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.
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.
"Richard Hill's true and intensely personal story of how he pieced together the long-kept secret of his own origins. This highly suspenseful book is a page-turning saga of personal detective work that will appeal to anyone who loves a good mystery. But this isn't fiction. It's an engrossing account of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records. This fascinating quest, including the author's landmark use of DNA testing, takes readers on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride and concludes with a twist that rivals anything Hollywood has to offer."--back cover.
Introduction: From the north of Ireland to North America: the Scots-Irish and the migration experience / Warren R. Hofstra -- Searching for a new world: the background and baggage of Scots-Irish immigrants / David W. Miller -- Searching for land: the role of New Castle, Delaware, 1720s-1770s / Marianne S. Wokeck -- Searching for order: Donegal Springs, Pennsylvania, 1720s-1730s / Richard K. MacMaster -- Searching for community: Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 1750s-1780s / Richard K. MacMaster -- Searching for peace and prosperity: Opequon settlement, Virginia, 1730s-1760s / Warren R. Hofstra -- Searching for status: Virginia's Irish tract, 1770s-1790s / Katharine L. Brown and Kenneth W. Keller -- Searching for security: backcountry Carolina, 1760s-1780s / Michael Montgomery -- Searching for "Irish" freedom-settling for "Scotch-Irish" respectability: southwestern Pennsylvania, 1780-1810 / Peter Gilmore and Kerby A. Miller -- Searching for independence: revolutionary Kentucky, Irish American experience, and Scotch-Irish myth, 1770s-1790s / Patrick Griffin -- Afterword: historic political moderation in the Ulster-to-America diaspora / Robert M. Calhoon.
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography ; v. 140, no. 2
Summary
Abstract: Partisan relationships have always been fundamental to American politics. In antebellum Pennsylvania the personal and political partnership of Democrats James Buchanan and Jehu Glancy Jones was absolutely critical to state and national events. While much scholarship exists on Buchanan, few historians have examined the life of Jones, a man of undeniable importance to Buchanan's rise to the presidency, the passage of now-infamous antebellum legislation, and the fracturing of the Democratic Party. By studying Jones's career, we can better appreciate the role of political underlings, dispel myths about the motives and principles of antebellum Democrats, and clarify the links between state and national politics.
