The Greenback Party essays

The Greenback Party essays The campaign had consisted mostly of persons with agrarian interests. They were people whose lives centered around their land and culture. In addition to this, they had a desire to maintain an increase the amount of paper money in circulation. This campaign was the beginning of the Greenback movement. The withdrawal by anti-federalists had opened the way for monetary changes by the Union government. Greenbacks first came into existence when the U.S. Department of Treasury was given the right, in 1862, to issue notes that were not changeable into specie (hard money like gold or silver) but were authorized as legal tender for most purposes. Although the Norths record on inflation stands up well in comparison with the experience of triumphant countries in later wars, the Greenbacks worth in gold fell to half the supposed value. Their use had in any case only been intended as a temporary measure and the government started reducing the number in circulation; however, this had coin cided with and reinforced a depression that led to the formation of the Greenback Party in 1875, which had campaigned for an increase in note circulation. Between 1862 and 1865, the U.S. Government had issued more than $450,000,000 in paper money that was not backed by gold (greenbacks - legal tender notes) to help finance the Union cause in the American Civil War. The idea that preserving a flexible supply of paper money served the interests of working people, while paper money backed by specie benefited only the rich. After the war, economic conservatives demanded that the government retire the greenbacks, but the farmers and others who wished to maintain high prices opposed that move. It was in 1868 that the Democrats gave partial support to the Greenback movement by endorsing a plan that called for the redemption of certain war bonds by the issuance of new greenbacks. The Greenback Party which by 1878 had 482 clubs, incl...