St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1859-10-13
Cost of the Utah War.

The contracts for the transportation
of supplies TO the army in Utah are
about once more TO be made. The
bids are before the Department, and Il
decision, it is said, will be announced
in a few days. The expenditure
which is thus about to be again in
Cured is enormous, and before the
matter goes any further we desire
earnestly to call the attention of the
public to the reckless course which
the Administration is pursuing with
regard to it.
Incredible AS it may seem, all, or
nearly all, the supplies for the five
thousand men whom we maintain in
the Territory, are sent over the plains
from st. Louis, at an average cost
of about $500 a ton for transportation!
Large bodies Of men, horses, mules
and wagons, are employed in the SER
vice, and by the time each ration has
reached Utah, a hundred times its val.
ne has been consumed in getting it
there. TO this evil of expense which
this course is cntailing on us, we have
to add that of corruption. The profits
on the contracts are enormous, and
constitute prize of inestimabc val.
ne to the friends and adhcrcnts of the
Administration. To expect from the
latter, under such circumstances, I'M
bending purity in their distribution,
would, we need hardly say, argue a
sanguincness Of disposition which VIC
hope the public has by this time out
grown. The heroes Of the coal and
Navy Yard jobs arc not the men to
allow friend to sigh for a good thing
in vain; and the men of the army are
consequently far from being the only
lovers Of their country on whom the
transport service sheds its blessings.
Jobs produce jobs. Every huge abuse
bcgcts numerous little abuses. An
enterprise of such magnitude as the
feeding of 5000 men months march
from home overland, opens q thousand
little veins through which the money
leaks out.
Now, if this drain on the Treasury
were going on for any tangible OBJ
jcct, in which the safety or honor Of
the country were in the least con-
cerned, we should not think of say
ing word against it. We might
possibly suggest the propriety of
buying the heavier portion of the sup
plies, such as flour and meat in Utah,
where they can be raised in any guam
tity, and where the people certainly
would raise them, if the Government
would have the condcsccnsion to buy
them instead of bringing them from
the States. Mormons have several
pcculiartics, but contempt for mon
cy is not one Of them and if they
were offered market for the quantity
of beef and bread which 5000 men
need to keep them in fighting order,
and they refused to avail themselves
of it, we can only say, it would be
one Of the most remarkable social
phenomena of the day-more rcmarka-
bic even than Mormonism itself.
But the trouble is that this mon
strous expenditure Of public money
actually produces no result whatever
in the shape of service. The troops,
who are fed at so costly a rate, are
totally useless, and have been useless
ever since they went to Utah. They
neither restored order, nor do they
maintain order. Before they reached
their destination MFR. Buchanan had
arranged matters privately himself
with Brigham Young and ever since
they have been there the Mormons
have been behaving very much as
they behaved before. The presence
of the troops produces no effect what
ever on the Mormon policy, for the
simple reason that the mode of thwart-
ing and defying the Government which
they have chosen, is one which a SOL
dicr cannot touch. Mr. Buchanan has
insisted Oh governing them by the aid
of the civil Courts, and through the
civil Courts they insult and defy him
and his Office. If he had consulted |
the wishes of the country, he would
have adopted in the outset military
means of bringing the Mormons to
reason; but he chose his own course.
There are various ways of putting
down rebellion, but Mr.. Buchanan's |
way is the most remarkable one we
ever heard of, and we fear the tax
payers of the United States will find
it one Of the costliest
No man has hit upon so happy de-