Welcome back to another installment of your favorite series: exposing the homosexual activity of famous Dickinsonians!
In the past two months, your dear researcher has learned more about Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, than she ever anticipated. And you must imagine what a delight it was for me to learn about his connection to and interactions with James Buchanan, esteemed Dickinson College alum and noted homosexual, as my previous articles have reported.
After leaving Dickinson in 1809, having conducted a scandalous liaison with the much older namesake of the College, John Dickinson, Jamie went into law and politics. He served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives for over a decade after being elected in 1820.
In time, he aligned himself with the Jacksonians, although his relationship with Andrew Jackson himself, 24 years his senior, also ultimately proved fraught. Buchanan expressed his undying support for Jackson, and the two became incredibly close and intimate with one another. Andrew Jackson was known by the nickname “Old Hickory” for his toughness, but as Taylor Swift’s recent song “Wood,” about Travis Kelce has indicated, that’s not all tree nicknames mean.
However, after Andy lost the 1824 presidential election, he was so distraught that he lashed out at Jamie and blamed him for the loss. It was a tumultuous, whirlwind romance that soared high but ultimately came crashing down in flames.
Andy’s animosity had not cooled by the time he was reelected in 1832, and he appointed Jamie as his Ambassador to Russia, calling him an “incompetent busybody” whom he would never trust again! Buchanan had no choice but to go and suffer for the next several years in freezing Russia, tragically wondering where it had all gone wrong.
The drama unfolded even more, however, when Jamie moved back to Washington DC in 1834 and met William Rufus King, the man with whom he lived for the next ten years. After such an intense fling and heartbreaking exile, Will provided Jamie with a stable, caring relationship. The two attended many society events together and relied on each other for everything. Hardly two people have ever been more close. It should have been a totally happy ending for the long-suffering Buchanan, who deserved to have some sort of happiness in his life.
Unfortunately, the ever vengeful Andrew Jackson, who was a belligerent, territorial person who demanded total loyalty from everyone he interacted with, did not see it that way. Although he had been the one to break up with Buchanan in the first place, he seethed that Jamie had gone on to find happiness while he remained bitter and alone, especially since his beloved wife had died before his first term in office even began.
Andy took to mocking the couple everywhere he could. He derisively called them “Miss Nancy” and “Aunt Fancy,” homophobic insults that he used to exact revenge while simultaneously denying the depth of the relationship that he had shared with Buchanan once upon a time. He perceived their relationship as flighty and superficial, whereas he and Jamie, on the other hand, had entered into a tumultuous love affair that, while doomed, was infinitely more powerful and substantial than the easy, comfortable relationship that Buchanan and King shared now. The Taylor Swift song “The Way I Loved You” comes to mind.
