Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User information
Historical sketch
Scope and Content note
Cataloguing information
Processed by
Charles Latham
29 December 1995
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 2 folders
COLLECTION DATE: ca 1880
PROVENANCE: Unknown
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NU8MBER: 95.0328X
During the Civil War, the United States government paid some of its expenses by issuing $431 million in "greenbacks," paper money without backing in gold or silver. In the 1870s, controversy developed between "hard money" advocates of retiring the greenbacks, and "soft money" advocates of printing even more. Beginning in Indiana with conferences in Indianapolis in 1874 and 1876, a national Greenback Party developed, which nominated industrialist-philanthropist Peter Cooper for President in 1876. He received about 80,000 votes.
In the 1880 election, the party nominated James B. Weaver to oppose Garfield and Hancock, and added to its platform a graduated income tax, woman suffrage, regulation of interstate commerce, and other social-welfare measures. Weaver received 300,000 votes, four per cent of the total cast. The party's last Presidential candidate was Benjamin F. Butler in 1884.
This collection, filling two folders, contains a scrapbook of poilitical clippings, mounted in the book How to make the farm pay (Philadelphia: Zeigler, McCurdy & Co., 1868). The clippings center on the 1880 election, and the owner seems to have had a special interest in greenbacks.
Folder 2 contains notes and loose clippings laid in the scrapbook.
MAIN ENTRY: Political scrapbook, ca. 1880
SUBJECT ENTRIES: National Greenback Party
Presidents--United States--Election--1880
Greenbacks
END