Wilson Collection: James Buchanan and William Rufus King

(Prints of James Buchanan, circa 1860, and William Rufus King, 1854)

Under construction.

James Buchanan and William Rufus King

President James Buchanan and former United States Vice-President William Rufus King were bachelors. They were partial to one another. In fact, they were inseparable. To King their relationship was a “communion.”[1] President Andrew Jackson dubbed King “Miss Nancy.”[2] But another contemporary, who referred to King as “Aunt Fancy,” also called him Buchanan’s “better half.”[3]

References 1. Jonathan Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976), 647 n. 37. 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid.