LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 Class 
 
The Greenback Movement 
 
 OF 
 
 1875 - 1884 
 
 AND 
 
 Wisconsin's Part In It. 
 
FKOM A STEEL 1>I.ATE M \ 1.1 IN 18TT 
 
The Greenback Movement 
 
 OF 
 
 1875 . 1884 
 
 AND 
 
 Wisconsin's Part In It. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELLIS B. USHER, 
 
 Member American Political Science Association, 
 
 American Historical Association, and The State Historical 
 
 Society of Wisconsin. 
 
 Published by ELLIS B. USHER 
 
 Press of The Meisenheimer Printing Company 
 
 MILWAUKEE 
 
Copyright 
 
 ELLIS B. USHER, 
 
 Milwaukee. Wis. 
 
 1911 
 
 Edition Limited to 500 Copies 
 
Preface 
 
 This pamphlet is, mainly, the result of an investigation 
 pursued for another purpose, through which I discovered 
 that facts regarding the Greenback Movement, that began 
 in 1875 and did not entirely disappear until 1884, were hard 
 to establish, and that no attempt seems to have been made, 
 heretofore, to assemble them for useful reference. Encyclo- 
 paedias and political reference books, as a rule, dismiss the 
 whole subject with a few sentences. 
 
 In the ensuing pages I have done little more than to 
 assemble, in more useful form, facts and references which, 
 though by no means forming a complete or comprehensive 
 historical treatment of the Greenback Movement, even in 
 Wisconsin, to which the greater portion of the material 
 pertains, will, in this shape, prove to be valuable as well as 
 suggestive to the student. Faithful effort has been made to 
 verify statements of fact and to annotate their sources. 
 
 It is hoped that this data may prove of sufficient use 
 to the student, and to the future historian, to justify the 
 labor of putting it together, and that it may assist in pre- 
 serving the evidence of the first, and one of the most interest- 
 ing and far reaching revolts against the Republican Party. 
 This revolt was much more formidable, and the men who 
 led, and those who participated in it, were of much greater 
 political consequence, than has been generally appreciated. 
 Everything of the current Republican discussion of the 
 time, whether spoken or written, belittled the movement 
 and sneered at those engaged in it, to an extent, which, 
 superimposed upon its failure, left the public mind with an 
 impression of its inconsequence as well as fruitlessness. 
 
 Not only were the old parties, at that time, thoroughly 
 alarmed by Greenbackism, but subsequent events have 
 demonstrated that they were alarmed with good reason, for 
 many of the proposals of the Greenback Party have since 
 been justified by being written into law. 
 
The first organized and pointed criticisms of corporations 
 and the earliest demand for their control by the Government, 
 came from the Greenbackers. So did the demand for the 
 conservation of the public domain for actual settlers. Their 
 natural successors, the Populists, took up the cause and 
 began to give it effect in the early nineties. 
 
 By reason of the important place early taken among the 
 Greenback leaders of the country by Mr. Edward P. Allis of 
 Milwaukee, and the wide attention attracted by a paper 
 written by President Steele of Lawrence University, this 
 state's place in the National Movement was far more in- 
 fluential and prominent than the merely numerical strength 
 of the party in Wisconsin warranted, and in that fact lies one 
 of the features of special interest in considering the purely 
 local history of the movement. 
 
 I submit this pamphlet to those into whose hands it may 
 fall, in the hope that the materials here gathered together 
 may inspire more capable laborers in this interesting and, 
 heretofore, quite undeveloped field of political history. 
 
 ELLIS B. USHER. 
 Milwaukee, 
 
 June 21, 1911. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER ONE 
 
 Background of Greenbackism, . . . Page 6 
 
 CHAPTER TWO 
 
 The Greenback Issue, 10 
 
 CHAPTER THREE 
 
 The Wisconsin Greenback Movement, . 16 
 
 CHAPTER FOUR 
 
 Organizing Wisconsin, 30 
 
 CHAPTER FIVE 
 
 Mr. Allis Nominated For Governor, . 37 
 
 CHAPTER SIX 
 
 Wisconsin's Candidate for President 
 
 of the United States, .... 53 
 
 APPENDIX NO. 1, 
 
 Steele's Pamphlet, The Currency Question, 64 
 
 APPENDIX NO. 2, 
 
 Labor and Greenback National Platforms. 77 
 
 INDEX to Names and Subjects 84 
 
Background of Greenbackism, 
 
 CHAPTER ONE. 
 
 THE greenback theories which came to the fore 
 after the Civil War were new only in name and 
 immediate application. They embodied ideas of 
 irredeemable paper money that early in the 
 Eighteenth Century had made John Law for a time the 
 financial wizard of France, and that have recurred in this 
 country with every season of financial stress, from the days 
 of the *Revolution to the free silver stampede of the Demo- 
 cratic Party in 1896. 
 
 Robert Schilling of Milwaukee, who was one of the early 
 and persistent organizers in Labor politics, in a fpamphlet 
 issued in 1896, refers to a pamphlet, later enlarged to a book, 
 written after the panic of 1837, by Edward Kellogg, as "the 
 bible of the early currency reformers," and to {Alexander 
 Campbell, of La Salle, Illinois, as "their Moses." 
 
 Edward Kellogg was a New York merchant who from a 
 victim of the "hard times of '37" became a student of 
 finance and an authority for arguments in favor of a currency 
 "limited only by the wants of business." 
 
 To him is credited the discovery of the proposition for 
 an interconvertible bond currency, which became the back- 
 bone of the greenback doctrine of thirty-five years later. 
 
 *See history of the Bank of North America. 
 
 t"Official Souvenir of 
 ted States of America," 
 
 ^Member of Congress. 
 
 t"Official Souvenir of National Convention Peoples Party of the 
 United States of America," St. Louis, July 22, 1896. 
 
Kellogg's proposition, in condensed form, is found in the 
 preface to an *edition of his work published in 1883, pre- 
 pared by his daughter, and disciple, Mary Kellogg Putnam. 
 She writes as follows: 
 
 He saw that money ought not to be made of gold and silver, which 
 cannot be had in sufficient quantities to meet any great financial crisis, 
 and which nobody wants when confidence exists; that it must be a legal 
 representative of value, and thought it ought to be founded on real estate, 
 or on a public credit resting on the national resources, he saw how to issue 
 it in exchange for mortgages of productive real property there was no 
 great public debt but how to redeem it? He tried it in every way he 
 could imagine; he knew there must be some right way of doing it, but 
 what was it? It was of no use to point out the evil unless he could show 
 a remedy for it. He thought upon it by night and by day, and at last, 
 after looking for it three years, one night in the spring of 1843, as he lay 
 in his bed revolving once more his problem, it dawned upon him like an 
 inspiration, "Redeem it with a bond bearing interest." He turned it to 
 and fro for a moment and exclaimed, in the very words of the old philoso- 
 pher, "I have found it!" 
 
 It was written and submitted to Horace Greeley, who, 
 Mrs. Putnam remarks, was "ever prompt to consider any 
 proposition for bettering the condition of mankind." Mr. 
 Greeley took it to a printer and it appeared as a pamphlet 
 entitled; "Usury: The Evil and the Remedy." 
 
 The interchangeable bond and money proposition was 
 stated as follows: 
 
 For the purpose I have before mentioned (to supply the people with a 
 good and sound currency), the United States should establish an institu- 
 tion, which I shall call a Safety Fund. I give it this name because I think 
 it will be the means of securing to the producers a fair remuneration for 
 their productions. It will save us from the power of any foreign nation 
 over our international improvements, or anything else of great importance. 
 It will enable the nation as far as man can have such control to decide 
 its own destiny. Therefore it will be a "National Safety Fund." 
 
 In order to explain the nature of this Safety Fund, I will here write 
 out, in full, two bills, one for a circulating medium, the other for a Treasury 
 Note. By reading these the system may be almost entirely understood. 
 Should such an institution be established, the bills might be more brief, 
 as the laws on the subject would be known, and it would be unnecessary 
 to have as much expressed as in the following. 
 
 (CIRCULATING MEDIUM OR SAFETY FUND NOTE) 
 The United States promise to pay to A. B., or bearer, at their Safety 
 
 Fund, in the City of. , One Hundred Dollars, in a 
 
 Treasury Note, bearing interest at the rate of two per cent, per annum, 
 payable half-yearly, in gold or silver coin; and until such payment is made 
 this note shall be a legal tender for debts, the same as gold or silver coins 
 are now a tender. 
 
 ""Labor and Capital," by Edward Kellogg, John W. Lovell & Company, 
 
 New York, 1883. Paper. 
 
(TREASURY NOTE) 
 
 One year from the first day of May next, or any time thereafter, the 
 
 United States promise to pay to A. B., or bearer, in the City of. 
 
 One Hundred Dollars in Safety Fund Notes; and until such payment is 
 made, to pay interest thereon half-yearly on the first days of May and 
 November, at the rate of two per cent per annum in gold or silver. 
 
 It will be perceived that the note intended as a circulating medium 
 is made a legal tender for all debts, that it is issued by Government, and 
 payable in Treasury Notes. The Treasury Notes are to bear interest, 
 hence there can be no money in circulation but what the holder can at any 
 time put on interest where the loan would be entirely safe, and the interest 
 payable half-yearly in specie; so that money can, at all times, be loaned 
 for a certain income secured by the nation. One year after the first of 
 May ensuing, the holder can convert the loan again into the legal currency 
 of the country, so there never can be a surplus of money which may not 
 be made productive. 
 
 It would seem that this scheme, even though made in all 
 seriousness, and by a man credited with the purest purposes, 
 would, inevitably, and at once, have been relegated to the 
 company of the kitten chasing her own tail, or to the com- 
 panionship of the equally practical alchemist who should 
 propose to coin moonshine. But it was not. Mental 
 gymnastics and jugglery offer a diversion always attractive 
 to a certain type of intellect. Such minds are often brilliant 
 and the number of them always seems to be large. 
 
 Horace Greeley's influential New York Tribune of 
 August 17, 1843, in its leading article, using the title of the 
 Kellogg pamphlet for a caption, said; "Such is the title of a 
 powerful essay," and the readers of the Tribune were ad- 
 vised to read it. 
 
 It is notable that all of the political movements which 
 have had origin among those who assume to be the "pro- 
 ducing classes," the Trades Unionists, Knights of Labor, 
 Farmer's Alliance, People's Party, etc. have regarded banks 
 as their natural enemies, and financial methods as a point for 
 successful attack upon the bulwarks of money and privilege. 
 
 Robert Schilling, in the pamphlet already cited, con- 
 denses some interesting political history into a few pages, 
 and the document is, substantially, official. 
 
 His history of the Labor Movement, which developed 
 after the Civil War, is valuable. He shows that it originated 
 with the Labor Unions in 1868. In 1872 an Independent 
 Labor National Convention was held in Indianapolis, which 
 placed Judge David Davis of Illinois, and Joel Parker of 
 
New Jersey, in nomination for President and Vice President, 
 but both of them declined to run, after the other tickets 
 had been nominated. Their failure to stand for election 
 was attributed to fear that the opportunity for success was 
 small. 
 
 In the platform adopted by this convention the financial 
 scheme of Edward Kellogg first came to the surface as a 
 national political issue. 
 
 In March 1873, at a Labor Meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, 
 styling itself the "Industrial Congress of the United States," 
 a long declaration of principles was adopted, and among 
 them was a practical reaffirmation of the plank in the 
 Indianapolis platform, as follows: 
 
 The establishing by the Government of a just standard of distribution 
 to labor and capital, by providing a purely National circulating medium, 
 based on the faith and resources of the Nation, issued directly to the people, 
 without the intervention of any system of banking corporations, which 
 money shall be a legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private, 
 and interchangeable at the option of the holder for registered Government 
 Bonds, bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent, subject to 
 future legislation by Congress. 
 
 Mr. Schilling explains that, by reason of his own advance 
 in companionship 'with the several forward steps of these 
 movements, this declaration became that of the Knights of 
 Labor, in 1878. Meanwhile the idea had spread among the 
 farmers' organizations, so that when Peter Cooper became 
 the first Greenback candidate for President, in 1876, the 
 doctrine had pretty well permeated the whole political 
 atmosphere of opposition to the Republican policy of specie 
 resumption, and as subsequent events proved, this oppo- 
 sition was widespread. 
 
The Greenback Issue 
 
 CHAPTER Two. 
 
 AFTER the Civil War the united strength with which 
 the North had supported the Republican Party 
 during that struggle began to sway under pressure 
 of the new conditions imposed by peace. Most 
 acute among new questions was that raised by the decision 
 of the Supreme Court, in December 1869, which declared 
 unconstitutional the Act of Congress, of 1862, creating the 
 paper note currency commonly called "greenbacks," and 
 making them a "legal tender," so far as it applied to debts 
 contracted before the passage of the Act. Coming at a time 
 when prices were inflated this decision aroused widespread 
 discussion and no little actual alarm, lest what was popularly 
 declared a virtual repudiation of the Government's notes 
 might work immediate and serious results upon our National 
 finances, credit, commerce, and industries. Much sentiment 
 was invoked in behalf of the greenback which, it was asserted 
 had been "good enough to pay our brave boys in the field" 
 but was thus discredited by one of the great co-ordinate 
 branches of the Government. 
 
 This situation was so modified by the subsequent action 
 of Congress and the President, that the Court reversed 
 itself by a bare majority vote, and the legal tender 
 quality of the greenback was fully upheld. Opponents 
 of the administration at the time vigorously denounced, 
 as purely partisan politics, the changes in the Court, 
 through which, it was asserted, this reversal of opinion was 
 secured. This charge was as warmly denied by the party 
 friends of the President. But the currency question had 
 
 10 
 
been created and with it there arose great discussion and 
 controversy as to what should be the future financial policy 
 of the Government. 
 
 By 1872 this question, and others growing out of the war, 
 led to the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency 
 by a coalition of "Liberal" Republicans and Democrats, 
 and the "Labor Reform" National Party, already referred 
 to, also appeared in the field and nominated David Davis of 
 Illinois, as its presidential candidate. Such prominent 
 fathers of the Republican Party as Wendell Phillips, of 
 Massachusetts; Gen. John M. Palmer, of Illinois; B. Gratz 
 Brown, of Missouri, and Horace Greeley, of New York, 
 received votes for President in the Labor Reform Convention. 
 Davis declined to run but the platform for the first time in 
 National politics, raised questions which were to appear and 
 reappear in many succeeding campaigns. A new National 
 Prohibition Party also entered the lists at this time, and the 
 "Straight-Out" Democrats nominated Charles O'Connor 
 and repudiated the Greeley hybrids. 
 
 The supporters of Greeley declared for "a speedy return 
 of specie payment." The Republicans did the same, a little 
 less distinctly. In the Labor Reform Platform for the first 
 time was put forward the doctrine which later became the 
 backbone of the Greenback Political Theory. It was the 
 proposition of Edward Kellogg, with "improvements." 
 This *platform contained the following declarations: 
 
 Resolved, that it is the duty of the Government to establish a just 
 standard of distribution of capital and labor by providing a purely National 
 circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of the Nation, issued 
 directly to the people without the intervention of any system of banking 
 corporations, which money shall be legal tender in the payment of all debts 
 public, and private, and interchangeable at the option of the holder for 
 Government Bonds bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 per cent, 
 subject to future legislation by Congress. 
 
 That the National Debt should be paid in good faith, according to the 
 original contract, at the earliest option of the Government, without mort- 
 gaging the property of the people or the future exigencies of labor, to enrich 
 a few capitalists at home and abroad. 
 
 That justice demands that the burdens of Government should be so 
 adjusted as to bear equally on all classes, and that the exemption from 
 taxation of Government bonds bearing extravagant rates of interest is a 
 violation of all just principles of revenue laws. 
 
 It is notable that this platform also contains the first 
 proposal of federal control of corporations, upon which 
 subject it says: 
 
 *See Appendix, No. 2. 
 
 11 
 
That it is the duty of the Government to exercise its power over rail- 
 roads and telegraph corporations, that they shall not in any case be pri- 
 vileged to exact such rates of freight, transportation or charges, by what- 
 ever name, as may bear unduly or unequally upon producer or consumer. 
 
 It is significant that David Davis, who was the presi- 
 dential nominee on this platform, though he did not run, 
 was, at the time of this nomination, upon the supreme 
 bench, an appointee of Abraham Lincoln. He afterwards 
 became a United States senator from Illinois, elected as an 
 "Independent," in 1877, just in the height of the Greenback 
 Movement, the members of that party in the Illinois legis- 
 lature aiding in his election. 
 
 General Grant was re-elected President in 1872, by a clear 
 majority of all the votes cast in the Nation. From that time 
 until McKinley was elected, in 1896, the Republican Party 
 never again had a popular majority, but only a plurality. 
 Singularly enough it was a financial issue which decimated 
 its ranks and it was a financial issue which, with the im- 
 portant aid of the Gold Democrats of 1896, restored it to 
 majority supremacy. 
 
 The ten years following 1872 saw much political excite- 
 ment and many changes. In February 1873 Congress passed 
 the law demonitizing silver, an act which became politically 
 familiar as "the crime of 73." 
 
 In October 1873 began a disastrous financial panic which 
 caused an unexampled business depression, lasting, with 
 gradually diminishing force, until 1881. The first shock of 
 this financial crash came with the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., 
 in the last days of September. It was thought, at the time, 
 and currently expressed in the press, that the great fires of 
 1871 and 1872, in Chicago and Boston, had a depressing 
 effect upon the business of the entire country. These cala- 
 maties may have played their part in connection with the 
 general shrinkage, attributed on the one hand, to previous 
 inflation of values and speculation following in the train of 
 war; on the other, to the contraction of the currency, and 
 the fixing, by act of January 1875, of a definite date for 
 "forced resumption" of specie payment, which had been 
 suspended under plea of war necessity. It is interesting in 
 this connection, however, to remember that the more recent 
 calamity, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, scarcely made 
 a ripple upon the finances of the country. The "Banker's 
 Panic" of 1907 was in no proper sense comparable, however, 
 with such financial cataclysms as those of 1873 and 1893. 
 
 12 
 
The financial depression of 1873, swept many business 
 men to ruin, and in the search for causes and remedies the 
 financial field was most prolific. 
 
 In 1875 upon the assembling of Congress, President 
 Grant devoted considerable attention to the currency 
 question, and his Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Bristow, 
 gave great space to it in his annual report, from which the 
 following extract is taken: 
 
 The disastrous disturbances have been brought about in our country 
 by overloading, over credit and excessive enterprise of a speculative 
 character, stimulated by too great abundance of promises to pay, existing 
 in the form of currency not based upon, or convertible into, the only actual 
 money in the world, and of the Constitution, gold and silver. 
 
 On Washington's Birthday, 1876, the Indiana State 
 Republican Convention declared for the repeal of the re- 
 sumption act. In the presidential election following, the 
 Independent National (Greenback) Party came into being 
 and ran Peter Cooper, of New York, for President, with 
 Samuel F. Gary, of Ohio, for Vice President, and in the 
 ensuing Congress, this party is credited with fourteen 
 members of the lower house. 
 
 Their platform demanded "the unconditional repeal" of 
 the resumption act of 1875, to "stop the suicidal and de- 
 structive policy of contraction." It advocated the 3.65 
 interconvertible bond, "full legal tender" privilege for 
 treasury notes, and the suppression of National Bank 
 currency. One resolution suggests even a lower rate of 
 interest, as follows: 
 
 We most earnestly protest against any further issue of gold bonds 
 for sale in foreign markets, by which we would be made for a long period 
 "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to foreigners, especially as the 
 American people would gladly and promptly take at par all bonds the 
 Government may need to sell, providing they are made payable at the 
 option of the holder, and bearing interest at 3.65 per cent per annum, or 
 even a lower rate. 
 
 The Republican Platform of 1876 was oracular on the 
 subject of finance, as the following declaration shows: 
 
 In the first act of Congress signed by President Grant the National 
 Government assumed to remove any doubts of its purpose to discharge 
 all just obligations to the public creditors, and "solemnly pledged its faith 
 to make provisions, at the earliest practicable period, for the redemption 
 of the United States notes in coin." Commercial prosperity, public morals, 
 and the National credit demand that this promise be fulfilled by a con- 
 tinuous and steady progress to specie payment. 
 
 13 
 
By 1880 the Republicans were boasting of restoring "our 
 paper currency from 38 per cent to the par of gold," and the 
 Greenback Party, with Gen. James B. Weaver of Iowa, a 
 former Republican, as its presidential candidate, demanded 
 the issue of all paper currency by the Government alone and 
 that "the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as gold" be 
 established by law, and demanded "a Government of the 
 People, by the People, and for the People, instead of a Govern- 
 ment of the Bondholder, by the Bondholder, and for the 
 Bondholder." This was the first National declaration in 
 favor of what later, in the campaign of 1896, became known 
 as "free silver." 
 
 This year saw the high water mark of strength for a 
 national Greenback ticket, General Weaver receiving 
 308,578 votes in a total of 9,218,251. But both of the old 
 parties had much internal disaffection and politicians in 
 /-"both had become greatly alarmed and has vied with one 
 another to confuse and demoralize the new party by holding 
 out temptations in the way of local fusion. This was 
 actually carried to the extent, in some of the states, of partial 
 fusions on the Electoral Ticket. In Maine such a fusion 
 was made up with three Democrats and four Greenbackers, 
 and as a "Straight" Greenback Ticket was also in the field, 
 the Greenback strength was thus cleverly divided. 
 
 As a result of this campaign there were nine members 
 of the House of Representatives credited to the "Nationals", 
 but this gain was short lived, as the next House contained 
 but two "Nationals" and four "Independents." 
 
 "American Politics," by Thos. V. Cooper, says that 
 "In State Elections up to as late as 1880 this Greenback 
 element was a most important factor." "Farmer" Allen in 
 Ohio, "Blue Jeans" Williams in Indiana, and Solon Chase 
 and "them steers," in Maine, became figures of National 
 importance, while Gen. Benj. F. Butler, a Republican 
 Congressman, and several times nominated by the Repub- 
 licans for Governor, so bedeviled the politics of Massachusetts 
 as to land himself in the gubernatorial chair shortly after 
 the Greenback wave had subsided, in 1882, through the 
 capture of the Democratic Party and its State machinery. 
 Cooper says truly, however, that "As a party, the Green- 
 backers, standing alone, never carried either a State or a 
 Congressional District. Their local successes were due to 
 alliances with one or the other of the great parties." 
 
 14 
 
This statement fairly epitomizes the history of a really 
 large and, for a time, menacing National Movement and one 
 responsible for giving the Republican Party its first serious 
 alarms after the ten years of uninterrupted party power 
 and political security which followed the first election of 
 Lincoln. It will serve as a historical background for the 
 account which follows, of Greenback politics in Wisconsin, 
 which also, explains the prominence of Wisconsin Green- 
 backers in, and their close relations to, the National Green- 
 back Movement. 
 
 It may be said, with truth, that the literature of Green- 
 backism developed in Wisconsin, was among the best 
 written and ablest of the country. It is, therefore, typical. 
 
 15 
 
The Wisconsin Greenback Movement 
 
 CHAPTER THREE. 
 
 AS early as the last half of 1875 there was noticeable 
 discussion of the currency question, in Wisconsin, 
 in the newspapers and elsewhere, but prior to Jan- 
 uary 1876 there seems to have been no concen- 
 trated movement for a party organization to express Green- 
 back sentiment. 
 
 It was suggested in the previous chapter that the Green- 
 back Movement began with the nomination of David Davis 
 for President, in 1872. Many of the men early active in the 
 movement had been known, years before, as anti-slavery 
 prophets, and later, as prominent Republicans. David 
 Davis had been a Delegate-at-Large to the Convention that 
 nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He had been ap- 
 pointed, by Lincoln, a Justice of the Supreme Court, and 
 was named as one of the executers of Mr. Lincoln's will. 
 Wendell Phillips had been one of the most eloquent of the 
 Abolitionists, and George W. Julian had been in at the birth 
 of the Free Soil Party, one of the early progenitors of the 
 Republican Party, and throughout the war he had been one 
 of the foremost Republicans in the National House of 
 Representatives, and was known as "the father of the 
 Homestead Act." 
 
 Among the "Liberal Republicans" who nominated 
 Greeley, in 1872, we find such familiar names as Carl Schurz; 
 Col. A. K. McClure, editor of the Philadelphia Times, and 
 ex.-Gov. Andrew G. Curtin, the famous war Governor, of 
 Pennsylvania; Charles Francis Adams of Massachusetts; 
 Reuben E. Fenton of New York; Lyman Trumbull of 
 Illinois, and many other men of great ability and recognized 
 
 16 
 
prominence in the earlier annals of the Republican Party. 
 Schurz, Fenton and Trumbull all served in United States 
 Senate as Republicans. 
 
 Wisconsin reflected this prevailing spirit of unrest and 
 criticism within the Republican ranks and Greeley received 
 more votes in this State, by about 3,000, than Horatio 
 Seymour, as the Democratic candidate, had received four 
 years earlier. 
 
 It was this new disposition to break over party traces 
 that gave especial anxiety to Republican leaders, every- 
 where, throughout the entire country. 
 
 In Wisconsin, one of the first important men of well- 
 known Republican affiliations to speak in dissent of the 
 Republican policy of finance, was Edward P. Allis. As 
 early as November 27th, 1875, the Milwaukee Sentinel 
 published a communication from Mr. Allis, which was as 
 follows : 
 
 In your very good and modest "Thanksgiving" article in this morn- 
 ing's paper you have mentioned two things that I think were referred to 
 upon general principles, and should not have particular application to this 
 case. You speak of our having reduced the National Debt "in spite of 
 reduced taxation and revenue," as a cause of thanks, and then speak of 
 the human beings who are in cold and want, and whose only chance for 
 thanks will come from charity. 
 
 It is certainly a good thing, in the abstract, to reduce a debt; and I 
 think you have mentioned it in that way, and that, after consideration 
 of its particular application in this case, you will agree with me, that the 
 good may be not an unalloyed one. 
 
 This fact stands out glaringly in our National history. The War of 
 the Rebellion came and found us comparatively out of debt, but financially 
 weak. The war ended and found us overwhelmed with debt, but finan- 
 cially strong. We entered the contest a debtless pigmy, and emerged an 
 indebted giant. 
 
 We entered it with but moderate or negative and prosperity and 
 National strength, and emerged with almost boundless prosperity and 
 power. This prosperity continued after the war, but with a declining 
 tendency, until to-day we find the only thing to be thankful for, "that we 
 have reduced the National Debt," and couple that cause of thanksgiving 
 with the appeal for charity to men with strong arms and willing hearts, 
 men who desire and ought to have the opportunity to owe their Thanks- 
 giving Dinner to the goodness of God, rather than to the charity of men. 
 If we carefully investigate the facts, we shall find that we have everything 
 to be thankful for, so far as the fruits of the earth can make it so, but that 
 our own acts are turning a real cause of thanks into a real cause of com- 
 plaint. If we had cited the reduction of the National Debt as a cause of 
 complaint, and then the necessity of charity as the effect, we might have 
 been not wide of the mark. 
 
