Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0002
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 1 examines the family background, early education, friendships, and legal and political careers of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. King entered politics as a Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican, while Buchanan started out as a Federalist. This chapter considers both men’s efforts at romantic courtship: King’s foray into romance during his time as secretary to the Russian legation with Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and Buchanan’s failed engagement to Ann Coleman of Lancaster. In both cases, the chapter argues that these love stories established the necessary preconditions for their bachelorhood and for a future in which intimate male friendship superseded the more traditional responsibilities of marriage and family. Their earliest experiences had leavened them into the later forms of northern “dough-face” (a Northerner who supported the Southern agenda for political gain) and southern moderate (a Southerner who placed national concerns over sectional interests).
第一章考察了詹姆斯·布坎南和威廉·鲁弗斯·金的家庭背景、早期教育、友谊以及法律和政治生涯。金以杰斐逊民主共和党人的身份进入政界,而布坎南一开始是联邦党人。这一章考虑了两人在浪漫恋爱中的努力:金在担任俄罗斯公使馆秘书期间与沙皇亚历山德拉·费奥多罗夫娜(Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna)恋爱,以及布坎南与兰开斯特的安·科尔曼(Ann Coleman)失败的订婚。在这两种情况下,本章认为,这些爱情故事为他们的单身生活和未来建立了必要的先决条件,在未来,亲密的男性友谊取代了更传统的婚姻和家庭责任。他们最初的经历使他们成为后来的北方“面糊”(一个为了政治利益而支持南方议程的北方人)和南方温和派(一个把国家利益置于地区利益之上的南方人)。
{"title":"Leavening, 1786–1819","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 1 examines the family background, early education, friendships, and legal and political careers of James Buchanan and William Rufus King. King entered politics as a Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican, while Buchanan started out as a Federalist. This chapter considers both men’s efforts at romantic courtship: King’s foray into romance during his time as secretary to the Russian legation with Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and Buchanan’s failed engagement to Ann Coleman of Lancaster. In both cases, the chapter argues that these love stories established the necessary preconditions for their bachelorhood and for a future in which intimate male friendship superseded the more traditional responsibilities of marriage and family. Their earliest experiences had leavened them into the later forms of northern “dough-face” (a Northerner who supported the Southern agenda for political gain) and southern moderate (a Southerner who placed national concerns over sectional interests).","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123707295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0008
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 7 considers select aspects of Buchanan’s life after King’s death: his time as American minister to England, presidential nomination and election, presidency, retirement years, and the legacy of his friendship with King. In the election of 1856, the Democrats promoted Buchanan’s friendship with King and other Southerners to suggest his pro-southern principles as president. Buchanan was the last presidential candidate elected to run as a “northern man with southern principles.” As president Buchanan sustained pro-southern policies, administered an active social calendar aided by First Lady Harriet Lane, attended a commencement address at the University of North Carolina (the alma mater of William Rufus King), and failed to keep together the Union through the secession winter of 1860 to 1861. During the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Buchanan continued to invoke King and took special care to reconnect with Catherine Margaret Ellis.
{"title":"Presiding, 1853–1868","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0008","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 7 considers select aspects of Buchanan’s life after King’s death: his time as American minister to England, presidential nomination and election, presidency, retirement years, and the legacy of his friendship with King. In the election of 1856, the Democrats promoted Buchanan’s friendship with King and other Southerners to suggest his pro-southern principles as president. Buchanan was the last presidential candidate elected to run as a “northern man with southern principles.” As president Buchanan sustained pro-southern policies, administered an active social calendar aided by First Lady Harriet Lane, attended a commencement address at the University of North Carolina (the alma mater of William Rufus King), and failed to keep together the Union through the secession winter of 1860 to 1861. During the Civil War and into Reconstruction, Buchanan continued to invoke King and took special care to reconnect with Catherine Margaret Ellis.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"505 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125631239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0006
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 5 traces a period of extended separation between Buchanan and King, from 1844 to 1848. During the administration of President James Polk each man turned his attention to foreign policy concerns, with Buchanan as secretary of state and King as American minister to France. Their relationship had now been transformed from an intimate boardinghouse friendship into one of political superior (Buchanan) to subordinate (King). But their continued collaboration proved critical as the nation navigated first the Oregon territorial crisis and then the War with Mexico, both of which required careful diplomacy to avoid entanglements with European powers. The end of their respective terms of ministerial service found each man considering retirement, but each tried and failed once more for their party’s presidential and vice presidential nominations.
