The 1880 Greenback Party National Convention convened in Chicago from June 9 to June 11 to select presidential and vice presidential nominees and write a party platform for the Greenback Party in the United States presidential election 1880. Delegates chose James B. Weaver of Iowa for president and Barzillai J. Chambers of Texas for vice president.
The Greenback Party was a newcomer to the political scene in 1880, having arisen, mainly in the nation's West and South, as a response to the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1873. During the Civil War, Congress had authorized "greenbacks", a form of money redeemable in government bonds rather than in then-traditional gold. After the war, many Democrats and Republicans in the East sought to return to the gold standard, and the government began withdrawing greenbacks from circulation. The resulting reduction of the money supply, combined with the economic depression, made life harder for debtors, farmers, and industrial laborers; the Greenback Party hoped to draw support from these groups.
Six men were candidates for the presidential nomination. Weaver, an Iowa congressman and Civil War general was the clear favorite, but two other congressmen, Benjamin F. Butler of Massachusetts and Hendrick B. Wright of Pennsylvania, also commanded considerable followings. Weaver triumphed quickly, winning a majority of the 850 delegates' votes on the first ballot. Chambers, a Texas businessman and Confederate veteran, was likewise nominated on the initial vote. The fight over the platform was more tumultuous, as delegates from disparate factions of the left-wing movement clashed over women's suffrage, Chinese immigration, and the extent to which the government should regulate working conditions. Votes for women was the most contentious of these, with the party ultimately endorsing the suffragists' cause, despite a vocal minority's opposition.
Weaver and Chambers left the convention with high hopes for the third party's cause, but in the end, they were disappointed. The election was a close contest between the Republican, James A. Garfield, and the Democrat, Winfield Scott Hancock, with Garfield being the victor. The Greenback ticket placed a distant third, netting just over three percent of the popular vote.
Background
Origins
The Greenback Party was a newcomer to politics in 1880, having first nominated candidates for national office four years earlier. The party had arisen, mostly in the West and South, as a response to the economic depression that followed the Panic of 1873. During the Civil War, Congress had authorized "greenbacks", a new form of fiat money that was redeemable not in gold but in government bonds. The greenbacks had helped to finance the war when the government's gold supply did not keep pace with the expanding costs of maintaining the armies. When the crisis had passed, many in both the Democratic and Republican parties, especially in the East, wanted to return the nation's currency to a gold standard as soon as possible (candidates who favored the gold-backed currency were called "hard money" supporters, while the policy of encouraging inflation was known as "soft money"). The Specie Payment Resumption Act, passed in 1875, ordered that greenbacks be gradually withdrawn and replaced with a gold-backed currency, beginning in 1879. At the same time, economic depression had made it more expensive for debtors to pay debts they had contracted when the currency was less valuable. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans offered a home to those who favored retaining greenbacks, so many looked to create a third party that would address their concerns. Greenbackers drew support from the growing labor movement in the nation's Eastern cities, as well as from Western and Southern farmers who had been harmed by deflation. Beyond their support for a larger money supply, they also favored an eight-hour work day, safety regulations in factories, and an end to child labor. As one author put it, they "anticipated by almost fifty years the progressive legislation of the first quarter of the twentieth century".
In 1876, various independent delegates gathered in Indianapolis to nominate a presidential ticket to campaign on those issues. For president, they chose Peter Cooper, an 85-year-old industrialist and philanthropist from New York, with Samuel Fenton Cary, a former congressman from Ohio, as his running mate. The Greenback ticket fared poorly in the election that November, attracting just 81,740 votes—less than 1% of the total. As bad economic times continued, however, the party gained momentum. Labor unrest the following year, culminating in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, added to many laborers' alienation from the two major parties. Local movements, like California's Workingmen's Party, began to agitate for laws to improve the condition of laborers (and for an end to Chinese immigration). By 1878, the third-party movement had become strong enough to elect 22 independents to the federal House of Representatives, most tied in some way to the Greenback movement. As the 1880 presidential election approached, members of the Greenback Party (or Greenback-Labor Party, as it was sometimes known) had reason to believe that they could improve on the results of 1876.