 17 
 
We are here upon earth not alone as the conservators of the present, 
 but also as directors of the future. We make laws and do deeds that 
 bind and affect all future time. When the Rebellion came, there came 
 with it the necessity to suppress it, not for ourselves alone, but for future 
 ages, without limit, as we hope. Here was a work to do for the almost 
 limitless future, and we sprang to it with a zeal and energy that gave 
 assurance of our appreciation of the responsibility; and well did we perform 
 the task. 
 
 To do this future work with present means with our money was 
 an impossibility, and the money itself so taught us. When the first shot 
 struck Sumter, Gold started for the rear, and when the rebel shouts were 
 ringing triumphantly through the land, Gold was out of sight and hearing 
 that "God-anointed King!" 
 
 It was only when we realized that it was a war for the future, and 
 must be fought with the money of the future, and that the gold was still 
 in our mountains that was to fight it, that we provided the Greenback and 
 its consort the Bond, which stood by us like brothers to the successful end. 
 We were all laborers for the distant future, and they paid us for our labors, 
 during that five years, three thousand millions of dollars, well earned 
 and ungrudgingly paid. During the war we prospered, in spite of the 
 waste and devastation of war, because we were all employed in a necessary 
 and finally successful work for a willing and able paymaster. After the 
 war we prospered and soon made good to a large extent the waste of the 
 war, but this after prosperity has been a declining one, and we are now 
 almost, if not quite, without cause for thanks for prosperity. During 
 these ten years of declining prosperity we have, as you say, steadily reduced 
 the public debt. Is it not possible that you have reversed the light in 
 which we should view this? Is it not open to question whether we are 
 not paying a debt we do not owe? This is a debt owed, we hope, by a 
 hundred generations, and is it not a questionable cause of congratulation 
 that our Government is compelling one generation to pay it? In ten 
 years we have paid $1,000,000,000, or one third of the principal of the debt. 
 Besides interest on the whole at 5 or 6 per cent, we have paid 3M$ per cent 
 per annum of the principal. The whole increase of wealth in our country 
 from all sources, and through a series of prosperous years, will not exceed 
 from 2 to 3 per cent, per annum. What the increase has been during the 
 last two years is probably less than nothing, yet still comes the monthly 
 announcement of the public debt reduced so much. Who can tell how 
 potent a cause this is if for the present depression? The thousands of idle 
 men who, you say truly, are to-day depending upon charity for a Thanks- 
 giving Dinner, are not without substantial reason in thinking that the 
 monthly announcement of reduction of the public debt, should be charac- 
 terized as official stupidity, instead of official efficiency. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 Nov. 25, 1875. Edward P. Allis. 
 
 Dr. O. W. Wight, then State Geologist, also declared, 
 publicly, for greenbacks, in November 1875. 
 
 Notwithstanding the uneasiness with which the politi- 
 cians were watching and measuring the importance of a 
 sentiment now rapidly crystalizing into a wide political 
 protest, the newspapers were generally indifferent, neglect- 
 is 
 
ful, or derisive of the new movement, and of those engaged 
 in it. Their position may be illustrated by the fact that at 
 the first conference, or advisory committee meeting, of the 
 Wisconsin leaders of the Greenback Movement, Mr. J. T. 
 Gilbert, of Milwaukee, scored the newspapers, quite roundly, 
 for shabby treatment. In rejoinder the Milwaukee Com- 
 mercial Times accused Mr. Gilbert of being too "sweeping" 
 in his complaints. It said, 
 
 The Commercial Times looks upon the Greenback sophistries of 
 such influential and well meaning citizens as Mr. Gilbert, Mr. Allis, *Mr. 
 Nazro and others, with as much distrust and apprehension as any journal 
 in the land. Yet the Commercial Times has been careful to place all the 
 public utterances of these gentlemen freely and fairly before the public, 
 and it has also offered them individually the free use of its columns. 
 
 Other daily newspapers very generally ignored the 
 movement. The Commercial Times printed Mr. Allis's 
 speech in full, and the editorial already quoted from, nearly 
 a column in length, took care to explain the newspaper's 
 entire dissent from Mr. Allis's doctrine. It said: 
 
 We therefore, present our readers with the views of Mr. Allis, while 
 we do not agree with them, as a matter of news and an act of justice to 
 one of Milwaukee's most estimable citizens. 
 
 Early in January 1876, there were steps taken to get 
 Wisconsin greenback leaders together and map out an active 
 program, and on January 18th, the meeting above referred 
 to, was held in Madison. 
 
 The Milwaukee Commercial Times said, the next day, 
 that it was "called a State Greenback Convention." The 
 Sentinel of the 19th said: "There were forty or fifty persons 
 present." W. W. Field, secretary of the State Agricultural 
 Society of Madison, called the meeting to order, read a 
 short adress, and was chosen Chairman, and S. D. ("Pump") 
 Carpenter, a well known Madison editor, was made Sec- 
 retary. 
 
 William Orledge of Kenosha, read a call for a National 
 Greenback Convention to meet at Indianapolis, on the 17th 
 of May. He said the "old parties had outlived their use- 
 fulness." 
 
 The Commercial Times report says: "Mr. E. P. Allis 
 was called for, and delivered an address which was highly 
 commended." He took occasion to say, at the outset, that 
 
 *John Nazro, earlier a prominent hardware merchant of Milwaukee. 
 
 19 
 
he was not aware that the meeting was called to organize a 
 new party and declined to express himself on that subject. 
 Other speeches were made by Judge Harlow S. Orton, an 
 hitherto prominent Democrat, (who announced that he 
 would support a Republican for President rather than a Hard 
 Money Democrat), J. T. Gilbert, G. W. King of Clark 
 county, M. Sellers of Fort Howard, "Pump" Carpenter, 
 Herman Nabor of Shawano, and others. Ex. Gov. Dewey, 
 Wisconsin's first Governor, did not respond to a call to speak 
 except to announce himself as a greenback man. The report 
 calls it a gathering of "a number of the most prominent men 
 of Wisconsin", and the paper says editorially, that; "Mr. 
 E. P. Allis of this city was the leading mind," among them. 
 Judge Orton pronounced Mr. Allis's address the "most 
 perfect presentation of the question he had ever listened to." 
 
 The result of this "Convention" or conference was the 
 passage of a set of resolutions presented by Judge Orton, 
 and the appointment of a State Committee to call a State 
 Convention, if thought proper, and to organize a new party 
 if neither of the existing parties should adopt a Greenback 
 plank. The Resolutions were as follows: 
 
 Resolved, That gold and silver are too inconvenient and quite in- 
 sufficient to be used in this country as a circulating medium, and that a 
 paper circulating medium in lieu thereof as money, is absolutely indespen- 
 sable. 
 
 Resolved, That the National Government should issue and furnish 
 such paper circulation, interconvertible into National Bonds, at long time 
 and low interest, and to be of such volume as is from time to time 
 required by the exigencies of commercial exchange, which should supersede 
 all other paper circulation as money and be receivable for all public dues. 
 
 Resolved, that a forced contraction of currency, with a view to the 
 redemption of Government paper with gold or silver, will greatly injure, 
 if not utterly destroy, all the diversified interests of the country, except 
 those of bankers, brokers and creditors. 
 
 Resolved, that the present volume of the currency is not in excess of 
 the necessities of the times, and that it shall be of such character that its 
 future expansion or contraction shall depend upon the natural course of 
 business and the common laws of trade. 
 
 Resolved, that the true policy is to encourage the development of our 
 National resources, and equal protection to all branches of business and 
 productive industry and the administration of the Government with 
 honesty and economy, and in this way sustain the National credit, and 
 make it at least equal at all times to gold and silver. 
 
 So far as I have discovered, after dilligent search of the 
 record, this is the first set of Greenback Resolutions adopted, 
 by a representative State meeting, in Wisconsin. 
 
 20 
 
The committee named was as follows, one from each Con- 
 gressional District: 
 
 At Large: William Orledge of Kenosha, 
 
 First District: George Easterly, of Whitewater, 
 
 Second District: Judge Harlow S. Orton, of Madison, 
 Third District: G. W. Lee, of Grant County, 
 
 Fourth District: E. P. Allis, of Milwaukee, 
 
 Fifth District: E. M. McGraw, of Sheboygan, 
 
 Sixth District: Eli Stilson, of Oshkosh, 
 
 Seventh District: G. W. King, of Clark County, 
 
 Eighth District: E. S. Miner, of Juneau County. 
 
 It will be of interest to state that George Easterly, was a 
 prominent manufacturer of agricultural machinery at 
 Whitewater; Harlow S. Orton, was a prominent lawyer, had 
 already been a Circuit Judge and, two years later, was 
 appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court, where he served 
 with credit, until his death, in 1895; Edward P. Allis, of 
 Milwaukee was one of the leading iron and steel machinery 
 manufacturers of the West, a college bred gentleman; Eli 
 Stilson, was a prosperous stock farmer, who lived near 
 Oshkosh; G. W. King was a son of the first Governor of 
 Maine, a lumberman, and a man of local prominence on 
 Black river; Eliphalet S. Miner, was a pioneer lumberman of 
 Necedah, an early partner of Thomas Weston and John T. 
 Kingston, a firm later succeeded by the Necedah Lumber Co.; 
 William Orledge was a farmer of local prominence in Kenosha 
 county. Most of them had been prominent as Republicans. 
 
 Mr. Allis, to whom leadership in the Greenback move- 
 ment in Wisconsin seemed to be accorded, from the outset, 
 delivered an address on this occasion, which was accepted 
 as the party "keynote," as follows: 
 
 Gentlemen: It is with extreme diffidence that I address you. I have 
 neither the ability nor the ambition to be a leader, and only desire to add 
 my voice and influence, feeble as it may be, to what I conceive to be a 
 most vital question. 
 
 The cause that has brought us together is no trifling or sectional one; 
 it underlies all civilized progress, and is at this moment affecting for good 
 or ill the whole civilized world. 
 
 To the solution of this question, however, we should lay no claim to a 
 world wide philanthropy; we should acknowledge the axiom that charity 
 begins at home, and put our own house in order; we meet as Americans, 
 to consider our own conditions and best interests. 
 
 That something is the matter needs no elucidation here. From a 
 season of prosperous advance, we entered upon a season of decline, and are 
 now standing upon the verge of individual and co-bankruptcy and ruin. 
 Thousands of able and willing men are idle, and almost numberless women 
 and children, in all parts of our land, are suffering for the commonest 
 
 21 
 
necessaries of life. Hundreds of business houses are struggling and totter- 
 ing to their fall, and hundreds of workshops are indebted to the busy spider 
 to cover their rusty journals from the passers' gaze. All advance seems 
 to have ceased in a land whose motto and life is progress. 
 
 All this and more has come upon us. Why? Our bounteous Creator 
 has not ceased to smile upon us as of old. His glad sunshine and gushing 
 rain-drops have bathed our land until it has laughed with rustling crops, 
 and the farmer's garner is all too small to hold the golden fruit. Sweet 
 peace has rested within our borders, and the sabre and musket are 
 >not seen, we go and come where we will, with none to molest, or make us 
 afraid. Our forests and prairies are crying aloud for the sturdy caress of 
 the axe and the plow, and our mountains are groaning as in labor, from 
 their precious burdens. Wherefore are these things and all these cries 
 in vain the cry of the laborer for work, and the work for the laborer? 
 Wherefore do these two wish to come together and can not? Wherefore 
 have the trader and manufacturer no power to bring them together; and 
 wherefore does the capitalist fear to do so? The answers to these questions, 
 gentlemen, lie wrapped up in the subject we are here to consider, and any 
 one who from experience or knowledge can throw any light upon it, owes 
 it to humanity and to his country to do so. As in most vital questions 
 of policy, there is upon this one a wide diversity of opinion and as we are 
 bound to believe, all have honest supporters. From the wildest inflationist 
 so called to the most narrow contractionist and hard money man, 
 there is a wide range, but the ideas of both are the legitimately begotten 
 offspring of a scienece too little studied and understood, and the truth lies 
 somewhere between them. 
 
 In order to state my views in a simple form, and confine my few 
 remarks to them, I have put my belief in the shape of resolutions, which 
 I will endeavor to briefly elucidate, but on which I neither ask nor desire 
 a formal vote: 
 
 WHEREAS, Gold is the acknowledged expression of value by the 
 nations of the world, to whom we are socially and commercially related; 
 and 
 
 WHEREAS, The United States are the largest producers of gold 
 among nations; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That the United States should maintain a gold basis. 
 
 WHEREAS, The prosperity and progress of our country depend 
 almost wholly upon the amount and value of its circulating medium; and 
 
 WHEREAS, The amount of gold in the world is entirely inadequate 
 to the needs of the world, for a circulating medium, therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we need a paper currency of as large a volume as can 
 be maintained equal to gold, and that its conversion into gold must be 
 from intrinsic worth, and voluntary, and not compulsory. 
 
 Resolved, That the way to attain the inestimable benefits of a cir- 
 culating medium equal to gold, and of a volume adequate and adapted to 
 the needs of trade and progress, is to have an exclusive Government 
 currency based on its indebtedness, receivable for all its dues, and inter- 
 convertible at the will of the holder, with its low interest bearing bonds, 
 principal and interest payable in gold, or its equivalent. 
 
 In regard to the first proposition, that we ought to maintain a gold 
 standard, I differ from many so-called greenback men, and I fully appre- 
 ciate the force of their reasoning. I am free to say that I think it a grave 
 
 22 
 
mistake on the part of other nations. They are making indispenable to 
 themselves an article which they do not and cannot produce, and for a 
 supply of which they must look to us. They are creating and maintaining 
 an unlimited market, and at a price far above its intrinsic worth, for one 
 of our largest possible productions. We should be the very last ones, 
 either by word or act, to discourage this folly, but should do all in our 
 power to encourage and perpetuate the delusion. We should accept the 
 situation they force upon us with the same good grace, and with much the 
 same ultimate result as did the fabled legal gentleman, who passed the 
 shells to the contestants, and himself swallowed the oyster. Few of us 
 realize or appreciate the limitless wealth there is in our mines, if the markets 
 of the world are not disturbed in their demand for the product. Our mining 
 schools are just beginning to send out their young men, clothed with all 
 the accumulated knowledge of the present day, and their influence upon 
 the amount and cost of production will be felt more and more in a geo- 
 metrically increasing ratio year by year. New fields are being opened 
 almost every day, and more capital and better machinery being employed. 
 The future of our mineral productions is such, in a commercial point of 
 view, that we cannot as a Nation, afford even in seeming to discredit its 
 value. The other nations of the earth will find out the truth all too soon 
 and the time will come, as surely as the sun continues to rise and set upon 
 a progressive world, when we can get all the gold we want from the accu- 
 mulations of the earth much cheaper than its present value as currency. 
 Our present duty, then, in a commercial point of view, is clearly to main- 
 tain, by all our power and legislation, the extreme value and production of 
 our mines, and to pour it into the lap of an eager world, to the full extent 
 of our ability. Give it to them in sheets, in bars, in ingots or in coin, 
 wrought or unwrought, just as they want to and are able to pay for it. 
 
 We have but one thing to see to, that they do not in the future, as in 
 the past, get the advantage of us in the exchange. We have heretofore 
 been the veriest weaklings in their hands. They have taken all we had 
 and given us literally nothing in return. They have persuaded us that we 
 better let the coal and iron lie untouched in our hills, and have generously 
 sent us theirs. They have persuaded us that we better not destroy the 
 romance and beauty of our waterfalls by erecting factories upon them, 
 that they would weave and spin our cotton and wool. They have taken 
 our gold and silver and persuaded us that jack-knives, ribbons and wines 
 were an equivalent. They have done unto us, and there is a poetic but 
 bitter justice in the fact, as we did unto the poor Indian, giving beads, 
 trinkets and whiskey for skins, pelts and valuable lands. But this is not 
 all, nor the worst. We have given them something far more valuable 
 than our iron and coal, or our silver and gold. After getting everything 
 else we had that they wanted, they have persuaded us to give them our 
 name written on a piece of paper; they have got our "Rags." Yes, gentle- 
 men, they have got our "Rag Baby," and it is sucking all the milk out of 
 us clear across the oceans that lie between us. They have bought our 
 "Rag Baby," and we must buy it back or die. We want our rags, rags that 
 we want, and we ask for nothing else. I say nothing else, for enough 
 for the day is the evil thereof; but the time may come when we shall want 
 something else, and that is their rags. The day may come when this 
 pendulum of National indebtedness shall swing the other way, when they 
 will be sending us the fruits of the sweat of their brows, to pay us the 
 interest on their bonds, and when instead of our being their hewers of wood 
 and drawers of water, they will be ours. 
 
 23 
 
My second reolution was: 
 
 WHEREAS, The prosperity and progress of our country depends 
 almost wholly upon the value and amount of its circulating medium; and 
 
 WHEREAS, The amount of gold in the world is entirely inadequate 
 to the needs of the country as a circulating medium; therefore, 
 
 Resolved, That we need a paper currency of as large a volume as can 
 be maintained equal to gold, and that its conversion into gold must be 
 from intrinsic worth, and voluntary, and not compulsory. 
 
 It is a fact apparent to all, that prosperity and progress walk hand in 
 hand with an abundant currency. The evils that arise in seasons of abun- 
 dant currency are due either to its accompanying instability and depre- 
 ciation below an acknowledged National standard and consequent distur- 
 bance of relative values, or to its want of adaptability in volume, and of 
 ultimate security. Its benefits are real and immediate, its evils are an- 
 ticipated and remote. To get rid of its ultimate evils, we have only to 
 make its present benefit a continuous one. For seasons of prosperity under 
 an abundant currency we can find examples all through history, but need 
 only to go to our own War of the Rebellion, when, and succeeding which, 
 an unexampled state of commercial prosperity existed. I am aware that 
 it is claimed that this state of prosperity was an apparent and not a real 
 one, that it was caused by our running into debt and spending the money. 
 Even were this so, it only confirms the position that we were prosperous 
 while the currency was abundant, and the reverse when the currency was 
 depleted. I do not think, however, that the claim that we were pros- 
 pering because we were running in debt and spending the money, can be 
 maintained. The end attained by the war was certainly a real and lasting 
 benefit, and worth all it cost. The improvements made in railroads, 
 buildings and machinery, are certainly real benefits, and the evil is that 
 we do not or cannot use them. Our bonds are the spent money of the war, 
 and they are certainly not a loss, being worth more than their face in gold. 
 The running in debt is not of itself a necessary evil, but it is the wisdom 
 or folly of a debt that determines its character. If an individual borrows 
 at 5 per cent and lends at 6 per cent, he can stand it; but if he borrows at 
 6 and lends at 5 he cannot stand it so well. A debt is therefore measured 
 by wisdom in its creation and rate of interest, and not by its existence alone. 
 No one doubts the wisdom of our expenditures for the suppression of the 
 Rebellion, unless it is the rebels themselves, if there are any left. We pros- 
 pered then, in spite of the waste and loss of war, because our whole people 
 were occupied. We were employed in earnest and useful work, and had a 
 good paymaster, who had currency enough to meet the wants of the time. 
 If we prospered then, in spite of the waste of war, how much more ought 
 we to have prospered afterwards, with that waste ended, and aii this labor 
 turned into channels of peace and progress? I contend that this might 
 have been soon, that from that day to this there might and ought to have 
 been an increasing state of prosperity and progress; that all the energies 
 brought out, and knowledge acquired by the war cloud, ought to have 
 been utilized, and not cast aside and trampled under foot. Our only 
 suffering from the war, aside from its actual waste of life and property, 
 has arisen from our want of appreciation, that it brought into existence 
 a state of things that could have been advantageously used, instead of 
 disastrously, dis and misused. The abundent currency on which that 
 prosperity was built, instead of being utilized and made the basis of a still 
 greater prosperity and progress, has been persistently fought and depre- 
 
 24 
 
dated. We have, by wrong legislation, deprived it of a part of its value, 
 and then made a bad matter still worse by making less of it. Our first 
 effort should have been to make it the equal of the best currency on earth, 
 and then to let the people have all they could use and keep it at that value. 
 Forced or compulsory conversion of one circulating medium into another 
 should be based on the fact that the quantities of the two were equal. 
 If there is a preponderance of one over the other, then a compulsory law 
 of exchange is a fraud upon its face, and must lead to evil results. It is 
 not possible to enact a law contrary to the laws of God and truth, and have 
 it lead to other than human disaster. All specie resumption laws say 
 virtually, that two and two shall be twenty, instead of four. 
 
 If I am correct, we here in a few words have a solution, and a remedy. 
 It seems to me that but few even of the friends of the inter-convertible 
 bond and greenback plan, fully realize its grandeur and anticipate its 
 far-reaching affects for good. Standing alone in its majesty, it is almost 
 the summum bonum of human financial wisdom. It takes every man, 
 woman and child, who lives under the protecting folds of our flag, the 
 indorsers of the currency that every other man, woman and child, owns, 
 and holds every item of property over which the American eagle floats, 
 as a sacred pledge for its payment. It gives every man, woman and child 
 who owns a current note, a voice in determining just how many, and how 
 few of them shall exist. 
 
 The holy tie that binds every true man to his country, is strengthened 
 and supplemented, and linked in with the universal love of gain, which 
 is the ground of all progress. Your home, your business, your civilization, 
 your country are indissolubly linked together, by a combination of all 
 the ties which influence human hearts and lives. Here strangers are 
 made acquainted, and foes are made friends. A blow struck at an enemy 
 wounds yourself. If you would escape an obligation to your neighbor, 
 you injure your own wife and children. "Tis here that God and Mammon 
 meet, and in serving the one you glorify the other. What is our National 
 Debt? It is stored up service which we have performed for our children's 
 children for all time, as we hope and believe. They, though yet unborn, 
 demand of us this service, and we performed it well and have been richly 
 repaid. Three thousand million of dollars they gave us grudgingly for this 
 service, and pledged us their faith and labor for its payment, and their 
 pledge is better today than snowy silver, or yellow gold. What are we 
 doing with this their benefaction? With childish folly we first permitted 
 our shrewd brothers across the ocean to get it away from us, and then with 
 a generosity exceeding a parent's love, we are forgiving them the debt. We 
 are following the example of the senile, who robs himself and dame of 
 bread, to give his infant grandchild an unasked toy. In ten years we 
 have paid one-third of the debt; paid a thousand millions of dollars that 
 the present generation did not owe, and in doing so have reduced our- 
 selves to bankruptcy, beggary, idleness and want. The Secretary of the 
 Treasury monthly rings out the "reduction of the National Debt", think- 
 ing, in his sheltered and innocent simplicity, that he is sounding a marriage 
 peal, when alas! alas! it is a funeral dirge. Shall we never learn that a 
 financial and political truth can no more be falsified with impunity than a 
 natural one? I fear not except through suffering, but hope the past decade 
 of declining prosperity, ending in the present slough of commercial despair 
 will have been sufficient. 
 
 This proposition is, I believe, almost a cure-all of these evils, and 
 that in adopting it, we shall be building better than we know. 
 
 25 
 
1st. Will it make our currency equal to gold? 
 
 Take the two forms of indebtedness, a 6 per cent bond and a greenback 
 and compare them. They are both equally an indebtedness of the Nation, 
 and neither have any precedence of the other in obligation or security 
 and neither will any more surely be paid than the other. One of these, we 
 find, is worth 107 cents on the dollar in gold, and the other 87 cents. Here 
 is a difference of 20 cents on a dollar in their value, and why? It is not 
 from their quantity, as their combined amount is in any case the same. 
 It is clearly, then, on account of their quality, and nothing else. Now 
 suppose the Government should determine all at once to treat the green- 
 back debtor the same as the bond debtor, what would be the effect? It 
 could not lower the value of the bond, because its value is now fixed by its 
 quality alone. There can be no escape from the fact that it would at once 
 raise the value of the greenback to the equal of the bond. We have here 
 an absolute surety that conversion into an interest paying bond would 
 bring up the value of the greenback to that of the bond, but we have an- 
 other proof and existing exemplification of it. 
 
 We have two kinds of currency, greenbacks and National Bank notes, 
 and in the hands of the people they are of equal value, because inter- 
 convertible, the one into the other; but, mark me, in the hands of a few, 
 they are not of equal value; in the hands of the National Banks; the- 
 National Bank notes are worth 107 cents on the dollar in gold, and why? 
 Because they can exchange them for 6 per cent bonds! It cannot be 
 claimed that this illustration is not a fair one, because the National Banks 
 had first deposited the bonds. The same would be true of the people 
 under the interconvertible plan. It is a possible conversion into an interest- 
 bearing bond that gives them the value of gold. In this supposed case, 
 the value is higher than gold, because of the high rate of interest. It is 
 clear that it would approximate gold in value, as the rate was lowered, 
 and the exact rate where they would be equal, can only be approximately 
 determined, without experience. From all known data, it could not vary 
 essentially from 3-65 100 per cent. 
 
 This possible conversion into an interest bearing bond is an act of 
 justice to the people on which we cannot speak too strongly. It is as 
 sacred a debt as any the Government owes, and it has no more moral 
 right than an individual to make distinctions in its creditors. It is a piece 
 of gross injustice, and its legitimate fruit is the depreciation of the currency. 
 
 2. Would this wisely regulate the volume of currency? I answer 
 unhesitatingly that it would do so as unerringly and wisely as the governor 
 regulates the speed and power of the engine. It could not vary in the 
 slightest degree either in amount or time. If there is more currency today 
 that can find employment at a reasonably greater profit than the rate of 
 interest on the bonds, then to-morrow that surplus currency is swallowed 
 up in the bonds. If the next day the legitimate demands of borrowers 
 for trade or manufacture carry the rate reasonably above the rate of in- 
 terest on the bonds, then the next day after the currency is out again. 
 The principle is -right and the result is unerring. It has its foundation 
 in the inflexible laws of God and of human nature and cannot fail. The 
 value and volume depend upon each other and each are assured beyond 
 contingency. The whole people govern it and no man, or one set of men, 
 can materially alter the result. If the people think they can better prosper 
 by having their whole debt in a bond, the rate of interest on which makes 
 it just the equivalent of gold, it is their right to so have it. 
 
 26 
 
While the world goes along quietly in the belief that this amendment 
 has been accepted by God, all is serene; but when some doubter comes 
 up, as they always do, then disaster must come: It is inevitable. You 
 are every one doubtless familiar with the entire insufficiency of the volume 
 of gold in the world, to serve as its circulating medium, and I will only 
 cite a few facts and contrasts. 
 
 There is in the entire world, as gathered from the most reliable authori- 
 ties, about 5,600 millions of gold. This is scattered everywhere, and each 
 country has but a limited portion of it. England is on a legal specie basis 
 and all loanable capital there is supposed to be immediately convertible 
 into gold. There is there, as stated by the best authorities, about 5,000 
 millions of loanable capital, or nearly as much as there is of gold in the 
 entire world. The owners of that 5,000 millions capital are legally entitled 
 to call for gold, and you can imagine the result, if they should do so. Such 
 a law is a fraud and a breader of panics, convulsions and commercial dis- 
 asters. 
 
 Take another fact to show, not only the utter insufficiency of gold, 
 but to show the further fact, or how little importance that insufficiency is, 
 and how we ignore it in our estimate of values. 
 
