Althouse: "I am now 'solitary and alone,' having no companion in the house with me."

January 21, 2014

"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 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."

41 comments:

Jaq said...: " I doubt that the Newsweek of old, before it was sold for a dollar, would have pandered as shallowly."

Is this one of those Fox Butterfield lines that Taranto is always going on about?

And with that remark, I need to stop commenting on Althouse, and get the dishes done and take the dog out side, negative temps or no.; 1/21/14, 1:05 PM
mccullough said...: Nice use of ardent. Reagan used that same word 100 years later when talking about his sexual prowess.; 1/21/14, 1:07 PM
tim maguire said...: Ta-Nehisi Coates?; 1/21/14, 1:08 PM
Anonymous said...: Nixon was gay?! Who knew?

As for Buchanan, he was on the right track, poor lonely fella, get himself an old maid, a "beard", to cook a good meal and not expect any good lovin' after dinner.; 1/21/14, 1:15 PM
RecChief said...: Hi scomments about ignorance for history ring true. Maybe leftists should stop rewriting it.; 1/21/14, 1:16 PM
Sorun said...: When we finally have an openly gay black male President, then we can say we've really accomplished something.; 1/21/14, 1:17 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Newsweek is still around?

Buchanan was the worst President we ever had. That's why no one talks about him.; 1/21/14, 1:20 PM
Gabriel Hanna said...: True story.

In 2005 the county which includes Seattle had its "name changed". Originally it was "King County", after William Rufus King, James Buchanan's vice president. In 2005 it was renamed "King County", after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The consequences of this decision were:

1. King County was no longer named after the first gay vice-president but instead after a great American after whom rather a lot is named already.

2. King County can preen themselves on retroactively supporting a civil rights struggle which they had literally nothing to do with at the time.

3. The civil rights struggle that went on in King County was the abominable treatment of Chinese. Dr. King's halo is so bright that these blotches on Seattle's escutcheon are not as easily seen.

4. It was not necessary to change any signage.

In other words, a perfect storm of SWPL preening, historical ignorance, and hypocrisy.; 1/21/14, 1:22 PM
Sorun said...: provide good dinners for me when I am well

It's been a long time since I've dated someone who cooks better than me. What an old-fashioned concept.; 1/21/14, 1:23 PM
RecChief said...: @Sorun
How about we measure progress by how the country is doing rather than which identity group has a member in the White House?

@John Lynch
Buchanan worst President we've had? Where have you been the last 5 years?; 1/21/14, 1:24 PM
m stone said...: I'm not persuaded Buchanan was gay. Some vague references and innuendo. What "wooing" meant in 1860 may be lost or this is a case of poor or sarcastic word choice.

Both Salon and HNN are looking for some relevance. Note the "Gay Rights" topic tag on the Loewen piece.

Although probably gay, the GLBT community is unlikely to ever claim President Buchanan as one of their own. That is due to his sympathetic attitude toward slavery and to those who broke up the union in order to preserve it.

The Gay community has standards. Maybe a mission statement?; 1/21/14, 1:28 PM
RecChief said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/21/14, 1:29 PM
john said...: Gabriel Hanna -
Good thing they did this when they did. After 2005, that would have been just pure racism.; 1/21/14, 1:29 PM
madAsHell said...: True story.

If I recall correctly, they thought it was named after William Rufus King, but no one could confirm it. Of course, this also made it easier to accept changing the name.

They did change the county logo to include a silhouette of Saint Martin.; 1/21/14, 1:29 PM
RecChief said...: @Sorun
Actually, I think the pinnacle for "progressives" would be to have the first openly lesbian Native American President. Then we could say we've "really accomplished something"; 1/21/14, 1:30 PM
Sorun said...: No, lesbians are old news. Even Hillary is supposedly bisexual. An openly gay black man would test the racial loyalty of blacks.; 1/21/14, 1:36 PM
damikesc said...: In what alternate universe is this news?

These rumors have swirled around Buchanan for decades. Him being gay is not a rare assumption.; 1/21/14, 1:37 PM
Sorun said...: "Buchanan was the worst President we ever had."

Unlike Lincoln, perhaps no one cares about Buchanan enough to fact-check. "He was gay? Okay, whatever."; 1/21/14, 1:38 PM
Peter said...: Probably not the first old man who was seeking "a nurse with a purse."

Yet for some reason the supply of those who wish to fill this role remains low=...; 1/21/14, 1:40 PM
Henry said...: GWP seeks GWM for ardent companionship. Discretion required. GSOH.; 1/21/14, 1:40 PM
Wince said...: The jumbo pump bottle of Anal Lube in the background of his presidential portrait kind of gave it away.; 1/21/14, 1:53 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I'm willing to believe that our country had been more tolerant of homosexuality back then. But there is no way that it was considered acceptable by 100% of the population. As such, if it was public knowledge that fact would have been used against him by opponents and would have shown up in a variety of news accounts. If it can't be found in those sources then it wasn't public knowledge, and as such his election can't be used as a sign of greater tolerance.; 1/21/14, 1:55 PM
wildswan said...: What about an an open dictator? How progressive would that be?; 1/21/14, 2:06 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Who the hell thinks we're tolerant now?

One wrong word by a public figure will sink him or her. Go ask Paula Deen or that beauty queen who had the same views on SSM as our Fearless Leader did at the time. I mean, they don't even show Speedy Gonzales cartoons any more!

We're terribly intolerant now. It's just that it's liberals being intolerant so they think we've become more tolerant because we've all got to agree with them.