Party split Attempts to fuse the disparate state and local parties into a national force led to friction between party leaders. By 1879, there was a clear split, as a group led by Marcus M. "Brick" Pomeroy formed their own "Union Greenback Labor Party". Pomeroy's group of mostly Southern and Western Greenbackers was opposed to electoral fusion with either of the two major parties and took more radical positions on monetary policy—including payment of all federal bonds in greenbacks, rather than the gold dollars originally promised to investors. They also differed from the Eastern-centered rump party (often called the "National Greenback Party") in calling for the popular election of postmasters and the death penalty as punishment for corruption in public office. After a January 1880 conference in Washington, D.C. failed to unite the factions, each party called for its own national convention to nominate candidates for president.
The Union Greenbackers held their convention first, meeting in St. Louis in March 1880. Although much of the young party's leadership remained with the Eastern faction, the March gathering included Solon Chase and Kersey Graves, among other third-party notables. They nominated Stephen D. Dillaye, a New Jersey lawyer and journalist, for president and Barzillai J. Chambers, a Texas merchant and surveyor, for vice president. Because Dillaye had previously declared he was not interested in the nomination, many delegates protested, seeing Dillaye as a placeholder for eventual reunification with the National Greenbackers. Dillaye himself supported reunification, and Pomeroy also urged the delegates to send representatives to the Easterners' convention, which was set for June 1880 in Chicago. The majority agreed with the sentiment, and Union Greenbackers gathered in Chicago along with National Greenbackers as their convention began a few months later.
Candidates
Weaver
James Baird Weaver grew up on the Iowa frontier, and was involved with the Republican Party from its early days in the late 1850s. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Union Army. Weaver saw action at the battles of Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Resaca, and rose to the rank of brevet brigadier general. After the war, he continued to be active in Iowa Republican politics. Weaver sought nomination to the House of Representatives and the Governorship, but each time was defeated by candidates from the party's more conservative faction, led by William B. Allison. He campaigned for the Republican presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, but also attended the 1876 Greenback National Convention as an observer.
By 1877, differences with the Republican party leadership on the money question led him to consider other options. After initially supporting the Republican candidate for governor that year, Weaver joined the Greenback Party in August. In 1878, Weaver accepted the Greenback nomination for Iowa's 6th congressional district. Although Weaver's political career up to then had been as a staunch Republican, Democrats in the 6th district considered that endorsing him was likely the only way to defeat Ezekiel S. Sampson, the incumbent Republican. Despite objections from some hard-money Democrats, the Greenback-Democrat ticket prevailed, and Weaver was elected with 16,366 votes to Sampson's 14,307.
Weaver entered the 46th Congress in March 1879. Although the House was closely divided, neither major party included the Greenbackers in its caucus, leaving them few committee assignments and little input on legislation. Weaver gave his first speech in April 1879, criticizing the use of the army to police Southern polling stations, while also decrying the violence against black Southerners that made such protection necessary; he then described the Greenback platform, which he said would put an end to the sectional and economic strife. The next month, he spoke in favor of a bill calling for an increase in the money supply by allowing the unlimited coinage of silver, but the bill was easily defeated. Weaver's oratorical skill drew praise, and while he was unable to advance Greenback policy ideas, he was soon considered the front-runner for the presidential nomination in 1880.
Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, and later moved to Massachusetts to pursue a legal career. He built a successful practice in the 1840s and 1850s, and became involved in local politics as a Democrat. A compelling public speaker, Butler was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853. He successfully ran for a Massachusetts Senate seat in 1859. Despite his Protestant upbringing he gained a faithful following among Massachusetts Catholics and also built support among laborers. In the 1860 presidential campaign, Butler sought compromise with the slave power, and believed Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi ought to be the Democratic Party's nominee for president.
Butler had been elected a brigadier general of the Massachusetts militia, and when the Civil War began in 1861, he quickly organized his men and marched south. Butler's men occupied Baltimore to ensure that Maryland did not follow its fellow Southern states into secession. He was promoted to major general in May of that year, and sent to command at Fort Monroe in Virginia, where he pioneered the tactic of seizing and freeing slaves as "contraband of war". When Union forces captured New Orleans, Butler was sent to command there. Butler's rule was harsh, and he became especially reviled among Southern whites, to whom he was known as "Beast" Butler. He was transferred to the Virginia theater in 1863, where he worked under General Ulysses S. Grant's direction in the campaigns that led to the Confederacy's defeat.