 The total amount of the indebtedness of the principal nations of the 
 earth is at the present time about 27,000 millions of dollars, all payable 
 in gold; or five times the amount of gold there is in the world. Suppose 
 for a moment that the owners of the 5,000 millions of loanable capital of 
 England should call for their gold, and get it as English law is said to 
 be very potent then what are the owners of 27,000 millions of bonds 
 going to do? There is not a cent on a dollar left for them; and yet, in the 
 face of this well known fact, these bonds are to a great extent worth their 
 face and upwards in gold, There is no law for their demand payment, 
 and the fact that there is not a cent on the dollar for their final payment, 
 is not of the slightest moment. Being all payable in the same material 
 they are all on the same footing. The holders will never want them paid, 
 and if the givers wish and are able to pay them, they have time to absorb 
 them in taxes, and pay them in something besides gold. 
 
 If a currency is equal to gold from its intrinsic worth, then its demand 
 conversion is a financial axiom, and no harmful and fraudulent legal enact- 
 ment is necessary to enable the holder to make the conversion at will. 
 
 Where a useful thing is scarce in nature, its value is legitimately 
 affected by that fact, but to endeavor to enhance the value of anything 
 by making it scarce is always a measure of at least doubtful propriety. 
 
 Greenbacks are either good or bad. If good, they can and ought to 
 be maintained at par with gold to an amount optional with the people 
 using them. If they are bad they should be done away with entirely, for 
 we are no beggars in the family of nations, to accept and hold a currency 
 of less value than theirs. Thus far in our career as a Nation have we stood 
 well up, advancing every year with firm and steady step to the extreme 
 front. Thus far have we been a beacon light of freedom to the oppressed 
 nations of the earth, and human liberty has taken firm root in the world 
 from our example. Thus far have we borne the burdens almost of Christen- 
 dom. From the days that Spain welcomed back Columbus to her shores, 
 down to the present year of grace, has the wealth of America in every form 
 spread over Europe. England would have been little better than a pauper 
 to-day, but for the boundless wealth of America, that has been showered 
 upon her. If Europe's masses are hungry, our bread floats over the ocean 
 
 27 
 
to them, almost before the twinge of pain reaches their little ones. If 
 England's poor are idle, we have hired them to do our work and let our 
 own people stand and rest. If the hordes of Asia multiply faster than 
 food and clothing, hither do they come in tawny troops and find enough 
 and to spare. The young giant America is bound yet to be the Atlas of 
 fable and bear the round world upon his shoulders. It is not necessary 
 for us to say to our farmers, "You must not make two blades of grass grow 
 where one grew before," lest its value be decreased. It is not necessary for 
 us to tell our young men they shall not be taught, lest the market be glutted 
 with knowledge. It is not necessary for us to permit our currency, the 
 mere tool in our hands, to remain of doubtful value, or to be doled out by 
 arbitrary rules made as long ago as were the laws of the Medes or Persians; 
 ours is a newer and fresher civilization. It is the life of today and the 
 future, and not of yesterday and the past. We are working out the problem 
 in our own time and in our own way, and let us see to it that in finances 
 and progress, as well as in everything else, it is a "Government of the 
 People, for the People and by the People." 
 
 My third resolution is : 
 
 Resolved, That the way to attain the inestimable benefits of a cir- 
 culating medium equal to gold, and of a volume adequate and adapted to 
 the needs of trade and progress, is to have an exclusive Government currency 
 based on its indebtedness, receivable for all its dues and interconvertible 
 at the will of the holder with its low interest-bearing bonds, principal and 
 interest, payable in gold or its equivalent. 
 
 If they think they can use 500 millions or 1,000 millions, or the whole 
 debt, to a greater profit and advantage in the way of trade and manufacture, 
 than to let it remain stored up in bonds, that also is their right, and should 
 be their privilege. To attempt to keep the people in leading strings, and 
 within set and rigid bounds, in the matter of currency, is as absurd and 
 harmful as for a railroad to say that just so many cars shall do the business 
 of one road, or for a city or state to prescribe rigid rules of settlement. 
 Give the people only opportunity, and their will and energy will do the rest. 
 
 Should our congress enact this interconvertible law, it would go far 
 to nullify that impossible and most unwise, if not criminal, of late enact- 
 ments, the co-called specie resumption act. Only give the people the 
 option to have no currency at all, or to have all they could keep equal to 
 gold, and the magic wand would have touched our nation. She would 
 rise from her lethargy and distress, and stretch her giant, though yet 
 undeveloped limbs, as no nation on earth ever did before. Gold would 
 come up from her iron and coal mines, and from her cotton and wheat 
 fields. It would pour out of her mountains and forests and would roll 
 down her water courses. From the laborer's sinews to the scholar's brain, 
 every power and talent would be convertible and interconvertible at 
 will into the coin of the realm. Then would the good man's brow be 
 smoothed, and his good wife's table be spread. Then would the sorrowful 
 steps of the returning emigrant be arrested and turned hitherward again, 
 and those of his brethern again started to join him. Then should we find 
 for a certainty, that for the present, in America at least, under-consumption 
 is a more real and to be dreaded evil than over-production, whatever else 
 we may want in the future; and whatever other issues may arise, whether 
 you be Democrat or Republican, remember that the Nation's progress and 
 prosperity is of the first importance and that the sure and only road to 
 that is money. Let our motto be, "Good as Gold," and plenty of it. 
 
Early in 1876 a Greenback Club was organized in 
 Milwaukee. George Burnham, a prominent and wealthy 
 brick manufacturer, was made its President, and other men 
 of prominence were members. One of the first to receive 
 an invitation to address this club was Mr. Allis, and he was 
 soon followed by Judge Harlow S. Orton. 
 
 Mr. Allis's address was copied and favorably commented 
 upon in various directions outside of Wisconsin. A. R. 
 Anthony, for example, who was one of the local figures in 
 the early Abolition struggle in Kansas, a brother of Susan B. 
 Anthony, the woman's suffrage leader, copied it in his daily 
 paper, the Leavenworth Times, and the Winchester Illinois 
 Independent, a weekly, the Iron Age of Chicago, an im- 
 portant iron trade journal, and others, reprinted and dis- 
 cussed it. 
 
 Early in February, the 16th, the Washington corres- 
 pondence of the Chicago Tribune said that "Soft money" 
 Republicans at the capitol had predicted four presidential 
 candidates, a hard and a soft money candidate for each party. 
 
 The Wisconsin Republicans, under pressure from the 
 conservative German voters, made an effort to stand up 
 against the rising demand for an inflated currency, though 
 not a very vigorous one. On the 22nd of February 1876, the 
 State Convention adopted a platform in which is the follow- 
 ing paragraph: 
 
 We believe in Honest Money. That the currency of the Nation 
 should, as soon as consistent with business interests and safety, be made 
 equal to gold, and until that time should continue as a legal tender. 
 
 The Greenback propaganda was now well in progress 
 in Wisconsin. 
 
I 
 
 Organizing Wisconsin 
 
 CHAPTER FOUR. 
 
 N the exercise of the discretion with which it had been 
 invested by the meeting of January 18th, 1876, the 
 State Committee called a second meeting at Madison 
 on the 10th of May of that year. 
 
 This meeting was described in the Milwaukee Sentinel 
 as "a flat failure," with "only a dozen present," but it chose 
 a full delegation of twenty men to attend the National 
 Convention called to meet at Indianapolis, Ind., on the 17th 
 of May. The delegates-at-large selected, were; J. H. 
 Osborne, E. P. Allis, Judge Harlow S. Orton, and William 
 Orledge. An Electoral Ticket was also named, headed by 
 William Orledge of Kenosha, and G. W. Lee of Grant county, 
 as electors at large. A State Central Committee was named, 
 as follows: 
 
 At Large, Wm. Orledge, 
 
 1st District, G. O. West, of Walworth, 
 
 2nd District, H. S. Orton, of Dane, 
 
 3rd District, G. W. Lee, of Grant, 
 
 4th District, A. N. Horner, of Milwaukee, 
 
 5th District, E. N. McGraw, of Sheboygan, 
 
 6th District, G. H. Foster, of Winnebago, 
 
 7th District, E. S. Miner, of Juneau. 
 
 There was no state election held in that year. 
 
 The campaign developed some discussion through the 
 newspapers but the nominees of the "Independent National 
 Party," as it was named at Indianapolis, got few votes in 
 Wisconsin. McKee's publication, "National Conventions 
 and Platforms," shows that the nominees for President and 
 
 so 
 
Vice President, Peter Cooper of New York, and Samuel F. 
 Gary of Ohio, got but 81,740 votes in the entire nation and 
 but 1509 in the state of Wisconsin. But the Greenback 
 Party was launched and the controversy that ended in giving 
 the presidency to Hayes, through the extra-constitutional 
 Electoral Commission, did not allay the prevailing political 
 uneasiness or settle the financial difficulties. The Green- 
 backers argued that these difficulties were due to the mis- 
 taken financial policy of the Republican Party and the 
 nearer drew the date fixed for specie resumption, the more 
 men there were who thought the financial stringency and 
 business depression due entirely to this impending calamity. 
 
 In advance of the State conventions of 1877, there was 
 
 freat discussion of financial subjects throughout the country, 
 t was confined to no political party, and struck terror to 
 the hearts of all the old political managers. 
 
 What was true generally, was true locally, in Wisconsin. 
 The Republican leaders, especially those in Congress seeking 
 re-election, and those ambitious for places on the State 
 Tickets, were on the verge of a stampede to the Greenbackers. 
 This sentiment, and the elements behind it, are well de- J 
 picted in a Wisconsin dispatch that appeared in the Chicago 
 Tribune of September 10, 1877, on the eve of the Republican 
 State Convention. It was as follows: 
 
 WISCONSIN. 
 MEETING OF THE REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION. 
 
 (Special Correspondence of the Tribune, Chicago) 
 THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 
 
 The most serious question that confronts the Republican Party of 
 Wisconsin today, is the currency, and with that the Convention will be 
 expected to deal Tuesday. Not only is the financial subject one of vital 
 and intensely practical importance to all classes of people on its own account, 
 but other circumstances that have transpired in this State tend to make 
 it more difficult of solution, and more delicate to handle. There is already 
 a Greenback Ticket in the field, with all that the name implies, headed by 
 E. P. Allis, of this city, for Governor, who is already on the stump, assisted 
 by many other good speakers, and clubs are being rapidly formed and 
 campaign papers are springing up in his favor. Mr. Allis is a first class 
 man every way, of high social disposition, a graduate of *Yale, and well 
 and favorably known as a business man throughout the Northwest. What 
 Macaulay once said of Pitt, that "He chose his side like a fanatic, and 
 then defended it like a philosopher," may be true of Allis, for without 
 
 *Error, Union College. 
 
 31 
 
saying that he has chosen his side like a fanatic, he certainly defends his 
 position with a great deal of skill and ability. He has been an active and 
 consistent Republican until now, and it is thought by many shrewd ob- 
 servers that his vote will astonish everyone. So the Republicans must 
 place themselves in a position to hold some of the vote that has been so 
 seriously affected by the Greenback theory, or their ticket, no matter how 
 good it may be personally, will be in iminent danger of defeat at the polls, 
 because Allis's vote will be drawn much more largely from the Republicans 
 than from the Democrats. If the Convention Tuesday will have the 
 courage to declare in favor of the repeal of the resumption act, of the 
 restoration of the silver dollar, and in favor of a convertible bond drawing 
 a low rate of interest, it would cause Mr. Allis to withdraw, most likely, 
 and insure the success of the ticket. The Democratic State Convention 
 is sure to do just this, or at least to incorporate enough glittering general- 
 ities into their platform upon the subject of finance to hold their votes 
 from supporting the Greenback candidate. 
 
 This situation, locally, is well described by A. M. Thomp- 
 son, in his Political History of Wisconsin. Mr. Thompson 
 had been the editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, and was, at 
 this time, a Republican of wide acquaintance and influence. 
 His statements reflect the conditions of the time as seen 
 through Republican eyes. He says: 
 
 The Greenback craze had become epidemic among a certain class. 
 Specie payments had been suspended at the outbreak of the Rebellion, and 
 a law had been passed by Congress fixing the first day of January 1879, 
 as the time when the nation would resume coin payments. There was a 
 widespread belief among many timid people, and especially among busi- 
 ness men, that the attempt to resume would ignominiously fail; that there 
 was not gold enough in the country to justify the experiment, and some 
 boards of trade and some political conventions demanded that the law be 
 repealed, and that resumption should be deferred until the country was in 
 better condition to stand the change. 
 
 The Greenback heresy was not confined to the Democratic and Social- 
 istic Parties, it had permeated the Republican masses as well, and many 
 men voted the straight Republican Ticket while they believed that the 
 Soft Money theories of their opponents were more than half right; without 
 the greenback the great Rebellion could not have been crushed; the soldiers 
 were paid with them, and they had a fondness for that kind of currency. 
 
 The Republican State Convention, which met September 11, 1877, 
 was influenced by the fear that if it put forth a truly Sound Money platform 
 it would have a disastrous effect upon the result, and it prevaricated and 
 dodged. Its utterance on the money question was hypocritical; the voice 
 was Jacob's voice, but the hands were the hands of Esau. Disguising its 
 real position the Convention spoke with a double tongue to the green- 
 backers, hoping to get their votes. It resolved, among other things, 
 "that we hold the silver dollar should be restored to its former place as 
 money and made legal tender in the payment of debts, except when other- 
 wise distinctly provided by law," etc. This was a virtual recognition of 
 the truth of the charge made by their opponents that a change had been 
 made in the status of the silver dollar, which, in the parlance of the day 
 was designated "The crime of 73." The Republicans had good reason to 
 
feel alarmed and it is no wonder the Convention wobbled. Many strong 
 men had gone out from their party, and allied themselves with parties 
 which boldly declared in favor of the inflationist idea. 
 
 The Republican Resolutions to which Mr. Thompson 
 refers, made the following cross-eyed declaration. 
 
 That we rejoice that the fidelity of the Republican Party in upholding 
 the National credit has brought our currency so near the point of resumption 
 of specie payment; we hold that the silver dollar should be restored to its 
 former place as money and made legal tender for the payment of debts, 
 except when otherwise distinctly provided by law, with coinage so regu- 
 lated as to maintain equality of value, preserve the harmonious circulation 
 of gold, silver and legal tender notes, as money. 
 
 In proof of Mr. Thompsons's statement that the alarm 
 was general, it is only necessary to quote the names of the 
 prominent men composing the Committee on Resolutions, 
 that reported the platform from which the above resolution 
 is taken. They were: 
 
 *At Large, Gen. Edwin E. Bryant, 
 
 1st District, B. B. Northrup, H. L. Dousman, 
 
 2nd District, James T. Lewis, George W. Burchard, 
 
 3rd District, John Luchsinger, W. B. Clark, 
 
 4th District, Angus Smith, Florian J. Ries, 
 
 5th District, Thos. W. Spence, A. D. Jones, 
 
 6th District, Gen. Thos. S. Allen, C. E. Crane, 
 
 7th District, John C. Spooner, A. Finklenberg, 
 
 8th District, Thajd^CJound, Charles M. Webb, 
 
 Many of these were men of more than local prominence. 
 James T. Lewis was a former Governor. Gen. "Tom" 
 Allen was one of the proprietors of the Oshkosh North- 
 western and a veteran of the famous "Iron Brigade." 
 / Thad. C. Pound had been Lieutenant Governor and was 
 / "elected to Congress that fall. George W. Burchard was, 
 r jater, Adjutant General under Governor Hoard. John C. 
 Spooner became United States Senator. Charles M. Webb 
 has, for many years, been Judge of the Seventh Circuit, 
 and the others were all men of local importance. This 
 Committee, too, was quite typical of the entire convention. 
 W. T. Price, J. V. Quarles. J. M. Rusk, H. A. Taylor, 
 Charles Ray, G. Van Steenwyk and dozens of names of 
 equally prominent politicians, bankers and business men 
 are to be found in the roll of that convention. 
 
 Serious rumblings of discontent were soon heard, and 
 Horace Rublee, Chairman of the Republican State Central 
 Committee, immediately took heroic measures. He ar- 
 
 *From the Madison State Journal, Sept. 11, 1877. 
 
 33 
 
ranged a ratification meeting in Milwaukee, which was 
 attended by all the candidates on the Republican State 
 Ticket and by leading Republican business men, especially 
 marshalled for the occasion, from all parts of Wisconsin. 
 At this meeting the Convention Platform was repudiated 
 and a new set of resolutions adopted, of which the following, 
 tart one, is a sample: 
 
 We denounce as dangerous, delusive and disreputable all schemes 
 and devices affecting the financial policy of the Government that do not 
 contemplate the honest payment of the public debt and the speedy attain- 
 ment of a currency on a gold basis. 
 
 It is doubtful if there is another case on record, certainly 
 there is none in Wisconsin political annals, where a mass 
 meeting repudiated and trampled upon the platform of the 
 regularly constituted convention of a party, and then 
 marched on to victory. 
 
 There certainly was Republican alarm to call for such 
 drastic measures. It was not far to seek. Mr. Thompson 
 explains it. 
 
 A State Convention of the Middle-of-the-Road Greenbackers had been 
 held in Portage City, July 4, of that year, and nominated a full Ticket for 
 State Officers, with Edward P. Allis of Milwaukee, a great manufacturer 
 and able man, as the candidate for Governor. Mr. Allis accepted the 
 nomination in a well-prepared and elaborate speech in which he extolled 
 the greenback for the efficienct service it had rendered the people of the 
 United States in their hour of peril, and declared that it had still other 
 triumphs to achieve in the currency of the country. 
 
 The Portage Convention knew what it wanted and said it 
 in most explicit and unmistakable language. It resolved: 
 
 We deemed the immediate repeal of the specie resumption act of 
 January 12, 1875, the rescue of our industries from the disasters and ruin 
 resulting from its enforcement, and the arrest of the suicidal and destructive 
 policy of contraction. 
 
 We declare that it is the exclusive function of the Government to 
 supply a currency for the people, and that such currency, whether paper 
 or metal, should be issued by and bear the stamp of the Federal Government. 
 
 We believe that paper money, issued by the Government, and made 
 * legal tender * * and interconvertible with bonds * * will 
 afford the best circulating medium ever devised. 
 
 Mr. Thompson's high estimate of Mr. Allis explains the 
 secret of much of this Republican alarm and is worthy of 
 repetition in this connection. 
 
 * he started in the iron business, and laid the foundation of one 
 of the largest establishments of the kind in the United States, giving con- 
 stant employment to 1800 men, and sending his manufactured goods to 
 all parts of the world. As the head of a great business he had the rare 
 
 34 
 
and imperial power of marshalling and controlling his business with great 
 firmness and quick decisiveness that never for a moment permitted the 
 business to be the master. His quickness of thought and action has often 
 been remarked. While others were planning, he had planned and was 
 executing. 
 
 He was noted for the liberality with which he treated his employees 
 and the men in his employ were strongly attached to him. His well- 
 known deep sympathy with the laboring men secured him many votes 
 for Governor from men who had no patience with his erratic theories on 
 finance. 
 
 The Democratic State Convention also showed alarm 
 and it adopted what was virtually a Greenback Platform, 
 of which Gen. Edward S. Bragg, then a member of Congress, 
 was the author. The convention was held in General 
 Bragg's home city, and the platform entered into history 
 as the "Fond du Lac Platform." 
 
 General Bragg told me many years afterward, that he was 
 entirely sincere in the fear that "forced resumption," as it 
 was then called, would be fraught with great industrial and 
 financial perils. He found that feeling very general in 
 Washington and throughout the entire East. 
 
 Upon this platform the Democrats nominated, for 
 Governor, Judge James A. Mallory, who had, a month 
 earlier, been a Delegate in the Greenback Convention that 
 nominated Mr. Allis, and had himself been spoken of for the 
 Greenback nomination. This program was designed to 
 promote a division of Greenback strength, and the Demo- 
 crats who favored it vainly hoped to gain by it, but in this 
 they were grievously disappointed, which is the usual 
 result of any attempt of a political party to straddle upon a 
 vital proposition. It is an invariable rule in politics, that 
 the larger political organization loses more than it gains by 
 attempting fusion with other incongruous political elements. 
 
 The Socialist Democrats made their entrance into State 
 politics, in this year, and they, too, endorsed the Greenback 
 idea, but they cut no figure in the result. It was the Repub- 
 lican Party against the field, and the outcome made it quite 
 clear that a majority of the votes of the State were arrayed, 
 in their opinions on financial questions, against the dominant 
 party, but they were so divided through past political 
 associations, and so kept apart by former politcal prejudices 
 as to be ineffective. The Republican candidate for Gover- 
 nor, William E. Smith, was elected by what was then a 
 narrow plurality of 8,273, and the combined Democratic 
 
 35 
 
and Greenback vote was 18,416 greater than the total 
 Republican vote polled. The Republicans, by their ultra 
 stand against greenbacks and in favor of the resumption of 
 specie payments, drew the German vote, then a large 
 political factor in Wisconsin, in both parties, almost solidly 
 to the Republican Ticket. 
 
 The report was current at the time Mr. Allis accepted 
 the Greenback nomination, that he had promise of the 
 Democratic endorsement from Milwaukee Democrats of 
 prominence, but they could not deliver the goods. Had he 
 received it the result might, possibly, have been more 
 doubtful. But the Republicans would have been thoroughly 
 frightened, and the probabilities would still have been 
 against his election, as he would, no doubt, have lost many 
 Democratic votes to the Republicans, who as it was, stuck to 
 their own party ticket, although they disagreed with the 
 Democratic Platform. 
 
 36 
 
Mr. Allis Nominated for Governor 
 
 CHAPTER FIVE. 
 
 DURING the last months of 1876 the long financial 
 stringency that had followed the panic of 1873, 
 carried down many large commercial and manu- 
 facturing enterprises. In Milwaukee the great 
 hardware house of John Nazro, was ruined, and E. P. Allis 
 & Co., were forced to compound with their creditors. Natu- 
 rally, Mr. Allis's old Republican associates were inclined to 
 point to his financial troubles as evidence that his political 
 judgment was warped by his misfortunes. Later on, when 
 a candidate for Governor, he was occasionally attacked by 
 the opposition press with the charge of insincerity and a 
 desire to further his own interests through his Greenback 
 politics. This was, perhaps, legitimate campaign material 
 for his opponents, but it was notable, that most of them, 
 especially in their speeches and newspapers, recognizing his 
 large calibre, high character, and important influence, 
 treated him with great respect. This was, perhaps, more 
 unusual then than it would be today, although we now hear 
 "muck-raking" denounced, but then political newspapers 
 still reflected, in their personalities, the deep and bitter 
 intensities of feeling and expression developed by the 
 excitements of Civil War. 
 
 It was a recognition of this high standing which helped 
 force upon Mr. Allis political leadership in the newly organ- 
 ized party, and his acceptance of the burden was evidence 
 of his sincerity and courage. While his opponents were 
 respectful, his own party associates, including the voting 
 rank and file, were deeply impressed with appreciation of 
 his value to their cause, and the feeling still remains among 
 
 37 
 
the survivors of the Greenback campaigns. It was 
 briefly yet comprehensively expressed in a private letter to 
 the writer,* recently received, from S. F. Norton, of Chicago, 
 who in the seventies edited the Chicago Sentinel, one of the 
 important Greenback newspapers of the West. Mr. Norton 
 writes: "Mr. Allis was one of the best and noblest men I 
 ever knew." In this quite unusual way he was, and is, 
 spoken of by those who met him in the councils of the Green- 
 back Party. He was not "a good fellow," with the doubtful 
 suggestions of that too often dubious compliment. He was 
 an earnest, rather reserved, taciturn man, of patriotic pur- 
 poses and clean methods, who was ready to do his part, 
 sturdily for a cause in which he believed. 
 
 Mr. Allis's speech in 1876 had called forth many rejoin- 
 ders from Republican sources. From the first although 
 George Easterly, a large manufacturer of agricultural im- 
 plements, at Whitewater, was a prominent pamphleteer and 
 newspaper contributor, and President Steele, of Lawrence 
 University and others were pressing the Greenback idea 
 upon public attention in Wisconsin, Mr. Allis was treated 
 by opponents of the doctrine as the fore front of the agitation 
 in this State. 
 
 The only other Wisconsin man, who seems to have made 
 a permanent impression with his Greenback arguments, was 
 President Steele, whose fpamphlet "The Currency Question," 
 which appeared in 1876, is still referred to as one of the more 
 conservative expressions on that side of the question. 
 
 President Steele's pamphlet is an elaborate argument 
 for unlimited paper, rather than a gold currency, with a 
 commodity as its basis which would be liable to market 
 fluctuations, while paper would furnish a purely token 
 currency. He follows in the pathway of all his predecessors, 
 and states the argument for an interconvertible bond, but 
 he does not give it unqualified endorsement, as do some of 
 his compeers. He declined to accept Edward Kellogg's 
 plan as an infallible cure. He was less cock-sure than some 
 of his contemporaries, for he said: 
 
 I am not absolutely clear as to the success of this plan. It is untried, 
 and we know not what difficulties it may involve in practice. But I see 
 no reason why it would not be safe, and, at least, vastly superior to any 
 system heretofore prevailing. 
 
 *1909. 
 
 tThe Encyclopedia of Social Reform, Wm. B. P. Bliss, editor, 1908, 
 p. 563. See also Appendix No. 1. 
 
 38 
 
Early in the year 1877, Mr. Allis was found publicly 
 defending his faith in a letter addressed to The Milwaukee 
 Sentinel, which exhibits the character of his reasoning and 
 the depth of his feeling at that time. After saying that the 
 Republican policy was filling the land "with idle industries, 
 with bankrupts, tramps and beggars," he closes as follows: 
 
 Speak as highly as you will of the Republican Party and the glorious 
 work it did, and give full meed of praise to Grant's administration, but 
 tread lightly upon its financial policy, while the country is strewed with 
 its wrecks. 
 
 When the spring of 1877 opened, the Greenback Party of 
 Wisconsin was alert early, and the leaders were, evidently, 
 in close touch with those of other states, and in high stand- 
 ing in the National councils of the party. 
 
 The Milwaukee Sentinel of May 31st, 1877, editorially, 
 says that a number of Wisconsin Greenback men met at 
 Sparta, on the previous day and effected an organization 
 by appointing the following State Central Committee: 
 
 1st District, James Montgomery, of Rock, 
 
 2nd District, D. W. Dwight, of Dane, 
 
 3rd District, Geo. W. Lee, of Grant, 
 
 4th District, Geo. Godfrey, of Milwaukee, 
 
 5th District, E. H. Benton, of Fond du Lac, 
 
 6th District, S. S. Hills, of Waukesha, 
 
 7th District, Reuben May, of Vernon, 
 
 8th District, R. C. Lyon, of Wood. 
 
 The meeting recommended that a Convention be held at 
 Portage, on July 4th. This recommendation was, later, 
 carried out by the Committee and a Greenback State Con- 
 vention was called to meet in Portage on that date. This 
 was in response to a vigorous demand made through The 
 Greenbacker, a new weekly party organ, published at 
 Sparta, Monroe County, by Dr. J. Lamborn, who, later, 
 in conjunction with Col. George Godfrey, published two 
 editions, the second appearing under a Milwaukee date. 
 
