To honor its new namesake King County replaced its former gold-crown logo last year with this image of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

For all its awesomeness, Pennsylvania’s only contribution to the presidency was James Buchanan. He was in office at the onset of the Civil War and is celebrated mainly for holding down the bottom of the Worst Presidents lists. Historians often describe him as “our only bachelor president,” although Buchanan did live for many years with William King of Alabama, who later became our only bachelor vice president. We do not hear much speculation about whether Buchanan was our first gay president because, frankly, most gay Americans would prefer to start with somebody who didn’t preside over the secession of the South.

The good news is that this really has nothing to do with the Democratic primary. But I do think a little bit of history can liven up a dreary morning.

We don't often hear speculation about Buchanan, but we did hear a bit about King a few years back when King County decided to clean up a bit of its history by renaming the county to honor Martin Luther King, Jr instead of William Rufus King, an Alabama politician and slave owner.

As much as it's an embarrassment to have Buchanan as the first probably-gay president, it's even more of an embarrassment to have his partner King as the first probably-gay vice president.

In fact, King -- who died shortly after taking office as vice-president -- suffered the well-deserved indignity of having one of the few honors ever bestowed upon him revoked. King -- a powerful Senator -- became "our only bachelor vice president" when he was yanked up into office by Buchanan's predecessor as president,  Franklin Pierce -- another fellow usually ranked by historians as one of the worst presidents.

King happened to become a vice president during a time when politicians in the Western territories were trying to get their areas declared states.

Here in what was then still Oregon Territory, the country surrounding Tacoma and Steilacoom (the original county seat) was named by the legislature in Salem after the freshly elected president, Pierce, in hopes -- eventually dashed -- that he'd quickly grant statehood to the large territory. The big country that includes what was the second-largest city was named after the VP -- which is why the area around Seattle became King County.

HistoryLink.org tells us, however, that the county was almost named after the man who would a few years later become the first probably-gay president rather than honoring the first probably-gay vice president.

When the act to create and organize the county was initially read into the official record the name Buchanan was given to the county, honoring James Buchanan (1791-1868), who would be elected president of the United States in 1856. Buchanan, Secretary of State and Minister to Britain under President James K. Polk (1795-1849), had negotiated the 1846 Treaty of Oregon that settled the boundary dispute between the United States and Great Britain in the Pacific Northwest.

On a second reading of the act, however, it was amended to strike out Buchanan's name and substitute the phrase "King: in honor of W. R. King of Alabama." Senator William Rufus DeVane King (1786-1853) had just been elected Vice President on the Democratic ticket with President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869).

Wikipedia gives this additional detail about the Buchanan/King relationship:

For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, James Buchanan lived with his close friend King. Buchanan and King's close relationship prompted Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife." Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship.

Buchanan and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship," and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate.

Buchanan wrote in 1844, after King left for France, "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."

Such expression, however, was not unusual amongst men at the time. Though the circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King have led authors such as Paul Boller to speculate that he was "America's first homosexual president," there is little evidence that King and Buchanan had a sexual relationship.

Of course, that last sentence is the result of Wikipedia's usual extended debate and may change.