The Greenback Party
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 North’s 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 coincided 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 mon . . .
The 1880 convention was held at Austin on June 23, there were 140 delegates, including twenty blacks. When the Greenback convention met at Waco on August 26, 1884, only twenty delegates were present. This was an act that had provided that greenbacks could be redeemed in gold beginning January 1, 1879, the new party made repeal of that act its first objective. Some members had joined the Union Labor party, but more went back to the two major parties. A convention at Waco on August 7 nominated a full ticket for state offices, with General William H. Membership had grown rapidly as did the interest in a third political party; in 1891delegates from farm and labor organizations met in Cincinnati. The Greenback Party had no firm foundation in Texas. In the election of 1878 the Greenback Party replaced the Republicans as the second party in Texas by winning twelve seats in the legislature and electing George W. Later many Greenbackers became leading figures in the Populist Party. The platform was similar to that of 1878. 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. No candidates were nominated, and again the Independents were supported.
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