GREENBACK PARTY
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This research paper discusses the origins, fate and significance in American history of the Greenback Party in the 1870s and 1880s. The Greenback Party, sometimes called the Independent or the Greenback-Labor Party, was a third political party. It peaked in political influence in the late 1870s and later merged into the populist movement. It represented a constellation of forces called 'greenbackism,' which was primarily composed of intellectuals, labor and agrarian interests, and which advocated soft money policies during the difficult economic period which accompanied the rapid industrialization of the United States after the end of the Civil War. As a political movement, it failed because of internal divisions, lack of funding and the unwillingness of the American electorate to support it. The conflict over hard vs. soft money was a perennial feature of American politics in the 18th and 19th centuries. The American Revolution was financed by worthless paper money. Conflicts between Eastern moneyed and banking interests and those who needed easy credit to finance the expansion of the nation in the West had led to a major controversy over the National Bank during the Jacksonian era. Galbraith says that after the Panic of 1837, "the money of the United States was precious metal . . . gold." To finance the costs of the Civil War, the federal government ran up a huge deficit, which reached $2.8 billion by 1865, and which it lar
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The retirement of the greenbacks in the late 1860s and the resulting contraction in the supply of money lowered prices for wages and agricultural commodities, but the Northern economy rapidly recovered from the recession of 1866-1868, a period of railroad expansion.
Greenbackism received its primary impetus from the deep depression which followed the financial panic of 1873. Economic distress was widespread, as unemployment rose and wages fell. Farmers were particularly hard hit by declining prices for their products, mortgage foreclosures and high interest costs. Unger says "the panic [of 1873] was the catalyst that transformed Agrarianism into farmer greenbackism."
Greenbackism As a Political Movement
Labor reformers had formed the National Labor Reform Party in Columbus, Ohio in February, 1872, but it quickly collapsed because of the weakness of the labor movement and the tepid support offered the party by some of labor leaders. Farm support for greenbackism was building up in the Middle West and the Great Plains states, but Unger says that "not until after 1873 do substantial numbers of farmers support paper money." The party nominated Charles O'Connor, a New York lawyer, for the presidency in 1872, but only
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1561
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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