Editing William R. King (section)

== Relationship with James Buchanan ==
[[File:JamesBuchanan crop.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[James Buchanan]], 15th [[president of the United States]] (served 1857–1861). He shared a [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] boardinghouse with his friend and colleague, William R. King.]]

The claim for King's [[homosexuality]] has been put forward by biographer Jean Baker.<ref>Jean H. Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wQeVkzfTJcEC&q=communion James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, page 26</ref> It has been supported (to an extent) by Shelley Ross, [[James W. Loewen]], and [[Robert P. Watson]]. It focuses essentially on his close and intimate relationship with President [[James Buchanan]]. The two men lived together for 13 years, from 1840 until King's death in 1853. Buchanan referred to the relationship as a "communion",<ref name="ReferenceB">Robert Watson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=A6LRVg0kn28C ''Affairs of State: The untold story of presidential love sex and scandal, 1789-1900''], Plymouth, 2012</ref> and the two often attended official functions together. Contemporaries also noted and commented on the unusual closeness. [[Andrew Jackson]] mockingly called them "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy" (the former being a 19th-century euphemism for an effeminate man<ref>''The Wordsworth Book of Euphemisms'' by Judith S. Neaman and Carole G. Silver (Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire)</ref>), while Representative [[Aaron V. Brown]] referred to King as Buchanan's "better half".<ref>Jean H. Baker, [https://books.google.com/books?id=wQeVkzfTJcEC James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, page 75</ref>

However, historian Lewis Saum has pointed out, "Customs and expressions were different in the mid-1800s than they are today... "Miss Nancy" was "a fairly common designation for people who wore clean clothes and had good manners". He also noted that Aaron Brown was a political rival of King.<ref>Lewis Suam, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, University of Washington, 2001.</ref>

Loewen has described Buchanan and King as "Siamese twins". Sol Barzman, a biographer of vice presidents, wrote that King's "fastidious habits and conspicuous intimacy with the bachelor Buchanan gave rise to some cruel jibes." Buchanan adopted King's mannerisms and romanticized southern culture. Both had strong political ambitions, and in 1844, they planned to run as president and vice president.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> They spent some time apart while King was on overseas missions in France, and their letters remain cryptic and avoid revealing any personal feelings at all. In May 1844, Buchanan wrote to Cornelia Roosevelt: <blockquote>I am now 'solitary and alone,' having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone, and [I] should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.</blockquote> After King died on April 18, 1853, aged 67, Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest, and most consistent public men I have known."<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Baker concluded that while some of their correspondence was destroyed by family members, the length and intimacy of the surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship" between King and Buchanan, with no way to know for certain whether it was a romantic relationship.<ref>[[Jean H. Baker]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=KoTpWjUsP1sC&pg=PA26 James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857–1861], 2004, pp. 25-26.</ref>