{"title":"Ministering, 1844–1848","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 5 traces a period of extended separation between Buchanan and King, from 1844 to 1848. During the administration of President James Polk each man turned his attention to foreign policy concerns, with Buchanan as secretary of state and King as American minister to France. Their relationship had now been transformed from an intimate boardinghouse friendship into one of political superior (Buchanan) to subordinate (King). But their continued collaboration proved critical as the nation navigated first the Oregon territorial crisis and then the War with Mexico, both of which required careful diplomacy to avoid entanglements with European powers. The end of their respective terms of ministerial service found each man considering retirement, but each tried and failed once more for their party’s presidential and vice presidential nominations.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"39 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114388622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0005
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 4 examines the crucial four-year period from the rise of the Whig Party to national power in 1840 to the dissolution of the bachelor’s mess of Buchanan and King in 1844. During this period of intense partisanship, the friendship of Buchanan and King grew increasingly intimate. First in 1840 and again in 1844, each man aspired for his party’s presidential and vice presidential nominations, respectively. The struggle occasioned a great deal of personal gossip from their political enemies, including Sarah Childress Polk, wife of future president James Polk. In April 1844, King’s appointment as the American minister to France ended his mess with Buchanan. Nevertheless, the separation brought on a regular, if one-sided correspondence. The chapter devotes special attention to the surviving letters from this critical period of their relationship, including an especially revealing post from Buchanan in which he complains of his failure to woo new members to join him in his solitary congressional mess. Ultimately, Buchanan’s failure to attract new messmates paralleled the earlier failed efforts to obtain the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominations in 1840 and 1844.
{"title":"Wooing, 1840–1844","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 4 examines the crucial four-year period from the rise of the Whig Party to national power in 1840 to the dissolution of the bachelor’s mess of Buchanan and King in 1844. During this period of intense partisanship, the friendship of Buchanan and King grew increasingly intimate. First in 1840 and again in 1844, each man aspired for his party’s presidential and vice presidential nominations, respectively. The struggle occasioned a great deal of personal gossip from their political enemies, including Sarah Childress Polk, wife of future president James Polk. In April 1844, King’s appointment as the American minister to France ended his mess with Buchanan. Nevertheless, the separation brought on a regular, if one-sided correspondence. The chapter devotes special attention to the surviving letters from this critical period of their relationship, including an especially revealing post from Buchanan in which he complains of his failure to woo new members to join him in his solitary congressional mess. Ultimately, Buchanan’s failure to attract new messmates paralleled the earlier failed efforts to obtain the Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominations in 1840 and 1844.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121049733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0003
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 2 turns to how Buchanan and King established themselves within the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. In both cases, the chapter stresses the roles of intimate male friendships and the Washington boardinghouse, or mess, in developing a cross-sectional, though partisan, approach to their politics. Equally, it looks at important moments of conflict in each man’s life: King’s factional fighting with Democrats in his adopted state of Alabama, where he established a plantation called Chestnut Hill near Selma, and Buchanan’s struggles against the various elements of the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania. It also recounts Buchanan’s experience as the American minister to Russia, highlighting the ways in which his foreign exile connected him to King and prepared him for his future role as senator and secretary of state. These formative experiences served to harden their future political convictions and bespoke the continued need for intimate male friendships in their future endeavors.
{"title":"Hardening, 1820–1834","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 2 turns to how Buchanan and King established themselves within the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. In both cases, the chapter stresses the roles of intimate male friendships and the Washington boardinghouse, or mess, in developing a cross-sectional, though partisan, approach to their politics. Equally, it looks at important moments of conflict in each man’s life: King’s factional fighting with Democrats in his adopted state of Alabama, where he established a plantation called Chestnut Hill near Selma, and Buchanan’s struggles against the various elements of the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania. It also recounts Buchanan’s experience as the American minister to Russia, highlighting the ways in which his foreign exile connected him to King and prepared him for his future role as senator and secretary of state. These formative experiences served to harden their future political convictions and bespoke the continued need for intimate male friendships in their future endeavors.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116199828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0004
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 3 explores the “Bachelor’s mess,” a phrase drawn from Buchanan’s correspondence, and notes the many ways in which their shared Washington boardinghouse intersected with the overlapping identities of party, section, and marital status. New messmates (and bachelors) emerged during this period, including the lesser known Democrats Edward Lucas of Virginia, Robert Carter Nicholas of Louisiana, John Pendleton King of Georgia, Bedford Brown of North Carolina, William Sterrett Ramsey of Pennsylvania, and William Henry Roane of Virginia. Their congregation into a single boardinghouse produced one of the most politically powerful such units in Washington during the Jacksonian era. As the congressional Democrats struggled to resist the Whig agenda promoted by Henry Clay, Buchanan and King solidified a political strategy that included the institution of a gag rule to quell discussion of slavery and opposition to the national bank. Finally, the chapter continues earlier themes to suggest how Buchanan’s experience in the bachelor’s mess yielded the twin results of his hardening into a committed northern dough-face and his growing intimacy with King.