 To this Convention Milwaukee sent the following quite 
 formidable delegation: 
 
 George Burnham, chairman, E. P. Allis, Geo. Godfrey, 
 C. P. Sherman, J. M. Binckley, G. P. Martin, T. H. Judd, 
 H. J. Hilbert, A. P. Martin, A. M. Helmer, Dr. C. O. Jenison, 
 C. L. Sholes, J. T. Gilbert, I. H. Stearns, C. Simonds, 
 Enoch Chase, J. A. Mallory, E. O. Meyer, W. G. Cutter, 
 S. A. Harrison, Timothy Dore, J. H. Scholl, R. W. Pierce, 
 John J. Orton, James Porter, Sherburn Bryant, William 
 Kennedy, Geo. B. Brigham, John Bentley. 
 
 39 
 
The Commercial Times says "a majority of the counties 
 of the State were represented." 
 
 The Milwaukee Sentinel of July 5, adds the following 
 names: 
 
 Among those present were noticed the following gentlemen: R. May, 
 of'Viroqua; Chas. F. Crosby, Wausau; F. G. Castle, Horicon; Geo. E. 
 Hungerford, Stevens Point; F. W. Maffit, Glendale; Rolla E. Noyes, D. E. 
 Morgan, A. W. Storm, Baraboo; (Dr.) G. R. Vincent, Tomah; P. S. Kil- 
 binnen, Sparta; Hon. Henry Hayden, Grand Rapids; R. C. Smith, New 
 Lisbon. 
 
 Col. Reuben May, a Vernon county farmer, was chosen 
 Chairman of the Convention, and John M. Binckley and 
 George Godfrey, both of Milwaukee, were Secretaries. 
 
 While the Committee on Credentials was engaged in its 
 duties Mr. Allis addressed the Convention. His opening 
 words explained that the State Central Committee, of which 
 he was a member, had "deemed it proper before proceeding 
 to the business of the Convention that one of their number 
 should address" it, "upon subjects pertinent" to the cause 
 and the business of the gathering. His opening sentences 
 are worthy of a place here, both for their literary style and 
 the frankness and independence which they exemplify. 
 He said: 
 
 There is one sentence in our language, Gentlemen that we are all 
 proud to repeat and which in its repetition ever sends a new thrill of grati- 
 tude and joy to our hearts. This expression is confined to no party, no 
 section, no sect, no color, and no sex. It clothes the beggar as gorgeously 
 as the millionaire, and it is as bright a halo upon the brow of him of low 
 estate as upon him who stands upon the pinnacle of fame. 
 
 Both the criminal and his judge bow to it with a common reverence, 
 and in it we all meet upon a common ground and are actuated by a common 
 impulse and a common desire. Personal aim, ambitions and feuds are 
 lost, and self is swallowed up. This one expression common to us all, 
 and expressive of the real unity of all is, "I am an American Citizen." 
 
 There is another and a newer expression in our language which may 
 at present be characterized as almost the converse of this. Like the for- 
 mer one, it knows no party, sect, color or sex, and adorns equally the brow 
 of both saint and sinner, but unlike the former, it is not now a crown of 
 glory upon the head, and its repetition does not now fill us with joy un- 
 speakable. With a frown are we apt to hear it spoken, and with a blush 
 meet its application to ourselves. Alas, that is so, but the good and timid 
 Peter who denied his master thrice before the cock crew, is but a prototype 
 of our present people. Would you know what this expression is, that even 
 in the absence of guilt is apt to mantle the cheek with shame! This expres- 
 sion that in the marts of men seems to render its possession a legitimate 
 subject of distrust and obloquy? Already have you divined it, and it 
 needs not my tongue to tell you that the expression is "He is a Greenback 
 Man." Gentlemen, this is the epithet which I admit fits me, and in 
 
 40 
 
which I hope and believe you are all my earnest companions. We can 
 claim, I think that in this one respect at least, we have not followed the 
 example of the sainted Peter and denied our Lord, but we have met here 
 in the presence of our whole noble State, to renew our allegiance to the 
 Master, despised though he may be, and to utter our open and solemn 
 protest against those who are crying "Crucify him! Crucify him!" Other 
 right and other excuse than this for presuming to address you today I have 
 none. My views of this question and the best way of treating it, have 
 diifered from many if not all of you in the past, and I own to coming here 
 with some reluctance, lest my course might have been wrong, my view 
 might unwittingly in some slight degree have injured the holy cause. As 
 a sufferer from our accursed financial policy, I claim to be one of the chiefest, 
 and by the right which that suffering gives me, am emboldened to speak 
 truths that might otherwise seem disloyal to my fellow sufferers. 
 
 Before the Convention had assembled possible candi- 
 dates for Governor were discussed, in the hotel lobbies, and 
 the names of Judge James A. Mallory, afterward nominated 
 by the Democrats; Judge Harlow S. Orton; E. H. Benton, 
 of Oakfield, Fond du Lac county; George Burnham, of 
 Milwaukee; and Judge George W. Gate, of Stevens Point, 
 were thoroughly canvassed. However, when the Conven- 
 tion assembled, but one name was heard from the floor, and 
 Edward P. Allis was nominated, unanimously, by a rising 
 vote. 
 
 The ticket was completed as follows: For Lieutenant 
 Governor E. H. Benton, Fond du Lac county; Secretary of 
 State J. H. Osborn, of Winnebago; Treasurer, William 
 Schwartz of Sheboygan; Attorney General, Henry Hayden of 
 Wood; Superintendent of Public Instruction, George M. 
 Steele of Outagamie. 
 
 The following platform was adopted: 
 PLATFORM. 
 
 WHEREAS, Throughout our entire country, labor the creator of 
 all wealth is either unemployed or denied its just reward, and all pro- 
 ductive industries are paralyzed; and 
 
 WHEREAS, These results have been brought about by class legis- 
 lation and the mismanagement of our National finances; and 
 
 WHEREAS, neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party 
 proposes any plan of relief; 
 
 We, therefore, DECLARE OURSELVES INDEPENDENT, and 
 invite all patriotic men to join us in a movement for industrial prosperity 
 and financial reform. We make the following declaration of the principles 
 of the Independent Party: 
 
 First We demand the immediate repeal of the specie resumption 
 Act of January 14th, 1875, the rescue of our industries from the disasters 
 and ruin resulting from its enforcement, and the arrest of the suicidal and 
 destructive policy of contraction. 
 
 41 
 
Second We declare that it is the exclusive function of the Govern- 
 ment to supply a currency for the people, and that such currency, whether 
 paper or metal, should be issued by, and bear the stamp of, the Federal 
 Government. 
 
 Third We believe that paper money, issued by the Government 
 and made receivable for all its dues, a legal tender in the payment of all 
 debts public and private, and interconvertible with bonds at an equitable 
 rate of interest, will afford the best circulating medium ever devised. 
 
 Fourth We declare to be in favor of the suppression and prohibition 
 of all bank issues, and that the furnishing of currency should be restored 
 to the Government, to which it exclusively belongs. 
 
 Fifth We demand the remonetization of the silver dollar, and that 
 it shall be made a legal tender for the payment of all debts, including 
 Government bonds. But we are opposed to the further issue of interest- 
 bearing bonds for the purchase of silver bullion, for the purposes of coinage. 
 
 Sixth We declare it inconsistent with the genius and spirit of popular 
 government that any species of property should be exempt from bearing 
 a just share of the public burdens, and that Government bonds should be 
 taxed precisely as other property. 
 
 Seventh The wealth of the Nation should pay its taxes, and we 
 demand the imposition of a tax upon income, graduated according to its 
 amount. 
 
 Eighth We are opposed to all monopolies, all class legislation, and 
 believe it to be the duty of the Government to exercise a wholesome control 
 over all corporate bodies and to foster and encourage the development 
 of the agricultural, mineral, mechanical and commercial resources of the 
 country, to the end that labor may be fully and profitably employed, and 
 the general welfare be secured and established. 
 
 Gen. Samuel F. Gary, who had been the Greenback 
 Candidate for Vice President, on the ticket with Peter 
 Cooper, the year before, was present and delivered addresses 
 both afternoon and evening. 
 
 The Commercial Times in its report of the Convention, 
 said that as to previous political affiliations, it was under- 
 stood that three of the candidates were former Republicans 
 and three former Democrats, although none of them had 
 been pronounced politicians, and several had been identified 
 with Greenback sentiment for several years. "The person- 
 nel of the Convention was of a high order," says the report, 
 "Intelligence and determination were characteristic of all 
 the proceedings." "Judging from the Convention * * * the 
 Greenback Party as an element in Wisconsin politics is not 
 to be despised." 
 
 Mr. Allis, who was now fairly before Wisconsin and the 
 country as a prophet of the new political faith, on August 
 16th, opened the campaign at the Academy of Music, in 
 
 42 
 
Milwaukee, with a carefully prepared and comprehensive 
 address. The Commercial Times says of this meeting that 
 the body of the house, then the largest auditorium in the 
 state, was "fairly well filled" and "not a few ladies" were 
 present. Some of the Greenback state papers were more 
 glowing in their accounts. George Burnham presided and 
 General Gary of Ohio, followed Mr. Allis in a campaign 
 address. 
 
 Mr. Allis's address which was prepared with care, and 
 read from manuscript, as was his habit, was a comprehensive 
 campaign document, and as such its importance entitles 
 it to be quoted at length. Some of its more striking state- 
 ments are as follows: 
 
 The cause of which I appear as one of the visible exponents, is as 
 I am well aware, made the target of ridicule, and its upholders of jibes; 
 but this method of attack, while it keeps our friends out of sight, does not 
 decrease their numbers, nor will it provoke the same unmanly weapons 
 in defense, for the cause is higher than buffoonery and either for good or 
 ill overshadows mankind. The cause I stand here to advocate, is to me a 
 surpassing, important, and holy one, and the deep sense I have of trying 
 to preserve it in its beauty and purity from the errors of its indiscreet 
 friends, as well as from the attacks of its bitter enemies, has had great 
 weight in leading me to take the position I have. 
 
 I am convinced, ladies and gentlemen, that not only America, but the 
 entire civilized world, is suffering to a greater or less extent, from, it knows 
 not what, but which in reality, is its want of knowledge of the true function 
 of debt, and its relation to labor, progress, and civilization. 
 
 I have become satisfied that it is left for America to work out this 
 problem, as well as that of a free people's government, and indeed to de- 
 monstrate that a free people's government cannot long exist, except in 
 accord with that true relation of debt to progress. 
 
 You will therefore see that the Greenback cause is not to me a simple 
 question of temporary policy a question narrow in its application and 
 open to local criticism. It is a question to me. as broad as humanity, 
 and it seems to me as one of the marked events in the history of the world, 
 that the war waged in our land, to strike the galling fetters of iron from the 
 black man, should have, as its concomitant the teaching of us how the 
 depressing fetters of gold should be stricken from the white man. 
 
 It is not a matter of doubt or question that money of some kind, is 
 an absolute essential to progress and civilization and that without it, the 
 race could not advance. It has accompanied man in every step of his 
 progress, from the earliest time, and without it must he have been a bar- 
 barian still. The reason of this is apparent, when we remember that 
 progress is only accomplished by gain, and that gain, to any extent, only 
 arises through association and exchange, that exchange must have an 
 appropriate medium, and that this medium is money. 
 
 43 
 
If we examine the present springs of our own actions we will find that 
 it is not gold, but gain, we are striving for; gain in wealth gain in power 
 gain in honor gain in influence gain in purity gain in reverence 
 gain in position gain in culture gain in knowledge gain in pleasure; 
 it is for gain in something, that our hearts all go out, and just as that love 
 for gain extends to higher and holier things, just so is the race elevated and 
 enobled. Gain in material things arises from association and labor, and 
 the disseminator of gain is exchange, and the means of exchange is money. 
 We have here the whole question of civilization love of gain and the way 
 to accomplish and disseminate it by means of money. Human govern- 
 ment is not an end, but is one of the links in the great chain of progress 
 and as government fosters the ability to create and disseminate gain among 
 all its people, so has it neared perfection. 
 
 The fact of the insufficiency of the precious metals has long been 
 known, and recognized. But in the absence of any known material sub- 
 stitute, or supplement, and in the want of knowledge of their true relation 
 to the immaterial substitute of debt, the fact has rather been tampered 
 with than boldly met. 
 
 Mankind have seen the necessity of more of the precious metals than 
 the world had, or could produce, and instead of boldly meeting this want 
 by truth have permitted the fact to be used for individual profit, and 
 have permitted their volume to be fictitiously increased. An increase was 
 certainly needed, but a fictitious increase was wrong. 
 
 One of these fictitious means of increasing the volume of the precious 
 metals, in our country, you will remember, was the so called, "Specie paying 
 Banks." 
 
 A bank was permitted to issue five dollars, or more, in paper, for 
 every one dollar in coin it possessed, promising to redeem it all in coin, 
 on demand. 
 
 In this way, the volume of coin, for practical purposes, was largely 
 multiplied and such banks were great aids to business and progress; in 
 their day and while they prospered. 
 
 A notable and successful instance of this multiplying the volume 
 of coin for practical purposes, occurred in our city in its early history, 
 and will be fresh in the minds of many of you. Our honored fellow citizen, 
 Alexander Mitchell, established here an insurance company, with per- 
 mission to issue bills ad libitum. 
 
 The Northwest was new and without money, and its progress was slow 
 and painful. Mr. Mitchell was a man of known ability, and unblemished 
 integrity, and our people eagerly sought to use his money which he freely 
 dispensed, and this for years was our principal medium of exchange. The 
 use of this money added largely to the early prosperity of the Northwest, 
 and for this benefit we should ever hold Mr. Mitchell in grateful remem- 
 brance. This system of multiplying the volume of the precious metals, 
 however, contained within itself the seeds of its own dissolution, in its 
 promise to pay on demand, five times, or over, more coin than it had. 
 
 These banks might have other things just as good as coin, but the 
 promise was coin, and it is evident that their ability to redeem the promise 
 only lasted while they were not called upon to do so. 
 
 44 
 
Had these banks promised to pay in something which they esteemed 
 just as good as coin, and been honestly and well managed, they would 
 have been built upon truth, and might have stood, but they were built 
 upon fiction, and no subterfuge or fraud can ever be a proper basis to rest 
 public or private welfare upon. 
 
 A notable instance of this system of banking, at this moment existing, 
 and a great power in the world, is the Bank of England. This bank issues 
 its notes and credits, payable on demand in coin, to an extent far beyond 
 the coin it has, and if by chance, at any time, more notes or credits are 
 presented than it has coin to redeem them with, Parliament steps to its 
 relief, and decrees that it need not, or must not, so redeem them. 
 
 The Bank's own method of keeping off the call for coin, is by the 
 arbitrary advance in the rate of interest, which calls the world to its rescue, 
 and it is only after this derangement of the business of the world for 
 its benefit has failed, that Parliament legalizes its broken promise. 
 
 No one doubts the perfect solvency of the Bank of England and that 
 it has in its vaults something just as good to the people of England as 
 gold, but it certainly is not gold, and its only ability to redeem its promise, 
 lies in the suiferance of the people. 
 
 This fiction; this subterfuge, I maintain is beneath the spirit of 
 the age: and is behind the present advance of civilization. 
 
 The truth should be acknowledged, and openly conformed to, and 
 if the volume of the precious metals is not sufficient for the use of the 
 world as money, its substitute or supplement should be placed on its own 
 foundation. 
 
 This fiction this subterfuge, I maintain, has been the cause of the 
 ordinary commercial panics, and convulsions that have, from time to time, 
 swept over the commercial world like the besom of destruction, and that 
 these commercial simoons will continue to strew the world with business 
 wrecks, just as long as this subterfuge is resorted to. 
 
 Wherever people have attempted to supplement the volume of gold 
 it has been by means of a debt, and they have called the debt gold, and 
 the enduring quality of the gold, depended upon the character of the debt. 
 In the old specie paying banks they were required to have in their 
 vaults debts of states or corporations, for an amount equal at least, to 
 the bills issued, so that the bill, though it purported to be coin, was in 
 reality only a fraction of that debt the bank held against a state or cor- 
 poration. 
 
 These notes were accepted, and used to as much wider an extent 
 than those of our own Mr. Mitchell, as the debt of a state or corporation 
 is higher than an individual debt. 
 
 This question of debt is one of deep interest and import and is closely 
 entwined with the human family. 
 
 Commencing with individual obligation of the slightest form, it has 
 been ever present and ever increasing, and is, today the largest and most 
 important structure on earth. We hear it said; the present trouble is 
 caused by debt. Why did you get in debt? Pay your debts, etc. Our 
 debts can only be paid in barbarism. Debt! it is debt everywhere. Debt 
 above us debt around us and debt beneath us. 
 
 Our progress is a debt to the past and our civilization a debt to the 
 future. 
 
 45 
 
The millions piled up in your insurance company, is only a debt. 
 The quarterly reports of our every bank are all made up of debt. The 
 Inventory of your every merchant is largely made up of debt. The 
 savings of this great people, for the last century, piled up by millions in 
 savings banks, are all debts. The rich man counts his thousands in debts, 
 and the poor man receives his days wages in debt. The widow drops her 
 mite in a debt, and robbers burst vaults and carry off hundreds of thousands, 
 in debts. What is our beautiful Plankinton House, but a debt to the 
 railroads, the merchants and manufacturers of our city. What is our 
 magnificent system of railroads, itself, but a debt to the farm, the shop, 
 the brain and sinews of the people? What is that splendid building being 
 erected in our midst, but a debt to you and to me who make our daily 
 and hourly walk beside its doors. Were it erected an hour from these haunts, 
 it would not be worth the rough material composing it. It is debt, and 
 nothing but debt and obligation, of which we are made up physically, 
 morally and commercially. It is debt everywhere, and in everything 
 and its true measure is not numbers, but wisdom. 
 
 To illustrate the prevalent and indeed the perfect universality of debt, 
 I will take a familiar instance and call your attention to one of our home 
 institutions that is a model of good management and whose solvency under 
 all circumstances is unquestioned. I take it simply as an illustration 
 of the all prevailing presence of debt, in a quarter where we are apt to think 
 other than ordinary rules previal. 
 
 I clip from a paper the report of the First National Bank, of this 
 city, on the 22nd of June, 1877, and think our friend Mr. Camp, can be 
 complimented, on the good condition of his institution. He has here a 
 list of liabilities, that is, debts the bank owes, which amounts to one and a 
 half millions of dollars. This is all a debt that the Bank owes to somebody. 
 
 Now, to counter-balance this debt, is a table of resources that is 
 the things he has got on hand with which to pay these liabilities, that is, 
 a million and a half of dollars. Let us see what these resources are. 
 
 Loans, discounts, etc., $854,000 a debt against their customers. 
 U. S. Bonds, $275,000 a debt against the government. Other stocks, 
 bonds and mortgages, $35,000 a debt against somebody else. Due from 
 reserve agents, $125,000 a debt against somebody else. Due from banks 
 and bankers, $36,000 debt against somebody else. Real Estate, $40,000 
 there we have something tangible, but wait a little. That is just a place 
 to keep those debts in, and if there were no debts in the world, it would be 
 good for nothing, so that is a debt also but even if there were debts and 
 he had none of them to keep, he would trade the place off for debt against 
 somebody so that is, in reality, a debt also. Then comes checks, taxes, 
 etc. $33,000 all debts. Bills of other banks $1,000 a debt against 
 somebody else. Greenbacks $175,000 a debt against you and me and 
 the future, which the government has guaranteed and it is a good one 
 better than gold. As a final item, we have specie including treasury- 
 gold certificates $12,600. Now, in this item, Mr. Camp, has shown his 
 usual good management, and has got far more than his share of all the 
 specie there is. $12,000 in a million and a half is a tremendous excess in 
 his favor, but a part of this is treasury certificates; what part we don't 
 know, probably a large part, but it is immaterial, for they are jsut as good 
 as specie. Now, these gold certificates are a sort .of government play- 
 gold; not real gold for the gold is not necessarily there. It is a piece of 
 paper, with the word "gold" stamped on it in gilt, and they call it gold, 
 but it is only a debt. 
 
 46 
 
This reduces the resources, in other than debt, to some fractional 
 part of $12,000, which is probably gold, since silver is not now specie, 
 I think, at all events, it is not money. 
 
 Now this small amount of specie, so far as it is made of the metal 
 gold, might just as well be an equal value of pig-iron, but the bank holds 
 it for its greenback quality of debt, and as such, it is a first-class bank asset, 
 but nevertheless is simply a debt, and this makes the entire resources debts. 
 
 It is a balance of debts, and the business of the bank is to keep that 
 poise of debts good and even. 
 
 The highest form of physical debt, and consequently of value, now 
 known, is that of a Nation to its own people. An individual, or corpor- 
 ation may be unwilling to pay a debt to his neighbor, or his creditor, a 
 State may fail to pay its debt to a foreign State, and the foreign State 
 must be the loser; but a Nation's debt to its own people cannot fail. The 
 people have had the value of the debt, and they cannot be deprived of it, 
 and the only question is, the just distribution of its benefits and burdens, 
 which is purely a question of method, not of value. 
 
 A National Debt to its own people, therefore, is the refinement of debt, 
 the very height of value, it cannot be lost. 
 
 The Bank of England, to-day, holds a debt against the British Nation, 
 for the excess of its bills, over the coin which it has, and the only weakness 
 of those bills to the British people is that they have a guardian in the Bank 
 of England who promises what he has not got, and charges for it. The 
 National Banks of our own time and country, hold the debt of our Nation 
 for the bills they issue, and their only weakness is that they promise green- 
 backs, which they have not got, and charge us for it. 
 
 If the Nation's debt, which is owned by the National Banks, as well 
 as the rest of it, bore an interest not as high as the average increase of 
 National wealth, and was interconvertible at will with greenbacks only, 
 then would those banks be founded upon just, equitable and safe principles, 
 and be as legitimate, and as great aids to advance as is your business, or 
 mine, and, I believe that until that is done, or something equivalent, there 
 will never again be true, and permanent prosperity in our land, either to 
 banking or any other business. 
 
 The old specie-paying banks, the Bank of England, and our present 
 National Banks, having the feature of compulsory demand payment in 
 something they have not got, though they may have something just as 
 good, are frauds to that extent and so long as this feature exists, they will 
 be fruitful sources of the commercial disasters that have marked the road 
 since the race passed beyond the power of the precious metals to supply 
 its want of money. 
 
 It is this feature of compulsory payment, on demand, in gold, which 
 we have not got, and cannot get, that is now sought to be resorted, and 
 perpetuated, in the specie-redemption act, which is to go into effect on 
 the 1st of January, 1879, or which I should rather say, is still in force; 
 for it can never go into effect upon a bankrupt nation, and a people rapidly 
 traveling backward in the scale of civilization and progress. 
 
 We can also safely affirm that during the present six months the 
 downward progress, unless arrested by the repeal of existing laws, will be 
 equally rapid and that the first of January 1878, will find us that much 
 nearer universal ruin. It is true, we have in the Northwest the aid of a 
 bounteous harvest, but its effect will be local and trifling, and can no more 
 stay the dread progress than a rush the torrent of the Nile. Not only 
 
 47 
 
is labor a sufferer beyond computation, but capital itself, which is, and 
 should be, the great aid and abettor of labor is, apparently unknown to 
 itself, fearfully endangered by this suicidal policy. 
 
 The press and the politicians of the old parties were, by 
 this time, thoroughly aroused to the importance and dangers 
 of a Greenback campaign, led by Mr. Allis and supported by 
 the class of men that had nominated him, so they pointed 
 all the heaviest campaign guns his way. 
 
 An episode of the campaign that excited a great deal of 
 comment in Wisconsin and elsewhere, was the result of an 
 invitation to Mr. Allis, from the Secretary of the American 
 Banker's Association, to address the Annual Meeting of this 
 Association, held in New York City, September 12th, 13th 
 and 14th, 1877. 
 
 The invitation, from James Buell, President of The 
 Importers and Trader's National Bank, of New York, 
 Secretary of the Association, is dated Aug. 2, 1877. It was, 
 evidently, the result of correspondence with Mr. Allis, 
 touching the currency question, for Mr. Buell, says, in part: 
 
 Your esteemed favor under date of the 30th ult., is received, also your 
 letter to our Association. The latter I have read with much care and 
 consideration. 
 
 Our Association is to hold a Convention on the 12, 13 and 14th, of Sept. 
 next, at which time presuming you to be a director of one of the banks in 
 Milwaukee, consequently to have a right to present such financial views 
 as you may entertain, to that body, we now invite you to prepare, and 
 discuss the matter embraced in your communication to our Association, 
 above alluded to, at that time. 
 
 Mr. Allis prepared an address and went to New York to 
 deliver it, but was allowed no opportunity. As his going 
 had been announced in advance, he felt obliged to write a 
 letter, which was published, explaining that the officials of 
 the Association were very courteous to him personally, but 
 found it convenient to assign no place to him upon the 
 program. They did, finally, invite him to submit his 
 address, promising that it should be entered upon the 
 minutes and published in the report of proceedings. The 
 only notice taken of it, notwithstanding this promise, was a 
 statement from the Secretary to the meeting that a number 
 of papers had been received "that we would like to read if 
 we had time," among them a "very elaborate and interesting 
 address from Mr. E. P. Allis, of Wisconsin, discussing the 
 Greenback Question." A motion was adopted that "all be 
 referred to the Council for their consideration, and the 
 
 48 
 
publication of such portions of them as they see fit." That 
 brief mention was the only publicity ever given the paper 
 by that Association. 
 
 The address, however, made a most useful campaign 
 document for the Greenbackers. It was widely published, 
 and was commented upon at length in the newspapers. It 
 was also printed in document form. The Boston Pilot 
 published it entire, and the Boston Daily Globe, in a half 
 column editorial, spoke of it as "by far the most thoughtful 
 and rational contribution to that side of the question which 
 we have yet seen." 
 
 This address very naturally became one of the most 
 effective Greenback documents of the campaign, through- 
 out the country. The Greenback papers rang with it, 
 carefully emphasizing the apparent discourtesy shown Mr. 
 Allis. They also made much of some foolish letters sent to 
 the press by Secretary Buell of the American Banker's 
 Association, urging the editorial use of a paragraph which he 
 furnished, charging that the Greenbackers had offered to 
 "sell out to the Democrats." These letters were so stupid 
 and clumsy as to be an effective boomerang, and the Green- 
 backers were not slow to make the most of them to their 
 own advantage. 
 