The late 70's were the pinnacle of tolerance in the US as far as speech was concerned. If you think otherwise, go grab a couple of copies of National Lampoon and read them. Their contents are unimaginable nowadays.; 1/21/14, 2:09 PM
n.n said...: Men, and women, used to be joyful, merry, light-hearted, and carefree. Sometime during the 20th century, they embraced dysfunction for their personal gratification and they were no longer gay but homosexual.; 1/21/14, 2:10 PM
Humperdink said...: Open dictator? That box has been checked.; 1/21/14, 2:12 PM
Illuninati said...: "Despite such evidence, one reason why Americans find it hard to believe Buchanan could have been gay is that we have a touching belief in progress... Thus we must be more tolerant now than we were way back in the middle of the 19th century! Buchanan could not have been gay then, else we would not seem more tolerant now."

There's nothing touching about the left's belief in progress. Their illusion of progress is based on lies and propaganda about their conservative opponents. Because conservatives are evil and bigoted, the past which the conservatives reverence must have also been evil and bigoted.; 1/21/14, 2:13 PM
Hagar said...: It was common knowledge among "the ruling class," but not to be mentioned unless Mr. Buchanan made a public spectacle of himself, and it became unavoidable.; 1/21/14, 2:13 PM
SteveR said...: "He was gay? Okay, whatever."

Yep; 1/21/14, 2:19 PM
n.n said...: Illuninati:

As it was for yesterday's progressives, tomorrows "progressives" will look back and call them conservative, and discover new, untapped leverage to exploit for consolidation of capital and control under an authoritarian complex.; 1/21/14, 2:26 PM
traditionalguy said...: Phil Robertson had one good point. Phil's bigoted religion creates a large and loyal family to live with and nurse the man in his declining years.; 1/21/14, 2:44 PM
Lydia said...: In addition to the gay speculation about Buchanan, there's this:

"In his late 20s, Buchanan became engaged to a woman, Anne Coleman, whose wealthy father accused him of gold-digging and opposed the marriage. Some historians claim that Buchanan then began an affair with another woman. When Anne discovered the affair, she broke off the engagement and died shortly thereafter, either from illness brought on by her despair or suicide. Her family blamed Buchanan for Anne's death and refused to allow him to attend her funeral. Buchanan thereafter remained a confirmed bachelor..."

Seems to me it's quite possible Anne's death put the kabosh on romance for him, permanently. Not unheard of.; 1/21/14, 2:53 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "In what alternate universe is this news?"

I didn't say it was news, and the linked article is even old, but I ran across it yesterday, and I know that I had never read the letter that I've quoted here, so I thought people might like to read it and talk about it.

Browse through the recent postings on this blog. You'll find a lot that isn't news.

Here's something about news and like that letter it's old. From Thoreau's "Walden":

"Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life?… Hardly a man takes a half-hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, "What's the news?" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels. Some give directions to be waked every half-hour, doubtless for no other purpose; and then, to pay for it, they tell what they have dreamed. After a night's sleep the news is as indispensable as the breakfast. "Pray tell me anything new that has happened to a man anywhere on this globe"- and he reads it over his coffee and rolls, that a man has had his eyes gouged out this morning on the Wachito River; never dreaming the while that he lives in the dark unfathomed mammoth cave of this world, and has but the rudiment of an eye himself."; 1/21/14, 3:01 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Was Henry David Thoreau gay? Well we know that in 1991 the Journal of Homosexuality published an article concluding that Henry David Thoreau was gay. But I suspect that if there were a Journal of Heterosexuality it would have reached the opposite conclusion."; 1/21/14, 3:03 PM
David said...: That article is the best burying of the lede that I have ever seen.

Another startling revelation is that Rufus King was not black. When my kids went to Rufus King High School in Milwaukee, it was assumed that the school was named after some black guy.

Anyway, I'll pay attention if Obama decides to be the first openly gay President. Until then I consider the notion to be utter bullshit.; 1/21/14, 3:08 PM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Say what you will about Buchanan, his clan has one of the niftier tartans.; 1/21/14, 3:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Is it possible that he means he went wooing to the fathers?

Or did they have speed dating back then?; 1/21/14, 3:30 PM
Gospace said...: And how did we move backwards in race relations for a while? (and there is no doubt that we did.) One party embraced separatism, placing people by groups. That would be, oh it's so hard to remember, who passed those Jim Crow laws? Let me think, let me think...

Oh, yes. DEMOCRATS!

Democrats are, and always have been, the party of group rights. If groups have rights, then individuals do not. Group rights and individual rights are not compatible.; 1/21/14, 4:11 PM
n.n said...: traditionalguy:

The government hopes to replace the family as the foundation of society; and with promises of redistributive change hopes to earn people's favor. To date, it has only succeeded in misaligned social, economic, and biological development. However, it is, ostensibly, less demanding than a mother and father, which is a relief to juvenile delinquents of all ages.; 1/21/14, 5:50 PM
Clyde said...: Funny thing: Buchanan, "our first gay president," is almost universally regarded by serious historians as the worst president in our history, due to his fecklessness in the years immediately prior to the Civil War. Barack Obama, our first black president, is doing his best to rival Buchanan for that title. Now the Dems want to give us Hillary! so we can have our first woman president.

I don't know if the country could stand another four or eight years of diversity.; 1/21/14, 7:45 PM
Gary Rosen said...: "When we finally have an openly gay black male President, then we can say we've really accomplished something"

You left out "transgendered".; 1/22/14, 1:55 AM