Resumption Act

Late in 1861, the federal government suspended specie payments, seeking to raise revenue for the war effort without exhausting its reserves of gold and silver. Early in 1862 the United States issued legal-tender notes, called greenbacks. By war's end a total of $431 million in greenbacks had been issued, and authorization had been given for another $50 million in small denominations, known as fractional currency or "shin plasters."

During Reconstruction a new coalition of agrarian and labor interests found common cause in the promotion of inflationary monetary policies. At the end of 1874, a total of $382 million of these notes still circulated. The Resumption Act of 14 January 1875 provided for the replacement of the Civil War fractional currency by silver coins. It also reduced the greenback total to $300 million. The secretary of the Treasury was directed to "redeem, in coin" legal-tender notes presented for redemption on and after 1 January 1879.

Riding a wave of electoral success in 1878, the inflationists, then organized as the Greenback Party, succeeded in modifying this law by securing the enactment of a measure stopping the destruction of greenbacks when the total outstanding stood at $346,681,000. Specie payments resumed during the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes. Aided by the return of prosperity, Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman accumulated gold to carry out the intent of the Resumption Act. But when people found greenbacks to be on a par with gold, they lost their desire for redemption, thus making possible complete success for the legislation.

Bibliography

Ritter, Gretchen. Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Weinstein, Allen. Prelude to Populism: Origins of the Silver Issue, 1867–1878. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1970.