 One of the amusing cases of Republican confusion, as a 
 result of the force of Mr. Rublee's iron hand and "town 
 meeting" in turning the Republican State Platform upside 
 down, was developed in United States Senator Timothy O. 
 Howe, whose record was, on the whole, that of an excellent 
 and most creditable Senator. But he was, at this time, 
 confronted by a campaign for his own re-election, in the 
 approaching winter of 1878, and the State Senators to be 
 elected in 1877 would help to elect his successor. Senator 
 Howe spoke in Madison, Oct. 11, and devoted much time to 
 the arguments of Mr. Allis. His speech was heralded as a 
 "masterly" address. On the 22nd of the same month Mr. 
 Allis spoke in Madison and the report, in the Milwaukee 
 Sentinel, shows that he had inherited some of the dry humor 
 of his New England forbears. He said: 
 
 The Honorable Senator, after a personal compliment to myself and 
 Prof. Steele, our able candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 remarks that in the attitude we have assumed he could not vote for us if 
 every person in the State did so. What is the attitude we have assumed 
 that renders us so obnoxious? We have not changed our attitude since 
 the Republican Convention was held in this city, and the Honorable Senator 
 said to more than one of the Delegates to the Convention that he thought 
 
 49 
 
these same two persons, for whom he now says he could not vote, should 
 be nominated on the Republican Ticket for the same positions, by the Re- 
 publicans. Could the Honorable Senator have intended by this act, if 
 accomplished, to have transferred our obnoxiousness to the Republican 
 Party and thus defeat it? or did he think the Republican Party was so 
 much worse than we were that our connection with it would have helped 
 it some? 
 
 Referring to this matter editorially, a week later, evi- 
 dently because Senator Howe had not denied Mr. Allis's 
 charge, the Milwaukee Sentinel said that Senator Howe 
 "thought more of capturing the Greenback vote for State 
 Senators * * * * than of the principles of the Republican 
 Party." 
 
 The campaign was exciting. Mr. Allis visited every 
 part of the State and attracted fair sized and very respectable 
 audiences. There were several other local Greenback 
 speakers on the stump, together with General Gary and 
 others of prominence from outside the State, among them 
 Robert Schilling, then of Cleveland, Ohio, who had made a 
 local reputation, there, as a Union Labor agitator and 
 speaker. To offset him and the other outsiders, the Repub- 
 licans imported some of their big guns. Thomas M. Nichol, a 
 champion long endurance talker, from Kansas, who had 
 been engaged in Ohio the previous year, where the contest 
 was mainly over the currency question, was brought to 
 Wisconsin and a joint debate between him and Schilling was 
 one of the features of the campaign. 
 
 When the votes were counted, the Greenbackers were 
 very generally disappointed. They had certainly had en- 
 couragement to believe there was hope for the election of 
 Mr. Allis, but the party habit was too strong for a successful 
 diversion, even though a great number of Republicans 
 thought Mr. Allis "more than half right," as Mr. Thompson's 
 History admits. 
 
 The Wisconsin Greenbacker of November 10, reflected 
 the feelings of those who had really believed Greenback 
 success in sight. The paper announced its suspension and 
 although calling the election "A grand victory," it deplored 
 the fact that "overweening partisanship" had led to a 
 "three-cornered duel" and urged Greenbackers to "come up 
 solid" thereafter. 
 
 Mr. Allis was not cast down by the result as was demon- 
 strated in a letter "To the Greenback Voters of Wisconsin," 
 on November 10, in which he says that the result justified 
 
 50 
 
his "belief that the entire hard money sentiment * * * is 
 contained in a fraction of the Republican vote just recorded, 
 and that the Greenback Party is * * * the dominant one in 
 Wisconsin." 
 
 His letter says: 
 
 This grand uprising in a few weeks, is not a political movement in 
 the ordinary acceptation of that term as a struggle for power and peace 
 but is a stern protest of thousands of honest and injured men against the 
 unjust legislation that has brought and keeps them in bankruptcy, in 
 idleness and in want, is the protest of a republican form of government 
 against a monarchical system of finance, and is, may we hope, the voice of 
 doom to this enforced season of unthrift and disaster. While calling 
 upon you not to relax effort to steadily and rapidly increase the members 
 and perfect our organization, I wish to impress upon you the necessity 
 of fortitude and indurance to the end. A continuance of the past financial 
 policy, which is not unlikely, will as surely increase disaster and suffering 
 in the future, as cause produces effect, and we must be prepared to calmly 
 and peacefully meet it, until the cause is removed in a legitimate manner. 
 Remember if we suffer, it is from our own acts, while we have the ballot, 
 and let no act of outlawry or riot stain the fair escutcheon of Wisconsin. 
 Patiently bide your time, for it is surely coming. 
 
 NEWSPAPER COMMENT. 
 
 Some idea of the general attitude of the newspapers of 
 the state toward Mr. Allis and Greenbackism may be got 
 from the following quotations: 
 
 The Milwaukee Daily News, (Democrat), said, July 8, upon printing 
 the Portage speech is full; "It is due to say that Mr. Allis's views are very 
 conservative and are not based at all upon a partial repudiation of the 
 public debt, and business contracts. His argument is the most plausible 
 that can be made on that side of the question." 
 
 The Milwaukee Commercial Times, (Democrat) closing a column 
 editorial on "E. P. Allis," August 1st, says: 
 
 "We do not wish to be understood as questioning the personal character 
 of Mr. Allis. He has lived a blameless life, many years in this community 
 * * * * a man of culture, as well as of unblemished character. A gentlemen 
 of kindly manners, of pleasant temper, of irreproachable walk and speech, 
 he would personally be a great improvement on some of our recent Governors. " 
 
 The Milwaukee Sentinel, (Republican) in an editorial on the^Academy 
 of Music Speech, said "* * * his standing as a prominent business man 
 and the fact that many people who have given little thought to monetary 
 science may be led away by his wild unreason, makes it incumbent upon us 
 to call attention to a few of the more glaring fallacies uttered by him on 
 that occassion. While doing this, we have no desire to reflect upon his 
 honesty of purpose." 
 
 The Wisconsin Greenbacker, Aug. 18, said, in the course of an an- 
 nouncement that Mr. Allis would speak at the Academy: "Mr. Allis is 
 preeminently a man of the people. He is not, nor ever has been, a poli- 
 tician, * * * He is modest and unobstrusive almost to a fault. Although 
 the head of one of the largest manufacturing industries of this city or 
 state, he terms his vast works, employing hundreds of men, 'the shop'." 
 
 51 
 
The Eau Claire Free Press, (Republican) Sept. 19: "Mr. Allis is the 
 most conservative of Greenback men, believing that a greenback should 
 be worth a dollar, and utterly opposed to inflation." 
 
 La Crosse Liberal Democrat, (Democrat) ^Sept. 21 : *'Mr. Allis is a 
 gentleman of such irreproachable private character and such a prominent 
 and successful business man, and withal a Republican of such long standing 
 and reputation, that we do not wonder that William E. Smith, the regular 
 Republican nominee, appears to a disadvantage in contrast, among members 
 of the party. It is evident from the Republican press of the State, that 
 Mr. Allis's efforts are looked upon with much jealousy on that account." 
 
 The Neenah Gazette, (Republican) Sept. 22: "It is well known at 
 least to the readers of this paper, that we did what we could to have the 
 Republican State Convention, at least in a measure, identify our party 
 with the fast growing greenback sentiment, either by nominating Mr. 
 Allis of Milwaukee, and Dr. Steele of Appleton, or by giving us a platform 
 which should give Republican Greenback Men the hope that their party 
 would be the one to lead off in this movement in the interest of the people. 
 In this we were disappointed, as were hundreds of our friends." 
 
 The Milwaukee Sentinel, (Republican): "* * * we do believe Mr. Allis 
 would do himself better service and his cause no injury by withdrawing. 
 * * * He is too good a man to be knocked over simply to aid the Democratic 
 Party." 
 
 The Northwestern Miller, (Greenback) La Crosse, August: "The 
 fact that this speech (at Portage), was made by Mr. Allis expressly to 
 define his position; that it was made before his nomination; that he has 
 always been looked upon as the most conservative man in this movement; 
 and that his endorsement by the Convention was without one dissenting 
 voice, fairly entitle it to be considered as the honest outspoken sentiment 
 of the great mass of the Greenback Party in this State." 
 
 The Oshkosh Northwestern, (Republican) Oct. 4: "Mr. Allis is a gentle- 
 man, honest in his convictions, has a reason for what he says, and is entirely 
 a different man, from Cary and Harper. He is no communist nor demagogue. 
 We do not think he differs greatly in his principles from a majority of the 
 Republicans in this State of whom he has always been one." 
 
 The Whitewater Register, (Republican) Oct. 25: "Mr. Allis is evi- 
 dently a man thoroughly honest and of the best intentions, and we have a 
 high respect for his character." 
 
 52 
 
Wisconsin's Candidate for President of the 
 United States 
 
 CHAPTER Six. 
 
 WHILE the Greenback State Ticket had met with 
 defeat, the campaign results of 1877 justified 
 much of the self-gratulation of the Greenback 
 Party. The old politicians had been so im- 
 pressed that many of them sought safety and political life 
 insurance by subscribing to the articles of the new political 
 faith. Thus, George H. Paul of Milwaukee, a former Chair- 
 man of the Democratic State Central Committee, chosen 
 to the State Senate, subscribed himself "Democrat and 
 Greenbacker" and A. R. Barrows, of Chippewa Falls, a 
 former Republican, chosen Speaker of the Assembly, was 
 put down as an "Independent Greenbacker." Four other 
 Assemblymen were recorded as Independent Greenbackers; 
 seven called themselves Greenbackers; one, James Meehan, 
 was put down as a "Greenback Democrat," and there 
 were, beside, Independent, Liberal, Liberal Republican, 
 and Socialist representatives in that Legislature. There 
 had been over fifty legislative candidates in the field who 
 had endorsed Greenbackism or were out-and-out Greenback 
 Party men. That demoralization was consequently great, 
 in the hitherto invincible Republican Party, was not at all 
 surprising. 
 
 This campaign was accepted by the Greenback leaders 
 as evidence that with better organization, which, it was 
 expected these results would encourage, the Greenback 
 Party would, by another presidential election, be very for- 
 midable nationally. Results in other states were even more 
 decisive than in Wisconsin, and Greenbackers were in hope- 
 ful mood, everywhere. 
 
 53 
 
On February 22, 1878, a Convention, attended by over 
 800 delegates, from twenty-eight states, was held at Toledo, 
 Ohio, to which all the various organizations of labor and 
 politics, opposed to the Republican resumption idea, were 
 invited, to devise ways to make common cause against the 
 old parties. Edward P. Allis and Elliot H. Benton, were 
 Delegates-at-Large from Wisconsin. The Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Greenback Party of Wisconsin, and the Speaker 
 and thirteen Greenback members of the Wisconsin Assembly, 
 united in a letter to the President of the Convention request- 
 ing that Mr. Allis be invited to address it. The members 
 of the Legislature in this letter also expressed their appre- 
 ciation of the ability and merits of Mr. Allis, and spoke 
 of his "purity, unselfish patriotism and prudent wisdom 
 in council." 
 
 This speech was delivered and widely published, re- 
 ceiving favorable notice, from many directions, throughout 
 the entire country. 
 
 A new party was organized at Toledo, the name 
 "National" chosen, and a platform adopted which went 
 further than the Greenbackers had hitherto gone into 
 questions which represented "the cause of labor," that had 
 loomed up large after the serious railway strikes of 1877, and 
 while the word "Labor" was not officially incorporated in 
 the name of the new party, it was commonly referred to as 
 the "National or Greenback-Labor Party." 
 
 At Toledo, Mr. Allis was chosen a member of the National 
 Executive Committee for Wisconsin, and came home to do 
 his best with tongue, pen, and purse, and characteristic 
 energy, for the principles which he believed to be vital to 
 the welfare of the country. Immediately the following 
 letter was issued, together with the new "National Party" 
 Platform, and its endorsement by the Wisconsin State 
 Central Committee, was a part of the document. 
 
 Milwaukee, February 24th, 1878. 
 
 To the State Central Committee of the Greenback Party of Wisconsin : 
 Gentlemen: 
 
 Having been chosen by the Executive Committee of your body, in 
 connection with E. H. Benton, of Oakfield, Wis., to represent the State 
 at Large, in the Toledo Convention, and also having been especially re- 
 quested by the Greenback members of the Legislature to present the 
 attitude of Wisconsin on this question, to that Convention, it is deemed 
 proper that I should announce to your body the impression made by that 
 Convention and its acts upon your entire delegation from Wisconsin. 
 
 54 
 
The place of holding the Convention, Toledo, Ohio, was where the com- 
 bined Labor and Greenback element overcame both the old parties in the 
 last fall elections, and the Convention was for the purpose of nationalizing 
 tHs~~conTbtnatton that had previously been scattered and local. The 
 fears entertained by many, and myself among the number, that the Con- 
 vention would be controlled by the extreme wing of our people, and that 
 sentiments of repudiation, or perhaps violence, would prevail, were un- 
 founded and unjust. The elements gathered there were of all phases of 
 belief, and from all parties and organizations, conservative, as well as 
 radical, but were thoughtful, earnest and consistent men, with apparently 
 but one end in view, viz: to unite all the scattered elements of opposition 
 to the present financial management of our Government, upon a fair, just 
 and honorable basis; and upon this basis to earnestly work for speedy 
 reform. 
 
 The harmonious fusion of every shade of sentiment was complete 
 and the Convention ended with apparently no point of contention between 
 them, and with the earnest determination to go to their various homes and 
 zealously strive for the speedy triumph of the principles there enunciated. 
 
 Whatever differences of opinion existed as to the name or minor 
 details of the new organization, were met in a spirit of mutual concession, 
 and the annexed platform was the unanimous result. This Convention 
 and its actions remove entirely the fear that the movement would be the 
 creature of either of the old parties, and now, whether destined for success 
 or defeat, stands upon its own merits. For my own part I cannot see why 
 every man who holds our general views, and loves his country better 
 than party, should not at once rally around this standard. The basis of 
 the old Republican Party, human rights, are here enunciated anew; and 
 the foundation stone of the old Democratic Party, a people's government, 
 is here crystalized. Previous to the knowledge of what the platform 
 would be, I pledged the Convention that Wisconsin would largely endorse 
 conservative Greenbackism, and I see no reason why that endorsement 
 should not center upon this organization and platform. 
 
 Subject, therefore, to your superior wisdom, I raise my voice for the 
 "NATIONAL" Party. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 EDWARD P. ALLIS. 
 
 No better evidence is necessary of the wide demoraliza- 
 tion of the Wisconsin Republicans, at that time, than the 
 following set of resolutions, adopted by the Legislature of 
 1878: 
 
 RESOLVED, by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That every con- 
 sideration of public policy demands the immediate restoration of the silver 
 dollar to its former rank, as a legal tender for all debts, public and private, 
 as it existed prior to February 12, 1873, with detriment to no one, but of 
 acknowledged benefit to the whole people, and our Senators in Congress 
 are hereby instructed, and our Representatives in Congress are requested, 
 to use all proper and honorable means to secure the passing of a bill so 
 restoring the law. 
 
 RESOLVED, That all indebtedness, public or private, created prior 
 to July 14th, 1870, and which was by its terms payable in coin, is payable 
 either in gold or silver coin, at option, and all government bonds issued 
 since July 14th, 1870, are payable as recited on the face of the bonds, 
 
 55 
 
to-wit,: "This bond is issued in accordance with the provisions of an act 
 of congress, entitled, 'An Act to authorize the refunding of the National 
 Debt,' approved July 14th, 1870, amended by an Act, approved January 
 20th, 1871, and is redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after 
 the first day of September, A. D. 1891, in coin of the standard value of 
 the United States on said July 14th, 1870, with interest in such coin from 
 the day of date thereof," etc. 
 
 RESOLVED, That where the word "coin" is thus used, it meant 
 gold and silver coin; a dollar of gold being 25.8 grains, and a silver dollar 
 412.5 grains, both nine-tenths fine, and it is the right of the people to 
 discharge their obligations in the exact manner specified, in all contracts 
 entered into. 
 
 RESOLVED, That if after the full and unconditional restoration of 
 the law relating to the silver dollar, it should be found there was any con- 
 siderable difference between the value of dollars in gold and silver, we 
 should regard it as a wise policy to re-adjust the weight of the two coins, 
 either by increasing the weight of silver, or decreasing the weight of gold, 
 as proposed by the Honorable John Sherman in 1868, or both, so as to 
 secure their harmonious circulation as the money of account of the United 
 States; but in the opinion of this Legislature, it will be impossible to deter- 
 mine their relative value, until the two metals shall have been placed 
 upon an equal footing, by a restoration of the law, in relation to the silver 
 dollar, as it stood prior to February 12th, 1873. 
 
 Wisconsin held no election for State officers in 1878, but 
 in the congressional elections the Greenbackers found a field 
 for activity and their work spread genuine and great anxiety 
 among the Wisconsin members of the House of Representa- 
 tives who were seeking re-election. There were straight 
 Greenback candidates nominated in four Wisconsin dis- 
 tricts, and there was fusion with the Democrats in three oth- 
 ers. In but one district were they unrepresented. The 
 candidates who got the Greenback vote, received, in all, 
 57,530 of the 206,318 votes polled in the state for congress- 
 men, but they were all unsuccessful. 
 
 In a published address "To the People of Wisconsin," in 
 the December following the election of 1878, Mr. Allis 
 stated that the party had grown, in Wisconsin, "from 1500 
 in 1876 to 30,000 in 1878," and the National Chairman 
 claimed over 1, 260,000 votes in the whole country. 
 
 These figures, as future elections proved, were misleading. 
 Frightened congressmen, both Republicans and Democrats, 
 had made overtures to the Greenback voters, that were not 
 sincere, and once re-elected their ardor for the principles of 
 the Greenbackers and their Labor allies, visably cooled. 
 
 There was a State election in Wisconsin in 1879, and the 
 Greenback ticket headed by Reuben May, received some- 
 thing less than 13,000 votes. 
 
 56 
 
It is not unlikely that the prominence of Mark M. 
 ("Brick") Pomeroy and his newspaper, then published in 
 La Crosse, were distasteful to Mr. Allis, and to some other 
 leaders who were more inconspicuous than he in this cam- 
 paign. "Brick" was exploiting the Greenback Party for 
 personal ends and noisily proclaiming himself as the organ- 
 izer of Greenback Clubs, which were carefully attached to 
 the subscription list of his paper, as a pre-requisite of ortho- 
 doxy. 
 
 The Republicans still felt in danger, and President Hayes 
 and his Secretary of the Treasury recognized the importance 
 to the country of the currency question, in their public 
 utterances in the fall of 1879 and at the opening of the year 
 1880. The Secretary's report at the opening of Congress 
 was devoted almost entirely to the financial question. 
 
 In the spring of 1880, E. H. Benton who had been on the 
 ticket with Mr. Allis in 1877, as candidate for Lieutenant 
 Governor, wrote, from Wells Mills, Nebraska, to the Oshkosh 
 Standard, (Greenback), a letter proposing Mr. Allis's name 
 for the presidency. 
 
 In this letter Mr. Benton predicted that the Greenback 
 candidates would play any important part "in the coming 
 struggle," and said: 
 
 The native modesty of Mr. Allis could count against him in a Conven- 
 tion of machine politicians, but among men of brain and principles he 
 would win such consideration as would honor both him and those who 
 would put him forward. 
 
 In all our acquaintance with public men we never met with his superior 
 in unaffected sincerity, genuine friendliness and purity of motives. We 
 are aware that such qualities are not the most in demand in the selfish, 
 corrupt struggle for office that marks the old parties but we mean nothing 
 and achieve nothing unless we utterly subvert the old and truly inaugurate 
 a "new," that is new from cellar to garret, from root to topmost bough. 
 
 Nothing should hinder the men who so gallantly and unselfishingly 
 gave time and money without stint in the memorable campaign of '77 
 when Allis ran for Governor, from reorganizing and securing a majority, 
 or at least a plurality of the votes in Wisconsin in 1880. 
 
 The letter was copied by the Chicago Sentinel, with the 
 editorial comment that "So far there has been no man 
 named who has been truer to the cause, or who possesses 
 greater ability or fitness for the presidency than Mr. Allis." 
 
 This was early in May. On the 27th of May the State 
 Convention met in Watertown, with a good attendance and 
 a report of it contains the following: 
 
 57 
 
The following resolution, offered by Edwin Petersilea, of the Oshkosh 
 Standard, and ably seconded by M. H. Barnum, of the Wausau Torch of 
 Liberty, was enthusiastically received, and adopted with prolonged applause: 
 
 RESOLVED: That the name of Hon. Edward P. Allis be presented 
 to the Greenback-Labor Convention at Chicago, June 9th, as Wisconsin's 
 candidate for President. 
 
 A full complement of twenty delegates was chosen to 
 attend the National Convention at Chicago, on June 9, and 
 an Electoral Ticket was also selected. 
 
 The Chicago Convention, which passed into history as 
 the "Greenback National Convention," was largely attended 
 and gathered together many new political elements, in- 
 cluding women. The call invited all classes of men and 
 women to join in the movement for changes in the laws, 
 especially those respecting finance and labor. There were 
 eight women among the delegates, and Susan B. Anthony, 
 by invitation, addressed the convention. Dennis Kearney, 
 the "Sand Lot" orator, of San Francisco, was a feature, and 
 was put into leading strings by making him sergeant-at-arms. 
 
 A split in the party that had been created largely through 
 the annoying activities of "Brick" Pomeroy, was healed, 
 and the delegates to his rival or "Rump" Convention, took 
 seats in the Exposition Building with the regular and larger 
 body. 
 
 The Milwaukee Sentinel's report, and others, called the 
 Convention "The Rag Baby Crowd," but the Chicago Inter 
 Ocean, which was edited by William Penn Nixon, had strong 
 Greenback sympathies, and it reported the Convention very 
 fully. It said that "there was an aspect of strong intelli- 
 gence, the Convention being one of respectability in the 
 general, superior to the character the enemies of the move- 
 ment are accustomed to portray for its adherents." 
 
 The Committee on Credentials reported 617 regular 
 delegates and there were about 244 others added, including 
 the bolting "Farewell Hall" faction, and Socialists, who 
 were also invited to seats. 
 
 The Convention on the last day, when nominations were 
 made, got into a state of much excitement and the closing 
 session lasted all night, final adjournment coming at 6:45 
 A. M. June 12. The ballot for a candidate for President 
 did not begin until 4:10 A. M. No newspaper report, of a 
 number examined, both in Chicago and Wisconsin, makes 
 mention of the presentation to the Convention of several of 
 the candidates who, Mr. Allis among them, received votes. 
 
*There were seven candidates in all, and according to 
 
 McKee's publication, previously referred to, the nominat- 
 ing ballot was as follows: 
 
 Candidates, Votes 
 
 James B. Weaver, of Iowa, 224^ 
 
 Hendrick P. Wright, of Pennsylvania, 126^ 
 
 Stephen D. Dillaye, of New York, 119 
 
 Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, 95 
 
 Solon Chase, of Maine, 89 
 
 Edward P. Allis, of Wisconsin, 41 
 
 Alexander Campbell, of Illinois, 21 
 
 General Weaver, then a member of Congress, was nomi- 
 nated, and Mr. Allis was not the "tail ender." It still stands 
 to his credit that he had the solid vote of his own State Dele- 
 gation and received twenty one votes, from other states. 
 But one other Wisconsin man, *Gen. Edward S. Bragg, ever 
 received votes for President, in a National Convention of any 
 party, from outside his State, and but two others, Gen. 
 Edward S. Bragg and Edward C. Wall ever had the solid 
 vote of a Wisconsin Delegation for a nomination to the 
 presidency. 
 
 At this time the official figures gave the National, or 
 Greenback Party, fourteen members of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, so in many states they were a very important 
 factor. 
 
 It was a matter of note that a Wisconsin man was 
 sufficiently prominent, at the zenith of this large National 
 movement, to be one of seven to receive votes for President 
 of the United States, and this too when he was anything 
 but a self-assertive candidate. 
 
 Under the cry of "good times" the Republicans made an 
 aggressive campaign for Garfield, and while the Greenback 
 vote in the Nation exceeded 300,000, over three per cent of 
 the total vote, it was not what the successful combination 
 of 1878, and the State campaigns of 1879, had led the hope- 
 ful leaders to expect. In Wisconsin Weaver polled but 
 7,980 votes, less than a third of the vote polled by Mr. Allis, 
 for Governor, in 1877. 
 
 *Application to the Librarian of Congress and dilligent search of 
 newspaper files in Chicago and Wisconsin, fail to discover a detailed state- 
 ment of this vote, by states, so it is impossible to tell whence Mr. Allis's 
 21 votes from outside Wisconsin, came. 
 
 *Bragg had 124^ votes for President in the Gold Democratic National 
 Convention of 1896. 
 
 59 
 
But the Greenback Movement was not dead and Mr. 
 Allis, a year later, (1881) was still so faithful to it, that he 
 once more accepted, under protest, the nomination for 
 Governor, though fully aware of its hopelessness. But a 
 strong appeal was made to him by the leaders to give the 
 party the help of his leadership and he was not one to be 
 daunted by apparently overwhelming odds. 
 
 Robert Schilling, who had, by this time, become a resident 
 of Milwaukee, was Chairman of the Committee on Resolu- 
 tions at the State Convention at Watertown, which urged 
 this nomination upon Mr. Allis, and the Platform, which 
 was unique, and politically, very ingenious, he claims to 
 have drawn. It was as follows: 
 
 The National Party of Wisconsin, believing that a bonded debt is a 
 system of slavery, and that all bonds should be paid and no more issued; 
 believing that there is no difference in principle between the Republican 
 and Democratic Parties, so-called, both being committed and subservient 
 to the baneful influences of monopolies, whether of money, railroads, tele- 
 graphs, land or any other description, reaffirms the Platform of the National 
 Convention adopted at Chicago June 9, 1880, and submits to the people 
 of the State these extracts from the writings of eminent persons as its 
 declaration of principles : 
 
 1. Money is a creation of law. Artistotle. 
 
 2. Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only 
 the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first 
 existed. Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher con- 
 sideration. Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 3. The great interest of this country, the producing cause of all 
 its prosperity is labor, labor, labor! The Government was made to en- 
 courage and protect this industry and give it security. To this very end, 
 with this object in view, power was given to Congress over the currency 
 and over the money system of the country. Daniel Webster. 
 
 4. Bank paper must be suppressed and the circulation restored to 
 the Nation to whom it belongs. Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 5. The experience of the present panic has proven that our currency, 
 based as it is upon the credit of the Nation, is the best money the world 
 ever saw. U. S. Grant. 
 
 6. We believe that the issue of the currency should be commensurate 
 with the industrial and commercial interest of the people. Ohio Republican 
 Platform, 1868. 
 
 7. One currency for the Government and the people; the laborer 
 and the office-holder; the pensioner and the soldier; the producer and the 
 bond-holder. Democratic National Platform, 1868. 
 
 8. The bond-holder who refuses to take the same kind of money 
 for his bonds that he paid for them is a repudiator and extortioner. 
 John Sherman. 
 
 9. It would be an act of folly on our part after having sold these 
 bonds, at an average of sixty cents on the dollar, now to make a new con- 
 
 60 
 
tract for the benefit of the holder, and would be an indirect violation of 
 at least four statutes. Oliver P. Morton. 
 
 10. The three great civilizers, the dollar, the telegraph, and the loco- 
 motive, should be the intelligent servants and not the greedy and brutal 
 masters of the people. E. P. Allis. 
 
