Leavening, 1786–1819

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established the necessary preconditions for their bachelorhood and for a future in which intimate male friendship superseded the more traditional responsibilities of marriage and family.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).