State Convention—Dollars and Sense. 271 
a little silver too, and tried to sell it to the boys; they said a fifty- 
cent greenback was just as good as a piece of silver. 
Secretary Field: I doubt not the time will come, and in the not- 
distant future, when all say we don’t want the gold, and it will be 
relegated to the historical society, or some other society to show 
the age of fraud in our monetary laws. When our exports exceed 
our imports we can have the gold in the treasury, and if any one 
wants the gold I want him to have it. We can pay in it then as 
well as in other products. 
Mr. Sellers: I want to ask you how you are going to get this in¬ 
formation throughout this great State. My idea is, that we want to 
educate ourselves and our children on this subject. If the green¬ 
back question is the right question, we can not begin to educate 
ourselves too soon. In the temperance movement, my friend says 
you ought to have a law passed to prevent the sale of alcoholic 
liquors as a beverage. I say laws are of no effect unless the people 
are educated to carry them out. My idea in this matter is simpl} 7 
this: Uncle Sam says that a piece of green paper is worth a dollar, 
and puts the stamp of the nation upon it, and it is just as good to 
me as if he stamped so much gold and should say it is worth so 
much. If that is the correct theory, let us set down about our 
fire-side, or about our domestic a] ter, and talk about this matter, as 
God commanded Moses to educate the people of Israel, that they 
might understand and comprehend the law. Post it upon the 
door-posts, if necessar} r , so that they might read it whenever they 
came out and came in. We should educate ourselves upon this 
subject. In a gathering here the other day some of our friends 
wanted to organize a greenback-party. I thought it was not time 
to do it. We are not educated enough upon the matter. How can 
these men who have amassed such great fortunes get so much 
money unless some one else loses it? How can Vanderbilt, in the 
city of New York, make, in from half an hour to one day, ten mil¬ 
lions of dollars, if some poor, unfortunate man did not lose it? 
Finance is the great question we ought to settle for ourselves, in 
my judgment. I don’t stand up here to dictate to any man, nor to 
give [my principles as a basis for any one; I only throw out my 
ideas. Let us think upon them, and act upon them. This is my 
theory. I believe if Uncle Sam says a piece of paper, printed 
green or red, is worth a dollar, and gives it his sanction, it is just 
