Greenback movement

(1868–88) Campaign mainly by U.S. farmers to maintain or increase the amount of paper money in circulation.

To finance the American Civil War the U.S. government issued paper money not backed by gold and printed in green ink, called greenbacks. After the war fiscal conservatives called for an end to greenbacks, but farmers and others who wanted to maintain high prices opposed the move. In 1868 the Democrats endorsed a plan to redeem some war bonds with new greenbacks. The depression after the panic of 1873 intensified the demand for more greenbacks or unlimited silver coinage. After passage of the Resumption Act (1875), which provided for redemption of greenbacks in gold, the newly formed Greenback-Labor Party sought its repeal. In 1878 it elected 14 members of Congress, but support waned after 1884. See also Free Silver Movement, Populist movement.

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▪ United States history

      (c. 1868–88), in U.S. history, the campaign, largely by persons with agrarian interests, to maintain or increase the amount of paper money in circulation. Between 1862 and 1865, the U.S. government issued more than $450,000,000 in paper money not backed by gold (greenbacks) to help finance the Union cause in the American Civil War. After the war, fiscal conservatives demanded that the government retire the greenbacks, but farmers and others who wished to maintain high prices opposed that move. In 1868 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 Panic of 1873 and the subsequent depression polarized the nation on the issue of money, with farmers and others demanding the issuance of additional greenbacks or the unlimited coinage of silver. In 1874 champions of an expanded currency formed the Greenback-Labor Party, which drew most of its support from the Midwest; and after Congress, in 1875, passed the Resumption Act (Resumption Act of 1875), which provided that greenbacks could be redeemed in gold beginning Jan. 1, 1879, the new party made repeal of that act its first objective. The 45th Congress (1877–79), which was almost evenly divided between friends and opponents of an expanded currency, agreed in 1878 to a compromise that included retention of the Resumption Act, the expansion of paper money redeemable in gold, and enactment of the Bland–Allison Act, which provided for a limited resumption of the coinage of silver dollars. In the midterm elections of 1878, the Greenback-Labor Party elected 14 members of Congress and in 1880 its candidate for president polled more than 300,000 votes, but after 1878 most champions of an expanded currency judged that their best chance of success was the movement for the unlimited coinage of silver.

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