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Greenback party

 
US History Companion: Greenback Party
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The Greenback party (also called the National Greenback party) was organized in 1876 to campaign for expansion of the supply of paper money--"greenbacks"--first issued by the federal government in 1862 to help pay for the Civil War. The idea that maintaining a flexible supply of paper money served the interests of working people, whereas paper money backed by specie (hard money, like gold or silver) benefited only the rich, had been advanced by Edward Kellogg as early as 1841. In the 1860s, Alexander Campbell popularized Kellogg's ideas, but greenbackism did not develop a significant following until the panic of 1873, when low prices and tight credit gave Campbell's writings new appeal, especially to farmers. Many people, however, passionately opposed greenbackism, arguing that an inflated supply of paper money was immoral. In addition, of course, creditors as a group stood to lose from inflation, since debts could be repaid with less valuable dollars than those originally borrowed.

Greenbackers had tried unsuccessfully to prevent passage of the 1875 Specie Resumption Act, the law that put the nation back on hard money; in 1876 they formed a political party to demand that the law be repealed and that more paper money be issued. The Greenback party won only 80,000 votes in its first year, but its strength increased as the labor troubles of 1877 left more and more workers prepared to blame hard times on the manipulations of business leaders and bankers. In the congressional elections of 1878, the newly formed Greenback party polled nearly a million votes, sending fourteen Greenbackers to Congress and electing many to local office. As prosperity returned in the late 1880s, however, and as it became clear that the Specie Resumption Act would not be repealed, greenbackism lost its following; the party mounted its last national campaign in 1884. Still, the Greenbackers' emphasis on the political implications of monetary policy left its mark on future reform programs like populism; indeed, in 1892 the Populists chose as their presidential candidate James B. Weaver of Iowa, one of the Greenback congressmen of 1878.

See also Elections: 1880 , 1884; Government and the Economy; Third Parties.


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Columbia Encyclopedia: Greenback party
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Greenback party, in U.S. history, political organization formed in the years 1874-76 to promote currency expansion. The members were principally farmers of the West and the South; stricken by the Panic of 1873, they saw salvation in an inflated currency that would wipe out the farm debts contracted in times of high prices. They were opposed by the conservatives, who managed to get the Resumption Act of 1875 passed. The Greenbackers had in 1874 hoped to capture the Democratic party, but the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden killed that hope, and the Greenback party nominated Peter Cooper as its own candidate for President in 1876. The Greenbackers got only 81,737 votes. In 1878, however, certain labor organizations, embittered by the labor troubles in 1877, united with the advocates of cheap money in the Greenback-Labor party, and the combination party polled over 1 million votes and elected 14 Representatives to Congress that year. The Greenbackers' hopes for 1880 were high, and bidding for wider support they broadened their program by endorsement of woman suffrage, federal regulation of interstate commerce, and a graduated income tax. For the presidency in 1880 the party nominated its most notable figure, Gen. James B. Weaver, but the return of prosperity, the passage of the Bland-Allison Act (1878), and the success of the Resumption Act had allayed the discontent on which the party had grown, and the Greenback-Labor vote declined in 1880 to just a little over 300,000. When the candidate in 1884, Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-93), did very badly, the party dissolved. Some members joined the Union Labor party in 1888, but more of them went back to the old parties. Later many Greenbackers, among them Weaver and Ignatius Donnelly, became leading figures in the Populist party.

WordNet: Greenback Party
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a former political party in the United States; organized in 1874; opposed any reduction in the amount of paper money in circulation

Wikipedia: United States Greenback Party
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Greenback Party
Founded 1874 (1874)
Dissolved 1884 (1884)
Succeeded by Populist Party
Ideology Populism, women's suffrage, labor rights
Political position Fiscal: Left-wing populist
Social: Left-wing
Official colors Green
Politics of the United States
Political parties
Elections

The Greenback Party (also known as the Independent Party, the National Party, and the Greenback-Labor Party) was an American political party that was active between 1874 and 1884. Its name referred to paper money, or "greenbacks," that had been issued during the American Civil War and afterward. The party opposed the shift from paper money back to a bullion coin-based monetary system because it believed that privately owned banks and corporations would then reacquire the power to define the value of products and labor. Conversely, they believed that government control of the monetary system would allow it to keep more currency in circulation, as it had in the war. This would better foster business and assist farmers by raising prices and making debts easier to pay. It was established as a political party whose members were primarily farmers financially hurt by the Panic of 1873.