{"title":"Messing, 1834–1840","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 3 explores the “Bachelor’s mess,” a phrase drawn from Buchanan’s correspondence, and notes the many ways in which their shared Washington boardinghouse intersected with the overlapping identities of party, section, and marital status. New messmates (and bachelors) emerged during this period, including the lesser known Democrats Edward Lucas of Virginia, Robert Carter Nicholas of Louisiana, John Pendleton King of Georgia, Bedford Brown of North Carolina, William Sterrett Ramsey of Pennsylvania, and William Henry Roane of Virginia. Their congregation into a single boardinghouse produced one of the most politically powerful such units in Washington during the Jacksonian era. As the congressional Democrats struggled to resist the Whig agenda promoted by Henry Clay, Buchanan and King solidified a political strategy that included the institution of a gag rule to quell discussion of slavery and opposition to the national bank. Finally, the chapter continues earlier themes to suggest how Buchanan’s experience in the bachelor’s mess yielded the twin results of his hardening into a committed northern dough-face and his growing intimacy with King.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128203707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-10-10DOI: 10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0007
Thomas J. Balcerski
Chapter 6 considers the presidential election of 1848, the Compromise of 1850, and the election of 1852. During these years the friendship of Buchanan and King first intensified, then cooled, as each man took a separate path to political power. In 1852 the Democratic Party refused to place Buchanan and King on the same ticket, because the pair had become too closely associated together to balance its growing sectional and ideological divisions. Instead, the Democracy chose the dark horse Franklin Pierce for president and then selected King as his running mate to pacify Buchanan and his supporters. King’s precipitous decline in health, followed by his death in April 1853, ended the decades-long political and personal friendship with Buchanan. In response, Buchanan prepared for another round of exile abroad, this time as American minister to England.
{"title":"Running, 1848–1853","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/OSO/9780190914592.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter 6 considers the presidential election of 1848, the Compromise of 1850, and the election of 1852. During these years the friendship of Buchanan and King first intensified, then cooled, as each man took a separate path to political power. In 1852 the Democratic Party refused to place Buchanan and King on the same ticket, because the pair had become too closely associated together to balance its growing sectional and ideological divisions. Instead, the Democracy chose the dark horse Franklin Pierce for president and then selected King as his running mate to pacify Buchanan and his supporters. King’s precipitous decline in health, followed by his death in April 1853, ended the decades-long political and personal friendship with Buchanan. In response, Buchanan prepared for another round of exile abroad, this time as American minister to England.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126274774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190914592.003.0009
Thomas J. Balcerski
The epilogue reviews the careful efforts of Harriet Lane Johnston and Catherine Ellis to preserve the vast correspondence of their respective uncles. It also notes the ways in which each man has been memorialized by later generations. From there, the epilogue returns to the popular understanding of their relationship and compares it to other notable same-sex friendships in subsequent generations, including the noted “bromance” of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. It concludes that the pair of Buchanan and King may be the most significant “bromosexual friendship” in American political history.
{"title":"Epilogue","authors":"Thomas J. Balcerski","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190914592.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190914592.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"The epilogue reviews the careful efforts of Harriet Lane Johnston and Catherine Ellis to preserve the vast correspondence of their respective uncles. It also notes the ways in which each man has been memorialized by later generations. From there, the epilogue returns to the popular understanding of their relationship and compares it to other notable same-sex friendships in subsequent generations, including the noted “bromance” of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. It concludes that the pair of Buchanan and King may be the most significant “bromosexual friendship” in American political history.","PeriodicalId":417132,"journal":{"name":"Bosom Friends","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115644678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}