Was President James Buchanan Financially Corrupt? A Letter to His Secretary of the Navy Demonstrates a Conflict

What was Magraw’s business with Toucey? And did that business reflect in any way on Buchanan personally? An incident that occurred three years later may throw light on these questions. Magraw was a civilian captured by the Confederates after the Battle of Bull Run, and the New York Times ran an article about him. It reported that Magraw was a contractor supplying meat to the U.S. Army, raising the question of whether in 1858 Magaw was even engaged in contracting and sought to supply the same to the U.S. Navy. If so, a recommendation from the President saying he is a “gentleman you have often heard me speak [of] favorably” might expedite Magraw’s getting the contract, but would hardly be proper for a sitting president to make.

But the Times went much further, writing, "Harry Magraw, it is said, is kept a prisoner. If the rebels will only hold on to him it will be a saving to the United States. He is one of the Pennsylvania soldiers of fortune who engineered the swindling beef contract, and who has had more jobs worked through than any other man, although a political opponent of the Administration." This was as direct an accusation of corruption as could be made, as the beef contract was a huge scandal and not small potatoes. Was President Buchanan speaking up for a corrupt politician, helping him get contracts?

Not everyone agreed with the Times. The Philadelphia Inquirer responded by calling the Times piece “eminently unjust to an absent and defenceless citizen.” After going on about how Magraw came to be detained by Confederate authorities, it wrote that “The statement relative to the beef contract is a lie — deliberate and foreknown. The truth is, Mr. Magraw refused an interest in this contract when it was offered to him…because he believed that, under the circumstances…the contract would ruin all parties connected with it.” So which newspaper got it right?

Mr. Magraw was last heard of in 1861, claiming outright that he was a contractor under Buchanan even while he was State Treasurer of Pennsylvania. He secured his release by telling the Confederates at a hearing that “It was his purpose to return to his native State of Maryland to reside, and that he will not live under the Northern Government, and adds that if his imprisonment can in any manner benefit the Southern cause, is willing to continue in confinement. He was a contractor for transportation under Mr. Buchanan, and his contract was renewed by General Joseph E. Johnston while he was acting as Quartermaster-General of the United States.”

There were intimations of Buchanan being corrupt even during his administration. In March 1860, Congress appointed the Covode Committee to “investigate and inquire into the abuses at the Chicago or other post offices, and at the Philadelphia and other navy yards, and into any abuses in connection with the public buildings and other public works of the United States.”  Most allegations were either very general or related to political and electoral, rather than financial, corruption, but specifically cited were “naval contracts and expenditures.” In the end, even though the committee was dominated by his foes, it declined to even censure Buchanan, which seemingly ended all that speculation.