 Resolved, That we recognize in the attempted assassination of Presi- 
 dent Garfield a natural result of the spoils system in American politics 
 and therefore demand that all public officers as far as possible, should 
 be elected by a direct vote of the people. 
 
 Resolved, That suffrage is an inherent right for both men and women, 
 and should not be abridged except for crime or mental incapacity. 
 
 Resolved, That the $36,000,000 now loaned to the National Banks 
 be immediately called in, and the amount applied to the payment of the 
 National Debt. 
 
 The vote cast for this ticket was less than that cast for 
 General Weaver the year previous. Mr. Allis got 7002 
 votes, but little more than one fourth of his own vote in 1877. 
 
 In 1882 there were seven Greenback candidates for 
 Congress in the field, in Wisconsin, but one of whom received 
 as high as 1000 votes. Geo. B. Goodwin, a former Green- 
 backer, got 1922 votes as a Trades Assembly candidate, in 
 Milwaukee, but the Greenback strength was fast waning. 
 By 1884, Gen. Butler, as the People's Party candidate for 
 President, got only 4598 votes in Wisconsin, and Col. Utley, 
 for Governor, 4274. The party then rapidly disintegrated 
 and its members drifted to other political alliances. Mr. 
 Allis and many others who had been leaders, returned to the 
 Republican Party. 
 
 The Greenback Movement, as has been pointed out, was 
 in advance of its time, in many respects, but it had within 
 it many elements of progress. Except its chief financial 
 proposition as to greenback currency, which was impractical 
 and helped to obscure and discredit its other and better 
 proposals, most of the measures advocated, have since been, 
 in whole or in part, appropriated by the Republican Party 
 and incorporated into statute law. 
 
 One feature of Greenback Platforms was the demand 
 that silver be remonetized to make amends for "the crime 
 of '73." This Movement also made the earliest demand for 
 the free coinage of silver, which, as has been previously 
 stated, first appeared in the National Greenback Platform 
 of 1880, on which, General Weaver ran for President, which 
 demanded the abolition of National Banks and" the unlimited 
 coinage of silver, as well as gold." The silver legislation had 
 
 61 
 
been pointed to by the Greenbackers, from the outset, as an 
 important factor in the contraction of the currency, which 
 they deplored, and thereafter, the subject was up, with 
 practical constancy, until the Bryan Democracy made it 
 their "paramount" National issue in 1896. 
 
 In 1888, because the Democrats had repealed the Sherman 
 silver purchase law, the Republican National Platform upon 
 which Benjamin Harrison was elected, condemned the 
 Democratic administration of Grover Cleveland, for its 
 "efforts to demonetize silver," illustrating how partisan 
 political opportunists grasp at any chance to criticise their 
 political opponents, regardless of consistency. Eight years 
 later the Cleveland Gold Democrats saved these same 
 critics from defeat by Bryan. 
 
 In 1896, three years after another panic, the Bryan 
 Platform declared "that the act of 1873 demonetizing 
 silver * * * has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a 
 * * * fall in the prices of commodities purchased by the 
 people * * * the enrichment of the money lending class * 
 the prostration and improverishment of the people." This 
 platform opposed the issue of Government Bonds, and de- 
 clared against National Banks in terms that sounded very 
 like the demands of the Greenbackers twenty years earlier. 
 
 Mr. Bryan captured the organization of the Democratic 
 Party. Fusion with Populists and Silver Republicans, was 
 affected in several states, and although defeated, he polled 
 6,287,352 of the 13,952,179 votes cast in that campaign. 
 
 If the Greenback movement had not been attempted 
 when war prejudices were still so strong that the cry; 
 "Don't help the Democrats!" was enough to drive a host 
 whose prejudices were stronger than their principles, back 
 into the Republican fold, the "Greenback Idea" might have 
 become more formidable in the eighties, than the Free Silver 
 Idea, its descendant, was in 1896. Yet, but for the revolt 
 of the Gold Democrats in 1896, Bryan would have been 
 elected. That movement not only checked and dis- 
 heartened his followers but it aroused the frightened Repub- 
 licans into effective action, and candidate McKinley learned 
 to pronounce the word "gold" which he had previously been 
 unable to utter. 
 
 Even now, there are many who believe that the unusual 
 production of gold, since 1896, is the only thing that has 
 
warded off the calamities predicted for the country if silver 
 coinage was not made free and unlimited, at an arbitrary 
 ratio of "16 to 1." It is a fact that the value of the 
 world's gold production rose from $202,251,600 in 1896, to 
 $400,342,100 in 1906, nearly 100 per cent in ten years, and 
 year by year, since, gold production increases. Even 
 President Taft has attributed the increase in the cost of 
 living to the depreciation in the value of our gold money. 
 
 Within recent years we have had many financial writers, 
 bankers and publicists among them, who adopt "the quan- 
 titive theory of money," and take the ground that the rise 
 in prices witnessed in recent years, is due to the cheapening 
 of gold consequent upon this large increase in the world's 
 supply. 
 
 The financial problem is, therefore, still with us, and the 
 "Bankers' Panic" of 1907, like its predecessors, has brought 
 all of the old, as well as new doctors, into the case. We 
 are still drifting without a financial system that gives 
 assurance of automatic adaptability to the needs of business 
 under any serious stress of hard times. We are still critics 
 of our banks, and the next panic, like the last, will probably 
 find us still unprepared, and without either a stable currency 
 or an efficient banking system. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 63 
 
Appendix No. 1 
 
 THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 
 
 By G. M. STEELE, 
 President of Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis. 
 
 The difficulties of the currency question are perhaps greater than 
 those of almost any other with which the political economist is called to 
 deal. The complications and mysteries involved in it give rise to wide 
 differences of opinion among candid men. Few probably undertake to 
 discuss the subject without, to a greater or less extent, contradicting them- 
 selves as well as one another. I find in the works of Bastiat, the well- 
 known French economist, a malediction which he puts in the mouth of a 
 man who has evidently studied the subject till he has grown quite desperate. 
 He says: "I curse money because it is constantly confounded with wealth; 
 and from this confusion arise errors and calamaties without number. 
 I curse it because its functions are ill understood and very difficult of 
 comprehension. I curse it because it confuses all ideas, causes the means 
 to be taken for the end, the obstacle for the cause, alpha for omega; be- 
 cause its presence in the world, beneficial in itself, has introduced a false 
 notion, a begging of the question, a fallacious theory, that in its numerous 
 ramifications has impoverished man and crimsoned the earth with blood. 
 I curse it, because I feel myself incapable of wrestling against the error 
 to which it has given birth otherwise than by a long and fastidious dis- 
 sertation to which no one will listen." 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding all the bewilderments and confusions with 
 which the subject is fraught, there must be some truth to which study and 
 experience should bring us; some proper and practicable and efficient 
 financial system. That the systems and methods which have been tried 
 in modern times are vastly imperfect in their character, and that they 
 are essentially disastrous in their operation, is too obvious for argument. 
 Evidently the coming system, if it has any approximation to perfection, 
 must be something radically different from any of those hitherto pre- 
 vailing. 
 
 It is not to be expected that we shall very soon find an absolutely 
 perfect currency; we may, however hope to approximate it about as closely 
 as we do absolute perfection in other things. At all events, it seems to 
 me that we can embody the following characteristics much more fully in 
 the currency of the future than has been the case in any currency of the 
 past. We may have: 
 
 64 
 
1. A currency of uniform value. 
 
 2. A currency of possible volume sufficient to subserve all the 
 interests of commerce. 
 
 3. A currency not liable to such expansion and contraction of volume 
 as to cause perpetual fluctuations of values. 
 
 4. A currency self-regulating as to its volume, adapting it to the 
 demands of commerce. 
 
 5. A National currency not affected by convulsions and disasters 
 abroad. 
 
 These characteristics partly involve one another, and I shall not 
 attempt to keep then entirely separate in the discussion. 
 
 In endeavoring to ascertain a currency of uniform value, we shall, 
 of course, by one party be referred to gold as fulfilling the condition. But 
 if it should appear, on examination, that gold is no more constant as to 
 its value than other commodities, there would fail the great argument for 
 making gold a standard. For this reason I propose to discuss the claim of 
 
 GOLD AS A STANDARD OF VALUE. 
 
 In fixing a standard, it is essential to select something that is, as 
 nearly as possible, invariable. The conventional unit of lineal measure 
 must not be a line which averages a foot, though it may be fourteen inches 
 today and 9 inches to-morrow. The bushel-measure should not contain 
 two or three quarts, more or less, at one time than at another. For the 
 same reason it is desirable that the unit of value should have the same 
 purchasing-power next week that it has now. But here we are met by a 
 peculiarity in our unit-of-value measure. The measure itself is a com- 
 modity. The merchant's scales and weights and yard-sticks are not for 
 sale, but his dollars are. That is, the latter are not used for the sole pur- 
 pose of measurement. Now, value is not a quality inherent in an article; 
 it is a relative term signifying the amount of any one thing for which a 
 given amount of another may be equitably exchanged. If there be but 
 two things, the value of one being expressed in terms of the other, they 
 cannot both lose or gain value at the same time. Neither can one lose or 
 gain while the other remains stationary, any more than the two arms of 
 the balance can both ascend or descend at the same time, or one go up 
 while the other does not go down. If the value of the one is diminished 
 the value of the other is increased in a corresponding ratio, and vice versa. 
 
 So with reference to the whole range of commodities in the community. 
 There can be no general rise or fall or values. It is true that the sum of 
 values may be increased or diminished by the increase or diminution of 
 things having value. But the value of no individual thing can be in- 
 creased without a diminution of the value of something else. If the value 
 of thirty, or fifty, or any other number of articles is increased, there must 
 be a corresponding decrease in the value of some other article or articles. 
 If the value of all other articles, except one, be diminished, the value of 
 that one will be increased in a precisely corresponding ratio. It makes 
 no difference what these commodities may be, whether cloth or leather, 
 or wheat or gold. 
 
 Such being the general rule, the question arises, is gold any exception 
 to it? Has gold, when used as money, a uniformity which no other com- 
 modity has, or which it has not when not used as money? Or does it 
 follow the same natural law to which all other values are subject? Some 
 of the ablest of our recent writers on political economy, and those, too, 
 
 65 
 
who are ardent supporters of a value currency and a gold basis, now concede 
 that there is no such stability of value in gold. Among these I may men- 
 tion Cairnes, Fawcett and Jevons, all writers of acknowledged authority. 
 
 But this doctrine of the fluctuating value of gold is admitted prac- 
 tically by even those who deny it theoretically. The advocates of a metallic 
 currency hold that certain principles are firmly established; among others 
 that any amount of gold and silver in existence is sufficient to make the 
 exchanges of the community, or of the world; that if there be less at any 
 one point, the prices of all commodities will fall till the supply of the in- 
 strument of exchange will equalize the demand; if there be more, prices 
 will rise till they absorb the surplus; and this by a natural law. They also 
 explain that the doctrine may be stated in another way, viz., that gold 
 always goes from where it is cheap and plenty to where it is dear and scarce. 
 Now, if gold be of uniform value, how can it be dear in one place, and 
 cheap in another; or how can it be cheaper or dearer in any place at one 
 time than another? If general prices have fallen or risen, then money, 
 which is the correlative of commodities in the relation indicated by price, 
 must have also correspondingly risen or fallen. 
 
 The theory of Professor Sumner, and those who think with him in 
 relation to the regulation of prices on the basis of a gold currency, I take 
 to be substantially as follows: If for any reason gold is drawn away 
 from the country, general values diminish, which is only another way of 
 saying that the value of gold increases according to the natural law of 
 supply and demand. It is true that the prices change, not merely as 
 these teachers intimate, in proportion to the decrease in the amount of 
 gold, but far more than this, and another reason; that is, because of the 
 derangement of business and the stoppage of industries consequent upon 
 the scarcity of money. But however this may be, when the value of 
 commodities decreases and the value of gold increases, then the latter 
 flows back into the country. This causes prices to increase and the value 
 of gold to decrease, until it has reached the extreme point of reaction, 
 when the gold, because of its too greatly diminished value goes abroad 
 again, causing the diminution of prices with the usual hardships and dis- 
 aster attending such an effect. This is what is meant by the amount of 
 money regulating itself as it is said it always will on a sound metallic basis. 
 It is simply regulation by revulsion. If these writers are correct, fluctua- 
 tions are inevitable in the nature of things, crises must occur, every period 
 of prosperity must have its antithesis in a period of disaster. This has 
 been the actual course of events in our commercial history and in that of 
 Great Britain for the last fifty or sixty years, under the regime of a nominal 
 specie basis; a commercial cycle is accomplished in about ten years, with 
 something like intervening and irregular epicycles. 
 
 The history of one of these periods is the history of all, and is familiar 
 to us all. We begin with moderate prices, money scarce and dear, and 
 wages low, but employment at some wages for most who are willing to 
 work. Production is enlarged, commerce is more lively, prices rise, capital 
 increases, money becomes plenty and cheap. Our expenditures become 
 more profuse, we run larger risks in business, importation exceeds expor- 
 tation; money begins to go abroad and consequently becomes scarce; a 
 panic ensues; business is curtailed; the panic changes to real revulsion; 
 many industries stop; bankruptcy is the order of. the day; all kinds of 
 commodities fall to the lowest prices, till money rises so much in value that 
 it becomes an article of import, and as it flows back, industry revives, 
 slowly at first, and then more rapidly, and we start off again to repeat 
 the same process. 
 
 66 
 
Now, it will be observed that there is implied in all this change, and 
 indeed in the very language of the sturdiest bullionists who discuss the 
 subject, however they may manage to conceal it even from themselves, 
 this one thing, viz., that the value of gold follows the same law of supply 
 and demand that the values of other commodities do, and that this value 
 varies largely in different localities, and in the same locality at different 
 times. Few doctrines are more fallacious than that of the stability of 
 the value of gold, and few fallacies are more wide-spread and more mis- 
 chievous. It comes from the habit prevalent even among the well in- 
 structed, and those who theoretically know better, of practically confound- 
 ing price with value. It will not be difficult to show that the purchasing 
 power of gold and this is what we mean by value within the last six 
 years has varied by an imperceptible fraction less than that of our national 
 paper currency, even when the latter has been under unnecessary and 
 unnatural disabilities. 
 
 Commissioner Wells, in his report of 1869, (p. 52) gives a tabular 
 statement of the comparative prices of a list of eleven staple articles in the 
 Philadelphia market on July 30, 1867, and July 30, 1869. The average 
 decrease in the price of these eleven articles, reckoned in currency, is 30 9-10 
 per cent., or currency values had increased 45 per cent.; while the decrease 
 in the premium on gold for the same time was only 11 per cent. If the 
 prices are reduced to a gold standard, and if we may take these articles 
 as representative of general prices, as Mr. Wells obviously intends, we 
 shall find that the value of gold, in these two years varied 40 per cent. 
 
 Take another example. Amasa Walker, in his work on the Science of 
 Wealth, (p. 488,) gives the comparative prices of a list of seventeen articles 
 for the four successive years, 1862 to 1865 inclusive, in the Boston market 
 for the month of October. These articles, as he says, "are of domestic 
 produce, not directly affected by customs or excise charges." Taking 
 these as representative of general values, we learn that the advance in the 
 whole four years amounts to 141 per cent., while the premium on gold in 
 the same time has advanced only 11 5-10 per cent. Reducing everything 
 to a gold standard we find that the value of gold has fallen nearly 53 per 
 cent, in four years. In other words, whatever you might have purchased 
 for a gold dollar in 1862, you would have been obliged to pay $2.13 for the 
 same article in 1865. By the same table we learn that from October, 
 1864, to October 1865, while the premium on gold fell 30 per cent, general 
 prices rose 10 5-10 per cent. Reducing all the values to a gold standard, 
 I find that gold fluctuated in a single year nearly 58 per cent, while the 
 fluctuation in the value of greenbacks tested by the same standard of 
 general prices, was only 9-5-10 per cent, or less than one-sixth of that of gold. 
 
 A more reliable illustration is found in the Banker's Almanac for 1875. 
 In it is a tabular list of the comparative prices of seventy-five staple articles 
 in the New York market on the first day of May, for thirteen successive 
 years, 1862 to 1874. From the information contained in this table, and a 
 table giving the monthly premium on gold during the same years, I have 
 made some careful calculations, the results of which are given in the follow- 
 ing table. It embraces, in separate columns, the rise and fall of the premium 
 on gold, reckoned by the percentage on the premium of each year*, rise 
 and fall of currency-prices the same of gold-prices, (or reduced to the 
 
 The percentage is not the numerical per cent of the rise or fall, but 
 the percentage on the premiums at the time from which the reckoning 
 starts. Thus, if the premium is 30 per cent, and then goes up to 40 per 
 cent, the rise is not 10 per cent, but 33 1-3 per cent. 
 
 67 
 
gold-standard,) the fluctuation of currency-value, and the fluctuations 
 in the value of gold. The figures for the last two years are taken from the 
 
 New York Financial Review of 1876: 
 
 Years. 
 
 Premium 
 on gold 
 
 Currency 
 prices 
 
 Gold 
 Prices 
 
 Value of 
 Currency 
 
 Value of 
 Gold 
 
 1863-4 
 
 Per Cent, 
 r 20 00 
 
 Per Cent. 
 34 00 
 
 Per Cent, 
 r 28 00 
 
 Per Cent, 
 f 25.00 
 
 Per Cent, 
 f 22.00 
 
 1864-5 
 1865-6 
 
 f 40.58 
 f 9.15 
 
 2.00 
 16.10 
 
 f 14.70 
 f 14.00 
 
 r 2.00 
 r 20.00 
 
 r 17.60 
 r 17.00 
 
 1866-7 
 1867-8 
 1868-9 
 
 f 3.50 
 r 7.50 
 f 1.25 
 
 1.60 
 3.60 
 12.70 
 
 f 0.09 
 f 2.10 
 r 11.00 
 
 f 1.40 
 r 3.70 
 f 11.25 
 
 r 1.00 
 r 2.10 
 f 9.87 
 
 1869-70 
 1870-1 
 1871-2 
 1872-3 
 1873-4 
 1874-5 
 1875-6 
 
 f 63.00 
 f 20.50 
 r 14.00 
 r 33.00 
 f 23.50 
 r 21.20 
 r 4.40 
 
 11.20 
 7.22 
 6.10 
 8.40 
 f 42.60 
 f 10.18 
 f 0.72 
 
 r 5.60 
 f 8.58 
 r 8.68 
 r 4.00 
 f 40.80 
 f 11.85 
 f 1.15 
 
 r 13.00 
 r 7.80 
 f 5.67 
 f 7.75 
 r 73.00 
 r 11.12 
 r 0.72 
 
 f 4.75 
 r 9.27 
 f 8.00 
 f 3.75 
 r 69.00 
 r 13.12 
 r 1.16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Average ann'l varia's . . . 
 
 20.12 
 
 12.08 
 
 11.66 
 
 14.80 
 
 14.50 
 
 From this table we learn several things; among others, 1. That the 
 fluctuations of prices in no respect correspond with the variations in the 
 premium on gold. 2. That the value of gold instead of a fixed and staple 
 value is constantly fluctuating and that in these thirteen years it has varied 
 all the way from 1 per cent up to 69 per cent in one year. 3. That in 
 four out of the last six years the variation in the value of gold has been 
 greater than in that of greenbacks. 4. That for the whole thirteen years, 
 during which time the greenback has been subjected to unnatural dis- 
 abilities by the action of the Government, its average annual variation in 
 value has been not quite one-third of one per cent greater than that of gold. 
 
 It may be said that these statistics pertain to an era full of disturbing 
 elements and that therefore calculations made from them are unreliable. 
 Let us, then, examine certain facts belonging to a time free from those 
 perturbations. I avail myself of another table and diagram prepared by 
 Mr. Walker*. He gives us a tabular list of the comparative prices of 
 ten staple articles in the New York market for twenty-six years, 1834 to 
 1859 inclusive the only period, he says, for which we have a correct 
 data, also a period of general peace. The articles selected are among the 
 most common in use, and those whose prices are best known and least 
 liable to fluctuations except by changes in the currency. The prices, it 
 will be observed, are gold prices. If the articles here specified fairly repre- 
 sent the general values of the commodities of the country, the value of 
 gold diminished in two years, 1834 to 1836, more than 35 per cent. In 
 the next six years, 1836 to 1842, its value increased 109 per cent. In the 
 next five years it diminished again 33Mj per cent, having had an advance 
 in the meantime of 11 per cent. In the next three years the value of gold 
 advanced nearly 30 per cent, and in the next seven years, with some fluc- 
 tuation in the interval it diminished 36^ per cent, with an increase the 
 next year of 15^ per cent. Here, then, we have in the space of twenty- 
 
 *Science of Wealth, by Amasa Walker, (larger edition,) pp. 177, 178, 
 with diagram. 
 
 68 
 
four years seven marked fluctuations varying from 11 to 109 per cent, 
 with some minor variations not noticed. Mr. Walker constructed these 
 tables to show that the fluctuations in prices correspond with the variations 
 in the amount of currency in circulation, and that the former are caused 
 by the latter. He is not altogether successful in that which he attempts, 
 and his tables are by no means perfect. But whatever the causes may 
 be, if the tables show anything with reference to the variation of prices, 
 they show that the value of gold is exceedingly unstable. 
 
 That this is not wholly owing to a redundant paper currency or to 
 circumstances peculiar to our own country, is indicated by the testimony 
 of Professor Jevons, who will certainly be regarded as a disinterested 
 witness. In his recent work on "Money and the Mechanism of Exchange," 
 he refers to a previous paper of his on the variation of prices, read before 
 the London Statistical Society, in 186.5, in which he claims to have shown 
 that the value of gold between 1789 and 1809, fell in the ratio of 100 to 54, 
 or by 46 per cent. From 1809 to 1849. it rose again in the extraordinary 
 ratio of 100 to 245, or by 145 per cent, rendering Government annuities 
 and all fixed payments extending over this period almost two and a half 
 times as valuable as they were in 1809. I have not at hand any statistics 
 showing the amount of money in circulation in Great Britian during these 
 periods, but it will be safe to assume that there was a large increase on the 
 whole; thus indicating another serious fallacy in the reasonings of a leading 
 school of British economists, who teach that the value of money depreciates, 
 or what is the same thing, that prices appreciate in a ratio corresponding 
 to the increase of the amount of money in circulation. Professor Jevons 
 says, furthermore, that "since 1849*, the value of gold has again fallen to 
 the extent of at least 20 per cent; and a careful study of the fluctuation 
 of prices, as shown either in the annual reviews of trade of the Economist 
 newspaper or in the paper referred to above, shows that fluctuations of 
 from 10 to 25 per cent occur in every credit cycle." 
 
 It may be said that such statistics are unsatisfactory, because only 
 indicating the condition of things where a mixed currency is used. Let 
 us then test the matter by an examination of the price-list in California, 
 where there is a purely metallic currency. I have not been able to secure 
 such lists extending over a series of many years, as I would desire to do 
 in order to establish the fact more clearly. But I chanced to find the 
 other day, in the San Francisco Journal of Commerce, of January 12, 1876, 
 a table of the comparative prices of twenty-nine staple and representative 
 commodities in the markets of that city. The table was prepared with- 
 out any reference to the question now under discussion and is therefore 
 more reliable. By it we learn that between January, 1875, and January 
 1876, general prices had fallen more than 26 per cent, or what is the same 
 thing, the value of gold had risen more than 35 per cent in a single year. 
 Now, 35 per cent is a greater fluctuation than has occurred in the value 
 of greenbacks in any one year since 1863, with a single exception. 
 
 Another fact or two in the current commercial and industrial history 
 of California may exemplify the effect of an exclusive gold currency as 
 compared with one of reliable paper. Mr. Kelly, in a recent speech, 
 introduced some statistics indicating very clearly that the progress of that 
 State in wealth and population during the last decade was less, in pro- 
 portion to the favorableness of its conditions, than that of any other State 
 not made the theatre of war during the Rebellion. But this is not the 
 
 This was said I, think, about 1865, since that time gold has again 
 risen some 25 or 30 per cent. 
 
chief point to which I wish to direct attention. I have, with much care, 
 compiled a table of comparative wholesale prices of a list of nineteen staple 
 articles, of general use in the cities of San Francisco, Chicago, and New 
 York, as they were sold in the month of February of the present year. 
 Instead of giving the prices of the commodities in the quantities in which 
 they are usually sold, I have taken proportional amounts of each, so as 
 to bring the prices, as nearly as practicable, into the neighborhood of $1 
 each. Otherwise the difference of the price of one article in different 
 places might unfairly affect the general average. 
 
 Thus, if pork, at $20 per barrel, be put against cotton cloth, at 7J^ 
 cents per yard, the proportion will not be as just as if we take one twentieth 
 of a barrel of pork and fourteen yards of cloth: 
 
 TABLE OF COMPARATIVE PRICES OF STAPLE COMMODITIES IN THE MARKETS 
 OF SAN FRANCISCO, CHICAGO AND NEW YORK, FEBRUARY, 1876. 
 
 ARTICLES* 
 
 San Francisco, 
 
 Chicago. 
 
 New York, 
 
 Price of 
 
 Ordinary 
 Quantity 
 
 Propor- 
 tional 
 Price 
 
 Price of 
 
 Ordinary 
 Quantity 
 
 Propor- 
 tional 
 Price 
 
 Price of 
 Ordinary 
 Quantity 
 
 Propor- 
 tional 
 Price 
 
 Tea, pound 
 Oats, bushel 
 Potatoes, bushel 
 Candles, pound 
 Coffee, pound 
 Butter pound 
 
 .59 
 .775 
 .76 
 .13 
 .22 
 .34 
 .12 
 5.77 
 .16 
 34.00 
 .60 
 3.70 
 ,17 
 10.00 
 20.00 
 .15 
 .135 
 .075 
 .12 
 
 .59 
 .775 
 1.52 
 .91 
 .10 
 .02 
 .20 
 .154 
 .12 
 .133 
 .20 
 .925 
 .02 
 .00 
 .00 
 .90 
 .945 
 1.05 
 1.08 
 
 .68 
 .32 
 .30 
 .16 
 .22 
 .23 
 .1775 
 4.75 
 .12 
 28.00 
 .15 
 4.00 
 .115 
 9.50 
 21.50 
 .20 
 .105 
 .075 
 .095 
 
 .68 
 .32 
 .60 
 1.12 
 1.10 
 .69 
 1.175 
 .95 
 .84 
 .933 
 .30 
 1.00 
 .69 
 .95 
 1.075 
 1.20 
 .735 
 1.05 
 .855 
 
 .68 
 .45 
 .50 
 .24 
 .22 
 .25 
 .1075 
 5.25 
 .12 
 22.00 
 .16 
 3.75 
 .14 
 12.00 
 20.00 
 .18 
 .105 
 .065 
 .095 
 
 .68 
 .45 
 .00 
 .68 
 .10 
 .75 
 .075 
 .05 
 .84 
 .733 
 .32 
 .962 
 .84 
 1.20 
 1.00 
 1.08 
 .735 
 .91 
 .855 
 
 Sugar, pound 
 Flour, . barrel 
 
 Cheese pound 
 Pig Iron ton 
 Eggs, dozen 
 Nails, keg 
 Hams, pound 
 Beef, barrel 
 Pork,. barrel 
 
 Pepper pound 
 Cotton-cloth, . . . And'n, yd 
 Prints And'n, yd 
 Brown Sheeting And'n, yd 
 
 
 19.642 
 
 
 16.263 
 
 
 17.26 
 
 It will be seen at once by the foregoing table that our Government 
 paper dollar has in New York nearly 14 per cent more purchasing power 
 than a gold dollar has in San Francisco, and that in Chicago, it has over 
 20 per cent more. This, too, when the gold dollar has 35 per cent more 
 purchasing power there now than it had one year ago. 
 
