The Greenback Movement, 1876-8If. 
531 
many of them are intellectual, social, or religious, or more 
likely still a combination of two or more of these in varying 
proportions. For the student of history they are among most 
interesting chapters in the life of our race. 
The object of the present paper is to discuss the economic 
side of a question which in one way or another has agitated us 
at intervals from the foundation of our government to the 
present time. Among the various occasions at which this ques¬ 
tion was uppermost, may be mentioned the paper money issues 
of 1786; the struggle over state and national banks in 1816, 
1830, and 1840; relief legislation in Kentucky in 1826; repu¬ 
diation of state debts in 1845-54; and the Greenback and 
Populist movements of recent years. 
The early supporters of a paper money policy in 1786-88 
were quite largely found with the Anti-Federalists. The 
sparsely settled districts, largely agricultural, with but few or 
no cities were the Anti-Federal regions and also the paper 
money strongholds at this period. The question of debt, too, 
was an important factor thus early in our history; and in 
Massachusetts we have the best illustration of the union of 
these two elements for a common purpose, the interior farmer 
with his primitive, frontier notions of life and the unfortunate 
debtor who had come within the power of the law. These two 
classes, often represented in the same individual, furnished the 
basis for that formidable uprising known as Shay’s Rebellion, 
which so seriously threatened the Massachusetts government in 
1786. It is of course impossible, in the absence of reliable 
statistics and detailed records for this early period, to do more 
than point out the approximate location and character of this 
paper money movement. For that reason it is proposed to 
speak of a similar movement, occurring about a hundred years 
later, when it is possible to consider minutely the economic life 
of the regions affected. With this done, we can study the same 
problem anew under the less favorable conditions of early his¬ 
tory and reach more permanent results. 
The Greenback party seems to have attained its maximum 
strength in 1880, for that year it polled its highest vote and 
this vote was most widely distributed. By a study of the 
