James Buchanan, Buchanan's administration on the eve of the rebellion

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Notwithstanding this extravagance and the large outlay unavoidably incurred for the expedition to Utah, the President succeeded in gradually diminishing the annual expenditures until they were reduced to the sum of $55,402,465.46. We do not mention the cost of the expedition to Paraguay, because, through the careful management of the Secretary of the Navy, this amounted to very little more than the ordinary appropriation for the naval service. This aggregate embraces all the expenses of the Government, legislative, executive, and judicial, for the year ending 30th June, 1860, but not the interest on the public debt. If this, which was $8,177,814, be added, the whole would amount to $58,579,779.46. If to this we should make a liberal addition for appropriations recommended by the War and Navy Departments, as necessary for the defence of the country, but which were rejected by Congress, we shall be able to appreciate justly the correctness of the President's declaration in his annual message of December, 1860, ‘that the sum of $61,000,000, or, at the most, $62,000,000, is amply sufficient to administer the Government and to pay the interest on the public debt, unless contingent events should hereafter render extraordinary expenditures necessary.’ These statements, though made in the message, were never controverted by any member of either House in this hostile Congress. The expenditure was reduced to a much lower figure than the friends of the administration deemed possible. The result was the fruit of rigid economy and strict accountability. All public contracts, except in a very few cases where this was impracticable, were awarded, after advertisement, to the lowest bidder. And yet, in the face of all these facts, the administration of Mr. Buchanan has been charged with extravagance.

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Utah.

In addition to the troubles in Kansas, President Buchanan, at an early period of his administration, was confronted by an open resistance to the execution of the laws in the Territory of Utah. All the offer of the United States, judicial and executive, except two Indian agents, had found it necessary for their