 . It is now tolerably evident, not only that gold has a very unstable 
 and fluctuating value, rendering it totally unfit for the basis of a circulating 
 medium or a standard, but that it is often more fluctuating and uncertain 
 in its character than is our national paper currency at its worst estate. 
 What I mean by its worst estate is this: Our National currency, though 
 accomplishing marvels for the salvation of the country when threatened 
 
 *More than half of these articles are among the regular exports of 
 California. 
 
 70 
 
with destruction by the insurrection and Civil War, and for its industrial and 
 commercial prosperity after the restoration of peace, has done this under 
 exceedingly unfavorable auspices for its own credit. Destined from the 
 first to depreciation and partial repudiation by the very Government 
 that issued it, and assaulted and maligned first by political partisans, 
 and then by the financial authorities, whose venerable but false philosophy 
 it threatened to undermine, and whose control over the wealth of the 
 Nation it was likely to reduce to its lowest terms, it has never had any- 
 thing like a fair chance to prove its real excellence. Yet, for all this, during 
 considerable periods of time, kept a steadier value than gold itself during 
 nearly the whole period of its existence, its average annual fluctuation 
 has not been perceptibly greater than that of gold, while to-day it has 
 where it is used, from 14 to 20 per cent more purchasing power than gold 
 has in a community where the latter is the exclusive currency. And this 
 is the medium about which volumes have been written, and speeches by 
 the hour have been made, denouncing it as a "depreciated currency." 
 
 But, it is said that under our present system or any other system of 
 inconvertible paper, there is danger of too much currency, and the only 
 preventive of this evil is what is called a specie basis. But what is the 
 evidence that there is now, or that there has been too much currency. 
 The principle reason offered is, its assumed depreciation. I have shown 
 that this depreciation is rather theoretical and speculative than practical; 
 that such as it is, it has been caused by the action of the Government 
 and the fashion of the financiers. This brings us to an essential charac- 
 teristic of a suitable currency. It should be of a kind, which will make 
 possible a sufficient quantity to effect the exchanges of the community, 
 without resorting to more hazardous means. The fact that a metallic 
 currency cannot be supplied in sufficient amount to perform all the exchanges 
 of any people is daily proved. It is seen in the fact, that in every civilized 
 nation the vast majority of exchanges are transacted, not through the 
 instrumentality of money, but by bills of exchange, checks, drafts, book- 
 accounts, and other transfers of credit. These form by far the major part 
 of the machinery of commerce, by which, as Professor Jevons says, almost 
 all large exchanges are now effected. It is simply a complicated and 
 perfected system of barter, through which the buyers of one community 
 pay for it, not in money, but in other commodities. 
 
 In the London Clearing House transactions to the amount of $30,000, 
 000,000 are affected in a year without the use of any cash at all com- 
 modities bought and sold being made to balance one another. This is 
 only one of the clearing houses of Great Britain, and though by far the 
 largest, it yet effects only a portion of the exchange. Now, it is quite 
 obvious that the money of Great Britain, including all the bank-notes in 
 circulation, is not more than enough to effect the exchanges aside from 
 the amount of forty to fifty billions effected through other agencies. That 
 is, the gold and silver of Great Britain supplemented by nearly an equal 
 volume of paper currency is not enough to make more than perhaps one- 
 fiftieth of the amount of exchanges which are there effected. It may be 
 true that the exchanges are just as well effected in this way and in fact 
 with less inconvenience. But a point or two here must be noted. A very 
 considerable proportion of this major section of the instrument of exchange 
 is simply credit. Now, there is a limit beyond which credit cannot be 
 profitably extended. The smaller the amount of money in relation to the 
 exchanges, the greater must be the expansion of the credit element, and it 
 is from the undue expansion of the latter that the great commercial revul- 
 
 71 
 
sions ensue rather than from an expansion or inflation of the currency. 
 Credit can be kept within its appropriate and safe limit only by a sufficiency 
 of currency. Gold and silver cannot anywhere nearly constitute such a 
 sufficiency; hence, the necessaity of some other medium or of a mixed 
 currency. 
 
 A still more important point is also in issue. The great fear always 
 expressed by our financiers is lest there should be an over issue of the 
 currency. Too much money is regarded as a most serious evil. Hence, 
 stringent limits are to be placed to the amount in circulation. It is even 
 thought worth while, just at this present time, on the supposition that 
 there is too much currency, to contract the volume at whatever cost. 
 To this end the wheels of industry must stop; thousands of capitalists, 
 the captains of industry, must go into bankruptcy; production must be 
 curtailed to an alarming extent; tens of thousands of men, able and willing 
 to work, are compelled to endure an enforced idleness, and hundreds of 
 thousands of women and children are living in pinching poverty, or dying 
 of want, because our theorists think we have too much currency. This 
 process, by which millions of property are sacrificed, and incalculable 
 wretchedness is produced, is called "the heroic remedy." 
 
 We might think this absurd if it were applied equally to the whole 
 medium of exchange. How much more, when we observe that the restric- 
 tion has reference to only a small portion of the medium. As we have 
 seen, the currency constitutes but a small fraction of the medium prob- 
 ably not more than one-tenth. The other nine-tenths, comprising bills 
 of exchange, checks on deposits, and other transfers of credit, are not 
 subject to any restriction, nor is there any natural law to confine them 
 within prescribed boundaries. That portion of the instrument which they 
 comprise sometimes doubles and trebles its volume and overflows all 
 limits in a wild deluge of speculation; but no one talks of restraining it. 
 Mr. H. C. Baird, in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 1876, has already 
 called attention to this fact. It is distinction between the medium of 
 exchange of the common people and that of the great capitalists. The 
 latter have no need of much money. They can make their exchanges 
 without it. I venture to say that A. T. Stewart, or Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
 or Alexander Mitchell do not handle so much money in a year as any one 
 of a thousand of our Wisconsin farmers or mechanics. Yet each of the 
 former effects exchanges implying millions of dollars annually. The farmer, 
 with a few hundred dollars worth of produce to dispose of, may be expected 
 to receive his pay in money; and he must pay the money for the few hundred 
 dollars worth of commodities which he buys. He does not unusually keep 
 a bank-account nor pass his check in payment of his purchases, nor take a 
 check which may be placed to his credit in a moneyed institution. Currency 
 is the instrument of exchange with the common people; credit is the in- 
 strument with the wealthy class. The machinery of the former, though 
 smaller, and less liable to perilous expansion than the latter, though possibly 
 effecting more exchanges in the aggregate, is to be strictly hedged in, 
 while the latter is allowed the freest scope. 
 
 If gold and silver can be made the absolute basis, and no paper dollar 
 be in circulation which has not an actual gold or silver dollar behind it, 
 there will be a natural limitation, and that, too, without any relation to 
 the wants of the community. The medium of exchange with the great 
 masses of men, who are also men of moderate means, will be very small, 
 and, of course, undue expansion, will be impossible. But the medium of 
 the stockholders, depositors, and great property-owners, and even of many 
 
 72 
 
who do business on a fictitious basis, can be expanded to any extent which 
 corresponds with the amount of their supposed capital, and often far 
 beyond it. Such a system tends, whenever it is adopted, to make the rich 
 richer and the poor poorer, and if carried to the legitimate result would 
 make the laborer the slave of the capitalist. 
 
 If, then,, we would have a currency adapted to the wants of the people 
 as a whole, and especially to agricultural circumstances, and to men of 
 moderate means, as most men everywhere are, it is plain that a purely 
 metallic currency will not do, nor even a paper currency, all of which can 
 immediately be converted into specie. The paper money of no civilized 
 nation, I believe, has ever been of the latter condition. In any land today 
 if gold should be demanded by all the holders of paper money regarded as 
 convertible into gold, nearly every bank in Christendom would suspend, 
 and universal disaster would result. The reason why paper money cir- 
 culates in the commercial nations, even where it is known that gold cannot 
 be had for it all at once, is partly because the gold and silver unsupplemented 
 by this paper would be insufficient to do the business of exchange, and 
 partly because it is more convenient; therefore, it is sustained by general 
 consent. Would it not be better if under guarantee of the Government, 
 the representative of the whole people, and therefore by the legalized 
 general consent, we were to adopt a token currency of paper, which be- 
 cause it has comparatively no material value, is not in itself liable to 
 fluctuation, and would remain a simple indicator and measure of value. 
 There would then be no necessary contraction or expansion of values 
 in any given volume. 
 
 In order to do this there should be a self-regulating principle, as no 
 man is, and no body of men are wise enough to determine the amount of 
 money which is needed in a community. The regulative principle claimed 
 to be in a specie currency is found in the fact that the quantity of the 
 precious metals is so small that there is never likely to be a surplus of 
 money made solely from them, and as to their being any lack, it is said 
 that no matter how small the amount, whatever there is will be enough, 
 since prices will adjust themselves to the quantity of money in circulation. 
 That is, if by the exigencies of foreign trade, the precious metals have gone 
 abroad, prices must fall in order to bring them back, and when they return 
 prices will rise in other words, the system implies a series of fluctuations. 
 As I have previously shown; it is regulation by revulsion. There must 
 be periodical panics and crises, the grand catastrophe occurring about 
 once in each decade, with intervals of minor disaster. This is the history 
 of nearly all the commercial nations making gold and silver the exclusive 
 basis of carefully limited currency. 
 
 The plan proposed by our currency reformers, is that of an Inter- 
 convertible Government Bond, bearing interest at the rate of one per cent 
 a day for each $100, into which any surplus Government paper currency 
 may be at any time converted, and then when the exigencies of business 
 require more money, reconverting the bond into cash. According to the 
 theory there will be no need to restrict the amount in circulation by act of 
 the legislature; nor will it be subject to the accidentally greater or less 
 yield of the precious metals. The circulation will regulate itself; people 
 will buy no more money than they need, any more than they will buy a 
 surplus of yard-sticks, or gallon and bushel measures. I am not abso- 
 lutely clear as to the success of this plan. It is untried, and we know not 
 what difficulties it may involve in practice. But I see no reason why 
 it would not be safe, and at least, vastly superior to any system heretofore 
 
 73 
 
prevailing. But whether this precise theory be the correct one or not, 
 we can adhere to such features of it as have been amply tested and proved 
 good. 
 
 In the first place, it is pretty clear to my mind that at no time within 
 the last fifteen years have we had too much currency. It is true there is 
 very much dispute among writers as to the amount of paper at any one 
 time actually in circulation as money. The difference, doubtless, arises 
 from the fact that one party reckoning only the greenbacks, and National 
 Bank notes, arrive at the conclusion that until the contraction of last year 
 began, there had been an increase of currency from the beginning of the 
 greenback issue; while the other party take into account the demand and 
 interest-bearing notes. After the most careful comparisons I have been 
 able to make, and after deducting much from the figures of those who 
 most strenuously insist that there has been a vast contraction, I am satisfied 
 that the amount in circulation in 1866, was not less than $1,200,000,000. 
 Amasa Walker, a most vigorous opponent of all inconvertible paper 
 money, and even of any paper money which does not actually represent 
 specie, dollar for dollar, in a work published in 1867, gives the amount as 
 $1,258,000,000. Calling it 1,200,000,000, and our population, in 1866, 
 37,000,000 we had at that time less than $32.50 per capita. The amount 
 in circulation, in July, 1875, was a little more than $17.50 per capita. 
 France, with a far more compact population, and with less need of a large 
 circulating medium, has about $48 per capita, nearly three times as much 
 as we now have. This, too, by the way, indicates a reason why the French 
 system of finance involves so much less of the credit element in her exchange 
 medium. The check, deposit, and clearing-house system is far less pre- 
 valent there than here or in Great Britain, and the expansions and con- 
 tractions, and periodical revolutions consequent upon them are far less 
 frequent and disastrous here than in England. A sufficiency of currency 
 renders resort to this more perilous agency less necessary. The currency 
 of Great Britain amounts to $34.44 per capita, or nearly twice as much 
 as ours, while their needs are not nearly so great. 
 
 Now, it is plain enough, if there was not too much currency for our 
 legitimate uses in 1866, there is too little now, and to diminish the amount 
 in any case, must in proportion to the diminution, produce commercial 
 and industrial derangements. 
 
 In the second place, it is equally clear to my mind that at no time 
 in the history of the country, have the farmers and mechanics, laboring 
 men, and all others doing a legitimate business, whether as capitalists or 
 laborers, had so much prosperity as during the time of an abundant currency, 
 guaranteed by the Government, and previous to the presistent efforts to 
 contract the circulation, in order to get back to specie payments. Why 
 should we not let well enough alone? 
 
 In reply to this it is said that the prosperity claimed was fictitious. 
 What is offered in proof of this? Nothing, only that it has been succeeded 
 by a period of disaster, the natural consequence, we are assured, of an 
 inflated currency. But here the stubborn fact meets the objection, that 
 with a specie basis in this country, and in England, where the specie basis 
 is much larger than here, and where there is no paper money in circulation 
 under the denomination of twenty-five dollars, there have been the same 
 periodical disasters, as great and terrible as ours now, and that they have 
 come after only ten years of prosperity; while in our present case, with 
 almost everything against us by reason of the war, we had a period of 
 
 74 
 
about fifteen years without any revulsion. So that, under the most dis- 
 advantageous and abnormal conditions, and the admitted imperfections 
 of the Government currency, our period of freedom was 50 per cent better 
 than under any other system which has been tested. 
 
 But it is said again that to adhere to the greenback is repudiation. 
 It is not repudiation if the holders of notes desire still to hold them rather 
 than have them paid; and evidently this is the case with the great majority 
 who do hold and use these notes. Is it repudiation in England when the 
 government consolidates its promises to pay into billions of dollars' worth 
 of certificates of indebtedness which it does not even propose to pay? Do 
 men buy repudiated obligations, either of government or of individuals, 
 and pay nearly 100 per cent for them. A large proportion of the notes 
 of the Bank of England paper money to the amount of $75,000,000 are 
 based, not upon gold or silver but upon these evidences of the national 
 debt which the nation does not promise to pay; and yet these bank-notes 
 will command gold for their face in any nation of Europe, and probably 
 of the world. Venice had such evidences of debt circulating as money, 
 but being really only an indefinite promise to pay, and they were for cen- 
 turies from 10 to 20 per cent more valuable than gold, just as ours very 
 likely would be, if we only treated them as we ought. 
 
 There is another way to look at this repudiation sentiment which is 
 now so flippantly and now so lugubriously handled. I have shown that 
 there is no shadow of repudiation in extending the time of the notes at the 
 desire and -for the benefit of the people who use them. But even if it were 
 a real repudiation of such a character as to destroy their total value and 
 make it a dead loss, amounting to the whole $379,000,000, it would be 
 almost immeasurably less disastrous than the course being now pursued 
 to restore and uphold the credit of the nation, as the phrase goes. Billions 
 of dollars worth of property has already been destroyed, and many human 
 lives have been sacrificed. This kind of honesty is very much like that of 
 a man who is determined to pay his debts if he has to rob all his neighbors, 
 and even murder some of them, in order to accomplish his laudable purpose. 
 
 We have been told, and it has been assumed as though it were a self- 
 evident opposition, that there is no possible way of passing from an in- 
 convertible paper currency back to specie payment except through revul- 
 sion, disaster, and ruin of many fortunes. It is difficult to guess where 
 such an opinion can have originated. It is certainly no reason for adopting 
 it, that England was once guilty of the enormous folly of impoverishing 
 thousands of her people, and subjecting multitudes of her laborers to the 
 verge of starvation, by unnaturally forcing specie payment when she was 
 doing very well without it. The proposition is not true. Other nations 
 have brought their inconvertible paper to a par with gold without any 
 such wide-spread disaster. France more than doubled her bank circulation 
 in her late fierce struggle with Germany, and made the paper a legal tender; 
 and yet, though overtaken by such calamities as have come upon scarcely 
 any other nation of modern tinier, her paper money has never gone more 
 than three per cent below gold, and it is now so near par that she could 
 resume with the utmost safety, if she were so disposed. 
 
 It is true we have not been so wise as France in the management of 
 our financial affairs. Had we, like her, made our Government notes a 
 legal tender for all dues to and from the Government, as well as between 
 individuals, there probably would never have been a time, except while 
 the fate of the nation itself was in doubt, when they would have been more 
 than a nominal per cent below gold. 
 
 75 
 
My own conviction is that if the Government would at once repeal 
 the resumption act, and cease its unnatural endeavors in that direction; 
 if it would decree that the treasury-notes now used as currency should be 
 received for all Government dues, the present enforced idleness and waste 
 of labor would come to an end, and a more prosperous state would begin 
 to be manifest. If it be asked how, in that case, we are to pay the interest 
 on our bonds which we have promised to pay in gold, I reply we are to pay 
 it as we do now. Gold has now to be bought and paid into the treasury 
 in the form of duties, and with this gold the interest is paid. I know no 
 reason why the Government cannot buy gold as cheaply as private citizens. 
 Besides, when our paper money comes to be taken for all Government 
 dues, it will doubtless appreciate so nearly to the value of gold that the 
 latter can be more easily secured than now. 
 
 As to the amount of money in circulation, I have no doubt that there 
 is at present quite sufficient for all the business at present being done. 
 But with the restoration of business prosperity there would certainly be 
 a demand for more than is now available. That there should be an expan- 
 sion somewhere nearly up to the limits reached before contraction began, 
 seems not unreasonable; but let some limit for the present be fixed with 
 the opportunity to fund any surplus below that, which may occasionally 
 exist in a low interest-bearing bond made reconvertible into currency at 
 the option of the holder. Such an expansion, as it seems to me, is the 
 best safeguard we can have against an unhealthy inflation which is far 
 more likely to take place in the credit element of the instrument of exchange, 
 than in the currency element. 
 
 Such a financial system would have the advantage of being a National 
 Currency. The advantage consists in this, that it is not liable to be drawn 
 away by foreign exigencies, thus producing fluctuations in prices and 
 various damaging derangements. Its volume will be steady and stable, 
 as that of the precious metals cannot be. Says a recent San Francisco 
 commercial paper: "The dullness in business and the difficulty of obtain- 
 ing money on what has been at other times deemed unexceptionable security, 
 reminds our people that the financial problem is probably the most im- 
 portant that can occupy their attention. The essential feature of that 
 problem is the retention on the Pacific coast of sufficient of the precious 
 metals to liberally supply the rapidly growing needs of the commercial 
 and industrial system of the people. The irregular coin movements of 
 the past year have been highly injurious to both. How to regulate them 
 and to stop excessive drain just when money is most needed, is the problem." 
 
 This evil of irregular movement and draining away of money when most 
 needed is not peculiar to California finances; it is inherent in any system of 
 specie currency, and is the source of no small proportion of the commercial 
 evils in those countries which adopt either it, or that of a specie basis. 
 
 If it be asked how under such a system are we to make our international 
 exchange, I answer, make them just as we do now. We should aim to 
 make our exports, pay for our imports. If they do not, the balances must 
 be paid in the precious metal, and these will be exported not as money, 
 but as bullion. The money of the world which figures so largely in argu- 
 ments has no other existence. All the gold and silver sent from this country 
 to any other, has to be purchased here with some commodity and whether 
 sent as coin or bullion it is received there only .as the latter; for it is money 
 only here as their coin is money only there. Gold and silver will be pur- 
 chasable then as now; the only difference will be that its export will make 
 no difference with the volume of our circulating medium and produce no 
 fluctuation in prices and no commercial convulsions. 
 
 76 
 
Appendix No. 2 
 
 NATIONAL LABOR REFORM PLATFORM OF 1872. 
 
 We hold that all political power is inherent in the people, and free 
 government founded on their authority and established for their benefit; 
 that all citizens are equal in political rights, entitled to the largest religious 
 and political liberty compatible with the good order of society, as also 
 the use and enjoyment of the fruits of their labor and talents; and no man 
 or set of men is entitled to exclusive separable endowments and privileges, 
 or immunities from the Government, but in consideration of public services; 
 and any laws destructive of these fundamental principles are without 
 moral binding force, and should be repealed. And believing that all the 
 evils resulting from unjust legislation now affecting the industrial classes 
 can be removed by the adoption of the principles contained in the follow- 
 ing declaration, therefore, 
 
 RESOLVED, That it is the duty of the Government to establish a 
 just standard of distribution of capital and labor by providing a purely 
 National circulating medium, based on the faith and resources of the Nation, 
 issued directly to the people without the intervention of any system of 
 banking corporations, which money shall be legal tender in the payment 
 of all debts, public and private, and interchangeable at the option of the 
 holder for Government Bonds bearing a rate of interest not to exceed 3.65 
 per cent, subject to future legislation by Congress. 
 
 2. That the National Debt should be paid in good faith, according 
 to the original contract, at the earliest option of the Government, without 
 mortgaging the property of the people or the future exigencies of labor, 
 to enrich a few capitalists at home and abroad. 
 
 3. That justice demands that the burdens of Government should be 
 so adjusted as to bear equally on all classes, and that the exemption from 
 taxation of Government Bonds bearing extravagant rates of interest is a 
 violation of all just principles of revenue laws. 
 
 4. That the public lands of the United States belong to the People, 
 and should not be sold to individuals nor granted to corporations, but 
 should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit of the People, and should 
 be granted the landless settlers only, in amounts not exceeding one hundred 
 and sixty acres of land. 
 
 5. That Congress should modify the tariff so as to admit free such 
 articles of common use as we can neither produce nor grow, and lay duties 
 for revenue mainly upon articles of luxury and upon such articles of manu- 
 facture as will, we having the raw materials, assist in further developing 
 the resources of the country. 
 
 77 
 
6. That the presence in our country of Chinese labor, imported by 
 capitalists in large numbers, for servile use, is an evil, entailing want and 
 its attendant train of misery and crime on all classes of the American 
 People, and should be prohibited by legislation. 
 
 7. That we ask for the enactment of a law by which all mechanics 
 and day laborers employed by or on behalf of the Government, whether 
 directly or indirectly, through persons, firms, or corporations contracting 
 with the State, shall conform to the reduced standard of eight hours a day, 
 recently adopted by Congress for National employees, and also for an amend- 
 ment to the acts of incorporation for Cities and Towns by which all laborers 
 and mechanics employed at their expense shall conform to the same number 
 of hours. 
 
 8. That the enlightened spirit of the age demands the abolition of 
 the system of contract labor in our prisons and other reformatory in- 
 stitutions. 
 
 9. That the protection of life, liberty, and property are the three 
 cardinal principles of Government, and the first two are more sacred than 
 the latter; therefore money needed for prosecuting wars should, as it is 
 required, be assessed and collected from the wealthy of the country, and 
 not entailed as a burden on posterity. 
 
 10. That it is the duty of the Goverment to exercise its power over 
 railroads and telegraph corporations, that they shall not in any case be 
 privileged to exact such rates of freight, transportation, or charges, by 
 whatever name, as may bear unduly or unequally upon the producer or 
 consumer. 
 
 11. That there should be such a reform in the civil service of the 
 National Government as will remove it beyond all partisan influence, and 
 place it in the charge and under the direction of intelligent and competent 
 business men. 
 
 12. That as both history and experience teaches us that power ever 
 seeks to perpetuate itself by every and all means, and that its prolonged 
 possession in the hands of one person is always dangerous to the interests 
 of a free people, and believing that the spirit of our organic laws and the 
 stability and safety of our free institutions are best obeyed on the one 
 hand, and secured on the other, by a regular constitutional change in the 
 chief of the country at each election; therefore, we are in favor of limiting 
 the occupancy of the presidential chair to one term. 
 
 13. But we are in favor of granting general amnesty and restoring 
 the Union at once on the basis of the equality of rights and privileges to 
 all, the impartial administration of justice being the only true bond of 
 union to bind the States together and restore the Government of the People. 
 
 14. That we demand the subjection of the military to the civil authori- 
 ties, and the confinement of its operations to National purposes alone. 
 
 15. That we deem it expedient for Congress to supervise the patent 
 laws, so as to give labor more fully the benefit of its own ideas and in- 
 ventions. 
 
 16. That fitness, and not political or personal considerations, should 
 be the only recommendation to public office, either appointive or elective, 
 and any and all laws looking to the establishment of this principle are 
 heartily approved. 
 
 78 
 
NATIONAL GREENBACK PLATFORM OF 1880 
 
 The Civil Government should guarantee the divine right of every 
 laborer to the results of his toil, thus enabling the producers of wealth to 
 provide themselves with the means for physical comfort, and facilities 
 for mental, social, and moral culture; and we condemn, as unworthy of 
 our civilization, the barbarism which imposes upon wealth-producers a 
 state of drudgery as the price of a bare animal existence. Notwithstanding 
 the enormous increase of productive power by the universal introduction 
 of labor-saving machinery and the discovery of new agents for the increase 
 of wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely lightened, the hours of toil 
 are but little shortened, and few producers are lifted from poverty into 
 comfort and pecuniary independence. The associated monopolies, the 
 international syndicates, and other income classes demand dear money, 
 cheap labor, and a strong Government, and, hence, a weak people. Cor- 
 porate control of the volume of money has been the means of dividing 
 society into hostile classes, of an unjust distribution of the products of 
 labor, and of building up monopolies of associated capital, endowed with 
 power to confiscate private property. It has kept money scarce; and 
 the scarcity of money enforces debt, trade, and public and corporate loans; 
 debt engenders usury, and usury ends in the bankruptcy of the borrower. 
 Other results are deranged markets, uncertainty in manufacturing enter- 
 prises and agriculture, precarious and intermittent employment for the 
 laborer, industrial war, increasing pauperism and crime, and the con- 
 sequent intimidation and disfranchisement of the producer, and a rapid 
 declension into corporate feudalism. Therefore, We declare: 
 
 First, That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power, 
 to be maintained by the people for their common benefit. The delegation 
 of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute of sover- 
 eignty, void of constitutional sanction, and conferring upon a subordinate 
 and irresponsible power an absolute dominion over industry and commerce. 
 All money, whether metallic or paper, should be issued, and its volume 
 controlled, by the Government, and not by or through banking corporations; 
 and, when so issued, should be a full legal tender for all debts, public and 
 private. 
 
 Second, That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, 
 but paid as rapidly as practicable, according to contract. To enable the 
 Government to meet these obligations, legal-tender currency should be 
 substituted for the notes of the National Banks, the National Banking 
 System abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver, as well as gold, 
 established by law. 
 
