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The Other Buchanan Controversy Was the Fifteenth President of the United States Gay?
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| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Last Edited | Thomas Walker Jun 28, 2004 05:13pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Monday, June 28, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Editor's Note: The only Buchanan actually to make it to the White House, James, the fifteenth president, is the subject of as much controversy this week as Pat. Once again historians find themselves in the middle of the battle. What's roiling the academy now is sociologist James Loewen's allegation that James Buchanan was gay.
THE BOOK
Loewen makes the claim in his new book, Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong, which was recently published by New Press. Here's an excerpt:
Pennsylvania Lancaster: "You're Here To See The House"
Wheatland, Buchanan's house in Lancaster, is open to tourists, but visitors will never learn that he was homosexual or much else about him.
In life, Buchanan was not very far in the closet. For many years in Washington, he lived with William Rufus King, Senator from Alabama. The two men were inseparable; wags referred to them as "the Siamese twins." Andrew Jackson dubbed King "Miss Nancy," and Aaron Brown, a prominent Democrat, writing to Mrs. James K. Polk, referred to him as Buchanan's "better half," "his wife," and "Aunt Fancy . . . rigged out in her best clothes." When in 1844 King was appointed minister to France, he wrote Buchanan, "I am selfish enough to hope you will not be able to procure an associate who will cause you to feel no regret at our separation." On May 13, Buchanan wrote to a Mrs. Roosevelt about his social life:
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