GREENBACKS  , a

form of paper currency in the United States, so named from the green colour used on the backs of the notes . They are treasury notes, and were first issued by the government in 1862, " as a question of hard necessity," to provide for the expenses of the Civil War . The government, following the example of the banks, had suspended specie payment . The new notes were therefore for the time being an inconvertible paper currency, and, since they were made legal tender, were really a form of fiat money . The first act, providing for the issue of notes to the amount of $15o,000,000, was that of the 25th February 1862; the acts of nth July 1862 and 3rd March 1863 each authorized further issues of $150,000,000 . The notes soon depreciated in value, and at the lowest were worth only 35 cents on the dollar . The act of 12th April 1866 authorized the retirement of $'o,000,000 of notes within six months and of $4,000,000 per month thereafter; this was discontinued by act of 4th February 1868 . On 1st January 1879 specie payment was resumed, and the nominal amount of notes then stood at $346,681,000, which is still outstanding . The so-called Greenback party (also called the Independent, and the National party) first appeared in a presidential campaign in 1876, when its candidate, Peter Cooper, received 81,74o votes . It advocated increasing the volume of greenbacks, forbidding bank issues, and the paying in greenbacks of the principal of all government bonds not expressly payable in coin . In 1878 the party, by various fusions, cast over 1,000,00d votes and elected 14 Congressmen; and in 188o there was fusion with labour reformers and it cast 308,578 votes for its presidential candidate, J . B .

Weaver, and elected 8 Congressmen . In 1884 their candidate Benjamin F . Butler (also the candidate of the Anti-Monopoly party) received 175,370 votes . Subsequently the party went out of existence .