 Third, That labor should be so protected by National and State 
 authority as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its re- 
 sults. The eight-hour law of Congress should be enforced; the sanitary 
 condition of industrial establishments placed under rigid control; the com- 
 petition of contract convict labor abolished; a bureau of labor statistics 
 established; factories, mines, and workshops inspected; the employment 
 of children under fourteen years of age forbidden; and wages paid in cash. 
 
 Fourth, Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being 
 simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs necessarily 
 tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore immediate steps 
 should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame Treaty. 
 
 79 
 
Fifth, Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfillment of 
 contract should be immediately reclaimed by the government; and hence- 
 forth the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers. 
 
 Sixth, It is the duty of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. All 
 lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such 
 legislative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform rates for 
 passenger and freight traffic. 
 
 Seventh, We denounce as destructive to property and dangerous to 
 liberty, the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining gigantic 
 land, railroad, and money corporations, and monoplies invested with and 
 exercising powers belonging to the Government, and yet not responsible 
 to it for the manner of their exercise. 
 
 Eighth, That the Constitution, in giving Congress the power to 
 borrow money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and 
 maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money for 
 an interest consideration should be preferred to the soldiers and sailors who 
 perilled their lives and shed their blood on land and sea in defense of their 
 country; and we condemn the cruel class-legislation of the Republican 
 Party, which, while professing great gratitude to the Soldier, has most 
 unjustly discriminated against him and in favor of the Bondholder. 
 
 Ninth, All property should bear its just proportion of taxation, and 
 we demand a graduated income tax. 
 
 Tenth, We denounce as dangerous the efforts everywhere manifest 
 to restrict the right of suffrage. 
 
 Eleventh, We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in time 
 of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military power 
 under the guise of militia laws. 
 
 Twelfth, We demand absolute democratic rules for the government 
 of Congress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal 
 footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than that of 
 the President. 
 
 Thirteenth, We demand a Government of the People, by the People 
 and for the People, instead of a Government of the Bondholder, by the 
 Bondholder, and for the Bondholder; and we denounce every attempt to 
 stir up sectional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes against 
 the people. 
 
 Fourteenth, In the furtherance of these ends we ask the co-operation 
 of all fair-minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no 
 war on classes, but only against vicious institutions. We are not content 
 to endure further discipline from our present actual rulers, who, having 
 dominion over money, over transportation, over land and labor, over the 
 press and the machinery of Government, wield unwarrantable power over 
 our institutions and over life and property. 
 
 Fifteenth, That every citizen of due age, sound mind, and not a 
 felon, be fully enfranchised, and that this resolution be referred to the 
 states, with recommendation of their favorable consideration. 
 
PEOPLES PARTY NATIONAL PLATFORM OF 1896 
 
 The People's Party, assembled in National Convention, reaffirms its 
 allegiance to the principles declared by the Founders of the Republic, and 
 also to the fundamental principles of just Government as enunciated in 
 the Platform of the Party in 1892. 
 
 We recognize that through the connivance of the present and preceding 
 administrations the country has reached a crisis in its National life, as 
 predicted in our declaration four years ago, and that prompt and patriotic 
 action is the supreme duty of the hour. 
 
 We realize that, while we have political independence, our financial 
 and industrial independence is yet to be attained by restoring to our country 
 the constitutional control and exercise of the functions necessary to a 
 People's Government, which functions have been basely surrendered by 
 our public servants to corporate monopolies. The influence of European 
 money-changers has been more potent in shaping legislation than the 
 voice of the American People. Executive power and patronage have been 
 used to corrupt our legislatures and defeat the will of the people, and pluto- 
 cracy has been enthroned upon the ruins of democracy. 
 
 To restore the Government intended by the Fathers, and for the welfare 
 and prosperity of this and future generations, we demand the establish- 
 ment of an economic and financial system which shall make us masters 
 of our own affairs and independent of European control, by the adoption 
 of the following declaration of principles: 
 
 As TO MONEY, BONDS, AND INCOME-TAX. 
 
 1. We demand a National Money, safe and sound issued by the 
 General Government only, without the intervention of banks of issue, to 
 be a full legal tender for all debts, public and private, and a just, equitable 
 and efficient means of distribution direct to the people and through the 
 lawful disbursements of the Government. 
 
 2. We demand the free and unrestricted coinage of silver and gold 
 at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1, without waiting for the consent of 
 foreign nations. 
 
 3. We demand that the volume of circulating medium be speedily 
 increased to an amount sufficient to meet the demands of the business 
 population of this country, and to restore the just level of prices of labor 
 and production. 
 
 4. We denounce the sale of bonds and the increase of the public 
 interest-bearing bond debt made by the present administration as un- 
 necessary and without authority of law, and that no more bonds be issued 
 except by specific act of Congress. 
 
 5. We demand such legal legislation as will prevent the demonetization 
 of the lawful money of the United States by private contract. 
 
 6. We demand that the Government, in payment of its obligations, 
 shall use its option as to the kind of lawful money in which they are to be 
 paid, and we denounce the present and preceding administrations for 
 surrendering this option to the holders of Government obligations. 
 
 7. We demand a graduated income-tax, to the end that aggregated 
 wealth shall bear its just proportion of taxation, and we denounce the 
 
 81 
 
recent decision of the Supreme Court relative to the income-tax law as a 
 misinterpretation of the Constitution and an invasion of the rightful 
 powers of Congress over the subject of taxation. 
 
 8. We demand that Postal Savings Banks be established by the Gov- 
 ernment for the safe deposit of the savings of the people and to facilitate 
 exchange. 
 
 GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF RAILROADS AND TELEGRAPH. 
 
 1. Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, 
 the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest of 
 the people and on a non-partisan basis, to the end that all may be accorded 
 the same treatment in transportation, and that the tyranny and political 
 power now exercised by the great railroad corporations, which result in 
 the impairment, if not the destruction of the political rights and personal 
 liberties of the citizens, may be destroyed. Such ownership is to be accom- 
 plished gradually, in a manner consistent with sound public policy. 
 
 2. The interest of the United States in the public highways, built 
 with public moneys, and the proceeds of extensive grants of land to the 
 Pacific railroads should never be alienated, mortgaged, or sold, but guarded 
 and protected for the general welfare, as provided by the laws organizing 
 such railroads. The foreclosure of existing liens of the United States 
 on these roads should at once follow default in the payment of the debt 
 of the companies, and at the foreclosure sales of said roads the Government 
 shall purchase the same, if it become necessary to protect its interests 
 therein, or if they can be purchased at a reasonable price; and the Govern- 
 ment shall operate said railroads as public highways, for the benefit of the 
 whole and not in the interest of the few, under suitable provisions for 
 protection of life and property, giving to all transportation interests equal 
 privileges and equal rates for fares and freight. 
 
 3. We denounce the present infamous schemes for refunding these 
 debts, and demand that the laws now applicable thereto be executed 
 and administered according to their true intent and spirit. 
 
 4. The telegraph, like the post-office system, being a necessity for 
 the transmission of news, should be owned and operated by the Government 
 in the interest of the people. 
 
 LAND, HOMES AND PACIFIC RAILROAD GRANTS. 
 
 1. The true policy demands that the National and State Legislation 
 shall be such as will ultimately enable every prudent and industrious 
 citizen to secure a home, and therefore the land should not be monopolized 
 for speculative purposes. All lands now held by railroads and other cor- 
 porations in excess of their actual needs should, by lawful means, be re- 
 claimed by the Government and held for actual settlers only, and private 
 land monopoly, as well as alien ownership, should be prohibited. 
 
 2. We condemn the frauds by which the land-grants to the Pacific 
 railroad companies have, through the connivance of the Interior Depart- 
 ment, robbed multitudes of bona fide settlers of their homes and miners 
 of their claims, and we demand legislation by Congress which will enforce 
 the exemption of mineral land from such grants after as well as before 
 the patent. 
 
 3. We demand that bona-fide settlers on all public lands be granted 
 free homes, as provided in the National Homestead Law, and that no excep- 
 tion be made in the case of Indiana reservations when opened for settle- 
 ment, and that all lands not now patented come under this demand. 
 
 82 
 
DIRECT LEGISLATION AND GENERAL PLANKS. 
 
 We favor a system of direct legislation through the initiative and 
 referendum, under proper constitutional safeguards. 
 
 We demand the election of President, Vice-President, and United 
 States senators by a direct vote of the people. 
 
 We tender to the patriotic people of Cuba our deepest sympathy in 
 their heroic struggle for political freedom and independence, and we believe 
 the time has come when the United States, the great republic of the world, 
 should recognize that Cuba is and of right ought to be a free and inde- 
 pendent State. 
 
 We favor home rule in the Territories and the District of Columbia, 
 and the early admission of the Territories as States. 
 
 All public salaries should be made to correspond to the price of labor 
 and its products. 
 
 In times of great industrial depression, idle labor should be employed 
 on public works as far as practicable. 
 
 The arbitrary course of the courts in assuming to imprison citizens 
 for indirect contempt and ruling by injunction should be prevented by 
 proper legislation. 
 
 We favor just pensions for our disabled Union soldiers. 
 
 Believing that the elective franchise and an untrammeled ballot are 
 essential to a Government, of, for, and by the people, the People's Party 
 condemns the wholesale system of disfranchisement adopted in some 
 states, as unrepublican and undemocratic, and we declare it to be the 
 duty of the several State Legislatures to take such action as will secure a 
 full, free and fair ballot and an honest count. 
 
 FINANCIAL QUESTION "THE PRESSING ISSUE". 
 
 While the foregoing propositions constitute the Platform upon which 
 our Party stands, and for the vindication of which its organization will 
 be maintained, we recognize that the great and pressing issue of the pending 
 campaign, upon which the present presidential election will turn, is The 
 Financial Question, and upon this great and specific issue between the 
 parties we cordially invite the aid and co-operation of all organizations 
 and citizens agreeing with us upon this vital question. 
 
Index to Names and Subjects 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis 16 
 
 Allen, Thomas S 33 
 
 Allen, "Farmer" William 14 
 
 Allis, Edward P 4, 21, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 
 
 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61 
 
 In Milwaukee Sentinel, 1875 17, 18, 19 
 
 In Milwaukee Sentinel, 1877 39 
 
 Madison Address , 20, 21 
 
 A. M. Thompson's opinion of 34 
 
 E. P. & Co 37 
 
 Address at Portage, 1877 40, 41, 51 
 
 Address, Academy of Music, Milwaukee 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 
 
 Address at Toledo 54 
 
 Address to American Banker's Association 48 
 
 Upon the election results in 1877 50, 51 
 
 Letter to Greenback State Committee 54, 55 
 
 Upon the vote of 1878 56 
 
 Proposed for President in 1880 57, 59 
 
 Promised Democratic endorsement 36 
 
 Anderson, Dr. Wendell A 35 
 
 Anthony, A. R 29 
 
 Anthony, Susan B 29, 58 
 
 Academy of Music, (Milwaukee) meeting 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48 
 
 American Bankers' Association, Controversy with 48, 49 
 
 Army, Standing, and Militia, opposition to 80 
 
 Baird, Henry Gary, financial writer 72 
 
 Barnum, M. H 58 
 
 Barrows, A. R 53 
 
 Bastiat quoted 64 
 
 Bentley, John 39 
 
 Benton, E. H 39,41,54,57 
 
 Binckley, John M 39, 40 
 
 Bliss, Wm. D. P. (ed. Encyc. Social Reform) 38 
 
 Bragg, Gen. Edward S 35 
 
 Vote for nom. for prest. 1896 59 
 
 Brigham, George B 39 
 
 84 
 
Bristow, Benjamin H., Sec. Treasury 13 
 
 Brown, B. Gratz 11 
 
 Bryan, William Jennings 62 
 
 Bryant, Edwin E 33 
 
 Bryant, Sherburn 39 
 
 Buell, James, Sec. Am. Bankers' Ass'n 48, 49 
 
 Burchard, Geo. W 33 
 
 Burnham, George 29, 39, 41 
 
 Butler, Gen. Benjamin F 14, 59, 61 
 
 Banks (See National Banks and Postal Banks) 44, 45, 77, 79, 81 
 
 Banker's Almanac, quoted 67 
 
 Banks, Natural enemies of labor 8, 42 
 
 Bank of England 45,47,74,75 
 
 Bank of North America 6 
 
 Boston Fire and Panic of 1873 12 
 
 Bryan Democracy 62 
 
 Cairnes, John Elliot, Economist 66 
 
 Camp, H. H 46 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, Greenback "Moses" 6 
 
 Gary, Gen. Samuel F., G. B. candidate for Vice-President 31, 42,50, 52 
 
 Carpenter, S. D. ("Pump") 19,20 
 
 Castle, F. G 40 
 
 Gate, George W 41 
 
 Chase, Enoch 39 
 
 Chase, Salmon P., Justice Supreme Court 10 
 
 Chase, Solon 14, 59 
 
 Clark, W. B 33 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, President 62 
 
 Cooke, Jay & Co., 12 
 
 Cooper, Peter, G. B. Candidate for President 9, 31, 42 
 
 Cooper, Thomas V. "American Politics" 14 
 
 Crane, C. E 33 
 
 Crosby, Charles F 40 
 
 Curtin, Andrew G., Gov. of Penn 16 
 
 Cutter, W. G 39 
 
 Chicago Fire and Panic of 1873 12 
 
 Civil Service Reform 78 
 
 Civil War 8, 10, 17,37 
 
 Commercial Times, Milwaukee 19, 40, 42, 43, 51 
 
 Congress, Greenbackers in 56 
 
 Conservation of Public Land for Settlers 77, 80, 82 
 
 Contract Labor 78 
 
 85 
 
Corporations, Federal Control proposed 11, 12, 42, 78, 80 
 
 "Crime of 73" 12,32,61 
 
 Currency Question, The, (pamph. by G. M. Steele) 38, 64 
 
 Currency, per capita 74 
 
 Davis, David, Justice Sup. Ct., U. S. Senator 8, 11, 12, 16 
 
 Dewey, Nelson 20 
 
 Dillaye, Stephen D 59 
 
 Dore, Timothy 39 
 
 Dousman, H. L 33 
 
 Dwight, D. W 39 
 
 Debt and Progress 43 
 
 Delegates to Indianapolis, 1876, from Wisconsin 30 
 
 Democrat, Liberal, La Crosse, Wis 52 
 
 Democrats, "Straight Out", in 1872 11 
 
 Democrat Party 11, 14, 35, 62 
 
 Direct election of President, etc., demanded 61, 83 
 
 Direct Legislation 83 
 
 Easterly, George 21, 38 
 
 Eight hour day for labor 78, 79 
 
 Electoral Commission 31 
 
 England (see Great Britain) 27, 28, 45, 46, 71, 74, 75 
 
 Fawcett, M., Economist 66 
 
 Fenton, Reuben E 16, 17 
 
 Field, W. W 19 
 
 Finklenburg, A 33 
 
 Foster, G. H 30 
 
 Farmers' Alliance 8 
 
 Federal Control of Corporations 11, 12, 42, 78, 80 
 
 Financial Review, New York 68 
 
 First National Bank of Milwaukee 46 
 
 "Fond du Lac Platform" (Dem.) 1877 35 
 
 France, finances of 75 
 
 Free Press, Eau Claire, Wis 51 
 
 Free Silver 6, 14, 62, 63, 79, 81 
 
 Free Soil Party 16 
 
 Fusion disastrous 35, 62 
 
 Garfield, James A., President 59 
 
 Godfrey, George 39, 40 
 
 Gilbert, J. T 19,20,39 
 
Goodwin, Geo. B 61 
 
 Grant, President U. S 10, 12, 13 
 
 Greeley, Horace 7, 8, 11, 16, 17 
 
 Gazette, Neenah 52 
 
 German vote of Wisconsin 36 
 
 Globe, Boston 49 
 
 Gold Democrats 12, 62 
 
 Gold production and currency 34, 62, 63, 65 
 
 Government Ownership of Railroads and Telegraph 82 
 
 Great Britian, currency per capita (see England) 66, 69, 71, 74 
 
 "Greenbacks", created by Act of 1862 10 
 
 Greenback Party, National 3, 14, 15, 19, 31, 58 
 
 Greenbackers in Congress and congressional candidates 14, 59, 61 
 
 Greenback Movement in Wisconsin, (See Wisconsin 
 
 also) 3, 15, 16,29,42,53,54 
 
 Greenbacker, The Wisconsin 39, 50, 52 
 
 Greenback, or Greenback-Labor Party, The National, organized 54, 55 
 
 Greenback National Convention of 1880, Chicago 58, 59 
 
 Greenback National candidates 59 
 
 Greenback National Platform 1880 79 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, President 62 
 
 Harrison, S. A 39 
 
 Hayden, Henry 40, 41 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., President 31,57 
 
 Helmer, A. M 39 
 
 Hilbert, H. J 39 
 
 Hills, S. S 39 
 
 Hoard, William D., Gov 33 
 
 Homer, A. N 30 
 
 Howe, Timothy O., U. S. Senator 49, 50 
 
 Hungerford, George E 40 
 
 Home Rule 83 
 
 "Honest Money", Wisconsin Republican declaration 29 
 
 Income Tax 42,80,81 
 
 Independent, Winchester, 111. prints Allis's speech 29 
 
 Independent Party, National, organized 30 
 
 Indianapolis Platform, 1872 9, 79 
 
 Indiana Republicans declare for repeal of resumption act 13 
 
 Industrial Congress of the United States 1873 9 
 
 Initiative and Referendum 83 
 
 Injunction 83 
 
 87 
 
Inter-convertible bond theory. . .7, 11, 18, 22, 25, 26, 28, 34, 38, 42, 73, 74, 77 
 Iron Age, Chicago, prints Allis's speech 29 
 
 Jenison, Dr. C. O 39 
 
 Jevons, William S., Economist 66, 69, 71 
 
 Jones, A. D 33 
 
 Judd, T. H 39 
 
 Julian, George W., Father of Homestead Act 16 
 
 Journal of Commerce, San Francisco, on prices 69 
 
 Kearney, Dennis ("Sand Lot Orator") 58 
 
 Kellogg, Edward 6, 7, 8, 9, 1 1, 38 
 
 "Usury, The Evil and The Remedy", 1843 7 
 
 "Labor and Capital", 1883 7 
 
 Kelly, William D., Pennsylvania Congressman 69 
 
 Kennedy, William 39 
 
 Kilbinnen, P. S 40 
 
 King, G. W 20, 21 
 
 Kingston, John T. sen'r 21 
 
 Knights of Labor 8, 9 
 
 Lamborn, Dr. J 39 
 
 Law, John, French financier 6 
 
 Lee, G. W 21, 30, 39 
 
 Lewis, James T., Gov 33 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, President 12, 16 
 
 Luchsinger, John 33 
 
 Lyon, R. C 39 
 
 "Labor and Capital", by Kellogg 7 
 
 Labor, Independent, Convention 1872 8 
 
 Labor, Independent, Platform 1872 9, 11, 77 
 
 Labor, Knights of 8, 9 
 
 Labor Laws demanded 54, 55, 78, 79, 83 
 
 Labor Movement. Origin of the 6, 8, 11 
 
 "Labor Reform" Party Platform of 1872 11, 77 
 
 Labor Unions, originated labor movement 8 
 
 Legal Tender decision of Supreme Court, 1869 10 
 
 Legislature, (Wis.) 1878, Resolution 54 
 
 Liberal Republicans and Democrats of 1872: 11, 16 
 
 London Clearing House transactions 71 
 
 Maffit, F. W 40 
 
 Mallory, James A., Dem Candidate for Governor 35,39,41 
 
Martin, A. P 39 
 
 Martin, G. P 39 
 
 May, Reuben, G. B. Candidate for Governor 39, 40, 56 
 
 McClure, Col. A. K 16 
 
 McGraw, E. M 21 
 
 McKee's "National Conventions and Platforms" 30,59 
 
 McKinley, William, President 12, 62 
 
 Meehan, James 53 
 
 Meyer, E. O 39 
 
 Miner, Eliphalet S 21 
 
 Mitchell, Alexander, referred to 44, 45, 72 
 
 Montgomery, James 39 
 
 Morgan, D. E 40 
 
 Market comparisons, 67, 68, 69, 70 
 
 Milwaukee Delegation to Portage Convention off 1877 39 
 
 Milwaukee Republican Ratification Meeting repudiates State Platform 
 
 of 1877 34 
 
 Nabor, Herman 20 
 
 Nazro, John, Milwaukee merchant 19, 37 
 
 Nichol, Thomas M 50 
 
 Nixon, William Penn, Ed. Chicago Inter-Ocean 58 
 
 Northrop, B. B 33 
 
 Norton, S. F., Ed. Chicago G. B. Sentinel 38 
 
 Noyes, Rolla E 40 
 
 National Banks 47, 61, 62, 79 
 
 News, Milwaukee 51 
 
 Newspapers, (Wis.) Comment in 1877 51, 52 
 
 Northwestern Miller, La Crosse 52 
 
 Northwestern, The Oshkosh 52 
 
 O'Connor, Charles, Candidate for President 11 
 
 Orledge, William 19,21,30 
 
 Orton, Harlow S., Judge 20,21,29,30,41 
 
 Orton, John J 39 
 
 Osborne, J. H 30, 41 
 
 Palmer, Gen. John M 11 
 
 Parker, Joel, candidate for Vice-President 8 
 
 Paul, George H 53 
 
 Petersilea, Edwin 58 
 
 Phillips, Wendell 16 
 
 Pierce, R. W 39 
 
 89 
 
Pomeroy, Mark M. ("Brick") 57,58 
 
 Porter, James 39 
 
 Pound, Thad. C 33 
 
 Price, W. T 33 
 
 Putnam, Mary Kellogg 7 
 
 Panic of 1873 12 
 
 Panic of 1907 12, 63 
 
 People's Party 4, 8, 61 
 
 People's Party National Convention 1896, Official Souvenir 6, 61 
 
 People's Party, National Platform 1896 81 
 
 Pilot, Boston 49 
 
 Portage Greenback State Convention, July 4, 1877 39, 40, 41,42 
 
 Postal Savings Banks 82 
 
 President by direct vote 61, 83 
 
 President for one time only 78 
 
 Prohibition Party 11 
 
 Quarles, J. V 33 
 
 Ray, Charles 33 
 
 Ries, Florian 33 
 
 Rublee, Horace, Chairman Rep. State Com 33, 49 
 
 Rusk, J. M., Gov 33 
 
 "Rag Baby" 23, 58 
 
 Railroads, Government Ownership 82 
 
 Register, Whitewater 52 
 
 Republican Party. .3, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 29, 31, 35, 36, 39, 50, 53, 62 
 
 Platform of 1876. 13 
 
 Wisconsin declaration for "Honest Money" 29 
 
 Wisconsin Platform of 1877 32, 33, 49 
 
 Wisconsin Platform Committee of 1877 33 
 
 Wisconsin ratification meeting repudiates platform 34 
 
 Resolutions, Currency, of Wisconsin Legislature of 1878 .... 54, 55, 56 
 
 Resumption of specie payment 
 
 9,11,12,13,18,20,25,28,32,33,34,35,41,47,54 
 
 Rules, democratic favored for Congress 80 
 
 Schilling, Robert 6, 8, 9, 50, 60 
 
 Scholl, J. H ; 39 
 
 Schurz, Carl 16, 17 
 
 Schwartz, William 41 
 
 Sellers, M 20 
 
 Seymour, Horatio, Candidate for President 17 
 
 Sherman, C. P 39 
 
 90 
 
Sherman, John, Sec. of Treasury 56 
 
 Sholes, C. L 39 
 
 Simonds, C 39 
 
 Smith, Angus 33 
 
 Smith, R. C 40 
 
 Smith, William E., Gov 35, 52 
 
 Spence, Thomas W 33 
 
 Spooner, John C 33 
 
 Stearns, I. H 39 
 
 Steele, G. M., Greenback writer 4, 38, 41, 52, 64 
 
 Stewart, A. T., New York merchant 72 
 
 Stilson, Eli 21 
 
 Storm, A. W 40 
 
 Sumner, William G., Prof., Economist 67 
 
 San Francisco Earthquake and Panic of 1907 12 
 
 Sentinel, Milwaukee 17,39,40,49,51,52,58 
 
 Sentinel, Chicago, (Greenback) on Allis for President 38, 57 
 
 Silver Demonetized 12, 32 
 
 Silver Republicans 62 
 
 Silver, Unlimited coinage, and remonetization demanded 
 
 14,41,42,55,56,61,62,63,81 
 
 Socialist Democrats 32, 35, 53, 55, 58 
 
 "Soft Money" 29 
 
 Standard, Oshkosh, (Greenback) 58 
 
 State Journal 33 
 
 Supreme Court decision on legal tender, 1869 10 
 
 Taft, William H., President 63 
 
 Taylor, H. A 33 
 
 Thompson, A. M. quoted 32, 33, 34, 50 
 
 Trumbull. Lyman 16, 17 
 
 Telegraph, Government ownership 82 
 
 Times, Leavenworth, prints Allis's speech 29 
 
 Toledo Convention 1878 54, 55 
 
 Trades Unions 8 
 
 Tribune, Chicago, quoted 29, 31 
 
 Utley, Col. William L., G. B. Cand. for Governor 61 
 
 Unlimited coinage of Silver and Gold 14, 79 
 
 "Usury, The Evil and The Remedy" Kellogg 7 
 
 91 
 
Vanderbilt, Cornelius 72 
 
 Van Steenwyk, G 33 
 
 Vincent, Dr. G. R 40 
 
 Vote of the Nation 14, 59, 61, 62 
 
 Vote of Wisconsin 7, 17, 31. 36, 56, 59, 61 
 
 Wall, Edward C., presidential candidate 59 
 
 Walker, Amasa, Economist, quoted 67, 68, 69, 74 
 
 Weaver, James B., vote for president 14, 59, 61 
 
 Webb, Charles M., Judge 33 
 
 Wells, David A., Commissioner of Internal Revenue 67 
 
 West, G. O 30 
 
 Weston, Thomas 21 
 
 Wight, Dr. O. W 18 
 
 Williams, ("Blue Jeans"), Governor of Indiana 14 
 
 Wright, Hendrick P 59 
 
 Watertown Greenback Convention 57, 59, 60 
 
 Watertown Greenback Platform 59, 60 
 
 Wealth, Science of, Walker 67,58 
 
 Wisconsin Democratic Convention 1877 35 
 
 Wisconsin Democratic ("Fond du Lac" Platform) 1877 35 
 
 Wisconsin Greenbackers, Chicago Tribune forecast 29 
 
 Choose delegates to Indianapolis, 1876 30 
 
 Endorse Allis for president 58 
 
 First platform 20 
 
 In legislature 53, 54 
 
 Organize 19, 29 
 
 Portage Convention, 1877 34, 39, 40, 41, 42 
 
 Prominent 4, 15 
 
 Sparta conference 39 
 
 State Committee 30, 39 
 
 State Ticket, 1877 41 
 
 Wisconsin Greenbacker, The 39,50,51 
 
 Woman's suffrage 61, 80 
 
 Women delegates in Greenback National Convention at Chicago, 
 
 1880 58 
 
 Appendix No. 1, Steele's pamphlet 64 
 
 Appendix No. 2, Party Platforms 77 
 
* 
 
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