Contents

History

The Greenback Party was founded at a meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, on November 25, 1874. It was originally called the Independent Party or the National Party. In 1878, it was the largest force involved in the election of 21 independents to the United States Congress. In 1880 the Greenback Party broadened its platform to include support for an income tax, an eight hour day, and allowing women the right to vote. The party's influence declined quickly, and after 1884 it was no longer a force in American politics. Many Greenback activists, including 1880 Presidential nominee James B. Weaver, later participated in the Populist Party.

According to William D. Barns of West Virginia University, West Virginia's Independent Greenback Party attracted reformists in 1878, from both the Democrats and Republicans, dwarfing the latter for a short period. Many state delegates were elected to the W.V. Assembly, but by 1882, nearly all these had returned to their original parties, or had been voted out by conservatives.

Other than name, there is no continuity between this historic movement and the 1952 campaign of Seattle, Washington grocer Frederick C. Proehl (May 24, 1880-June 1970) and Edward J. Bedell [1], nor that of Whitney Hart Slocomb and Edward Kirby Meador in 1960.[2]


Presidential tickets

Election Year Presidential Candidate Vice Presidential Candidate
1876 Presidential Election Peter Cooper Samuel F. Cary
1880 Presidential Election James Baird Weaver Benjamin J. Chambers
1884 Presidential Election Benjamin Franklin Butler Absolom M. West

National Conventions

11/25/1874 - Organizational Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana

5/16-18/1876 - Academy of Music, Indianapolis, Indiana. There were 239 delegates present from 17 states. Peter Cooper was nominated for President with 352 votes to 119 for three other contenders. Newton Booth was nominated for Vice President by a vote of 418 to 58 scattering. When Booth declined to run, the national committee substituted Samuel F. Cary.

6/9-11/1880 - Exposition Hall, Chicago, Illinois. There were 714 delegates present. James B. Weaver was nominated for President with 224.5 votes to Hendrick B. Wright with 126.5, Stephen D. Dillaye with 119, and 246 scattering. (After the roll call, all delegates who had supported other candidates shifted their votes to Weaver: New York Times 6/12/1880.) Benjamin J. Chambers was nominated for Vice President with 403 votes to 311 for Absolom M. West.

5/28-29/1884 - English's Opera House, Indianapolis, Indiana. All states were represented except Delaware and Mississippi. Benjamin F. Butler was nominated for President with 323 votes to 98 for Jesse Harper and five scattering. Absolom M. West was unanimously nominated for Vice President. Butler had been nominated for President two weeks earlier by the Anti-Monopoly Party's National Convention.

9/12/1888 - Cincinnati. Only eight delegates attended, and no candidates were nominated.

Elected officials

The following were Greenback members of the U.S. House of Representatives:

46th United States Congress, March 4, 1879 - March 3, 1881.

47th United States Congress, March 4, 1881 to March 3, 1883.

48th United States Congress, March 4, 1883 to March 3, 1885.

49th United States Congress, March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1887.

  • James B. Weaver, Iowa's 6th congressional district

50th United States Congress, March 4, 1887 to March 3, 1889.

  • James B. Weaver, Iowa's 6th congressional district

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "It's a Free Country". Time Magazine. 1952-09-01. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,816859,00.html. Retrieved 2006-10-03. 
  2. ^ "Female presidential candidates 1870-1990", Guide To Women Leaders. Retrieved 1/11/08.
  3. ^ seated June 3, 1882, subsequently died August 12, 1882. Seat filled by Democrat Joseph Wheeler after special election.

References

Ohio Elects the President (Mansfield OH: Bookmasters, 2000), pp. 50-59.

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Copyrights:

US History Companion. The Reader's Companion to American History, Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors, published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "United States Greenback Party".  Read more

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