked Congress to tighten laws on embezzlement, revise laws to reduce tax evasion, and pushed for an improved government accounting system. Jackson implemented a principle he called "rotation in office" by enforcing the Tenure of Office Act, signed by President Monroe in 1820, that limited appointed office tenure and authorized the president to remove and appoint political party associates. The previous custom had been for the president to leave the existing appointees in office, replacing them through attrition. During his first year in office, Jackson removed hundreds of federal officials, which was about 10% of all Federal employees, and replaced them with loyal Democrats. He argued that rotation in office was a democratic reform that reduced bureaucracy and corruption by preventing hereditary officeholding and made officeholders responsible to the popular will, but it functioned as political patronage, which came to be known as the spoils system. Petticoat affair Jackson spent much of his time during his first two and a half years in office dealing with what came to be known as the "Petticoat Affair" or "Eaton Affair". The affair focused on Secretary of War Eaton's wife, Margaret. She had a reputation for being promiscuous, and like Rachel Jackson, she was accused of adultery. She and Eaton had been close