There is a lot of truth in what you say. [Source].
When Congress met in December 1860, ‘the treasury was empty – bankrupt. There was no money to pay the public creditors, who were then pressing for payment. There was not money enough even to pay members of Congress.'” 26 Flaherty noted that the outgoing Buchanan Administration, especially southern sympathizers, effectively cleaned out the government’s coffers before departing office in the winter of 1860-1861. 27 “The management of Secretary [Howell] Cobb had thoroughly depleted the Treasury: he had spared no efforts to accomplish this result. On the 4th of March, 1861, there was not money enough left in its vaults to pay for the daily consumption of stationery; no city dealer would furnish it on credit,” remembered Treasury official Lucius Chittenden.
However, the Democrats weren't the only problem. Republicans had effective control of the House in the 1860-1861 session. That session of Congress basically proposed increasing the government debt from almost 70 million to 250 million. See [my old post 107],
A Republican-controlled coalition controlled the House in the 36th Congress (1860-1861); Democrats controlled the Senate until Feb. 4, 1861. The Tariff Bill mentioned in my post 107 was being pushed by Republicans and was finally passed and signed into law on March 2, 1861, after many Southern Democrats had left the Senate.
To pay for the Civil War Federal spending rose from its historical average of around 2% of GDP in 1860 to peak at 13% of GDP in 1865, while national debt rose from $65 million in 1860 to nearly $3 billion in 1866, then about 33% of GDP.
It took until 1880 to reduce spending below 3% of GDP and until 1890 to get the national debt down to 10% of GDP.
Those numbers never fully returned to pre-war averages.
By stark contrast, today's Federal spending & debt are both way off the charts.