Introduction: Remembering -- Leavening, 1786-1819 -- Hardening, 1820-1834 -- Messing, 1834-1840 -- Wooing, 1840-1844 -- Ministering, 1844-1848 -- Running, 1848-1853 -- Presiding, 1853-1868 -- Epilogue: Preserving -- Washington residences of James Buchanan and William Rufus King (1834-1853) -- Percentage correlation of roll call votes of James Buchanan with senators of the Bachelor's Mess, 23rd to 28th Congresses (1834-1844) -- Calendar of correspondence of James Buchanan / Harriet Lane Johnston and William Rufus King / Catherine Margaret Ellis (1837-1868.
Summary
"Politicians James Buchanan (1791-1868) of Pennsylvania and William Rufus King (1786-1853) of Alabama has excited much speculation through the years. Why did they never marry? Might they have been gay, or was their relationship a nineteenth-century version of the modern-day 'bromance'? Then, as now, they have intrigued by the many mysteries surrounding them. In Bosom Friends : the Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, Thomas Balcerski explores the lives of these two politicians and discovers one of the most significant collaborations in American political history. Unlikely companions from the start, they lived together as messmates in a Washington, DC, boardinghouse. There developed a bosom friendship that blossomed into a significant political partnership. Before the Civil War, each man was elected to high executive office, William Rufus King the vice-presidency in 1852 and James Buchanan as the nation's fifteen president in 1856. This book offers a dual biography of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. Special attention is given to their early lives prior to elected office, the circumstances of their boardinghouse friendship, and the juicy political gossip that has circulated about them ever since. In addition, the author traces their many contributions to the Jacksonian political agenda, manifest destiny, and the debates over slavery, while finding their style of politics to have been disastrous for the American nation. Ultimately, Bosom Friends demonstrates that intimate male friendships among politicians were, and continue to be, an important part of success in American politics"-- Provided by publisher.
Papers from a conference held at LancasterHistory.org in 2008. Presentation copy from the editors.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Introduction: Bum rap or bad leadership? -- James Buchanan, Dred Scott, and the whisper of conspiracy / Paul Finkelman -- Prelude to armageddon: James Buchanan, Brigham Young, and a president's initiation to bloodshed / William P. MacKinnon -- General Jackson is dead: James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, and Kansas policy / Nicole Etcheson -- In defense of doughface diplomacy: a reevaluation of the foreign policy of James Buchanan / John M. Belohlavek -- President James Buchanan: executive leadership and the crisis of the democracy / Michael A. Morrison -- The South has been wronged: James Buchanan and the secession crisis / Jean H. Baker -- "In the midst of a great revolution": the northern response to the secession crisis / William G. Shade -- Joseph Holt, James Buchanan, and the secession crisis / Daniel W. Crofts -- A conversation with William W. Freehling and Michael F. Holt, September 19, 2008 / Moderated by John W. Quist -- Epilogue: James Buchanan's Civil War / Michael J. Birkner.
Summary
An edited volume examining the presidency of James Buchanan and his role engaging the complexities of the debate surrounding the president immediately before Lincoln.
Presents a biography of James Buchanan's niece who was the White House hostess during her uncle's presidency, helped create the National Gallery of Art, and started the first pediatrics hospital.
On added t.p.: Report of the Irish House of Commons into enforced emigration to America : journal of the House of Commons of the Kingdom of Ireland, volume 7, 1796.
A study was made of the wood in the log cabin which is said to be the birthplace of President James Buchanan. Since there is no proof that he was born in that particular cabin, the researchers wished to know if this cabin could have been his birthplace. They concluded that the " largest portion of the cabin beam samples were cut at or before 1785, six years before the birth of President Buchanan." This showed that the cabin existed at the time of his birth.
"When historian Alfred "Alf" Clayton is invited by an academic journal to record his impressions of the Gerald R. Ford Administration (1974-77), he recalls not the political events of the time but rather a turbulent period of his own sexual past. Alf's highly idiosyncratic contribution to Retrospect consists not only of reams of unbuttoned personal history but also of pages from an unpublished project of the time, a chronicle of the presidency of James Buchanan (1857-61). The alternating texts mirror each other and tell a story in counterpoint, a frequently hilarious comedy of manners contrasting the erotic etiquette and social dictions of antebellum Washington with those of late-twentieth-century southern New Hampshire. Alf's style is Nabokovian. His obsessions are vintage Updike. " [from Amazon.com]
