The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-28
a Short Lesson for Ohio Farmers.

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ton. They tell the people that the govern
ment stamp is the only thing that makes
money, and that if it stamps paper that makes
it dollars just as good as gold. But if that is
true, why is it, why has it never been, since the
government began to stamp paper with dol
lar marks, as good as goldP At the moment
when Governor Allen uttered this piece of
nonsense every farmer who heard him knew
that the whole power of the strongest govern
ment in the world, fully exercised, was then
insufficient to make the paper dollar in his
pocket equal to gold
Mr. Pendleton tells his hearers that coin is
best but that we have now paper, and it
would be well to have more paper for while
before we return to gold. But how can he
get more paper? Mr.. Pendleton is said to be
man of brains. Why did he not tell his
audience that more paper is an absolute i'm
possibility unless the government is so ex-
pensively run that its receipts in taxes would
not pay its expenses, when it might either
borrow on bonds or issue more irredeemable
promises to pay called greenbacks?
These Ohio democrats are dealing dishon-
estly with the people that is the plain truth,
and it is about time to tell it plainly There
is no excuse for what Pendleton and Allen are
doing, for they know better. What is green
backP In what follows we promise the
Ohio farmer who may read it to tell him
nothing but what Mr.. Pendeton, Governor
Allen and every democratic leader in Ohio,
except Carey, knows perfectly well. AS for
Carey, he is what he always was, Know
Nothing; and, like all Of that kind, his con-
tempt for the ''foregn vote" leads him to i'm
pose upon what he supposes its ignorance.
What, then, is greenback? 1t is an ire
deemable promise to pay money. 1t does not
even pretend to be money. No Congress, no
Secretary of the Treasury ever had the folly
to declare it money. Look at o fve-dollar
greenback and you will see that it is not de-
clared to be five dollars; on the contrary, in
as plain language as can be used, the govern
ment asserts that this piece of paper is not
five dollars, for it declares, on its face, "The
United States will pay the bearer five dollars"
1t seems, however, that Governor Allen would
change all this, and make the bill read ''This
is five dollars" What genius for finance
he has
Well, how came greenbacks to be issued
We were in the midst of q great war, which, it
is plain truth to say, the Southern people
would not have ventured on had it not been
for the encouragement they received in the
fall and winter of 1860 from just such men as
Governor Allen and Mr.. Pendleton, Northern
democrats who loudly promised to "stand
by the South" but left it in the lurch as
soon as the deluded Southern people were too
far in the mire to draw out without an actual
and brave fight. So gallant and vigorous was
the fight made by the South that the govern
ment was forced to spend vast sums of money
in maintaining armies and navies. In
fact, it sometimes spent more in a week
than it could collect in taxes in a
year without running the people. But
when q man or q government must spend
more than it has he or it must
borrow. The government borrowed many
millions for which it gave the lenders as Sc
curity its bonds, which are promises to pay
in fixed number of years with annual inter-
est meantime. But finding it difficult to Dor
row money on bonds, because the Southern
men made SO gallant fight that people
doubted if they would not win, the govern
ment began to borrow in another way
namely, by the issue of bills called "grecn-
backs" AS it needed more money to buy
supplies and pay the soldiers it issued more
of these. If the taxes had been sufficient
to pay the current expenses, it could, of
course, have issued no greenbacks at all.
Now a greenback is a promise to pay
money, which does not specify any day of
payment, nor give the holder any interest for
his loan. If any farmer who hears Mr..
Pendleton should sell him his farm he would
hardly take in payment note of Pendleton' s
merely promising to pay him the purchase
money at some indefinite time-whenever it
might suit Mr.. Pendleton's pleasure--and
with no interest in the meantime That
would not be business transaction, and if
Mr.. Pendleton proposed it the farmer would
think him a fool But men deal with gov
eminent Just as they deal with neighbor,
and the government saw that its promises to
pay FIVE dollars at some indefinite future
time, without interest, would be refused.
Il therefore used q doubtful power
and declared them q legal tender, which
means only that it forced us all 10
take these greenbacks these promises to pay
money and give for them our services or our
goods; and as nobody would have dealt with
the government if it had forced only him to
take these promises, it went step further
and forced everybody to take them OF every.
body else.
Now, two things are plain First, that il
the taxes had then been sufficient to pay the
governments expenses it would not have is
sued greenbacks. 1t could not in fact, for il
would have had no use for them. 1t would
simply have paid its debts in money. How
then. can We have ''more greenbacls" now