The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1877-01-05
me GreenbaeIC Vote

The RreenbacI1 Vote
The extreme paucIty OF vote
everywhere for the Peter Cooper
electoral ticket is likely to lead to
a false conclusion. 1t may be
misconstructed to mean that the
greenback issue has not made any
strong, deep, or lasting impression
upon the public mind,and that the
recent excitement on the subject
was superficial and transitory.
A greater mistake could not be
made in politics. Reasons for
the extraordinary shrinkage in the
vote must be searched for Beneath
the thin crust of surface indica-
tions. The G-eenbackers have
been stIgmatized as shallow fools,
as crazy Missionaries, as a set of
impracticables, and as reckless
spectators and adventures VINO
wanted to initiate and depreciate
the currency to aggrandize their
selfish schemes Nothing could
haze been further from fact.
This third party was com
posed OF intelligent, clear-hesded,
far seeing, and, for the most part,
exceedingly patriotic voters. They
had on their side statistics and
arguments which never have been
and cannot be successfully met.
They have been able to prove a
prodigious contraction of the
circulating medium since 1865,
and the have proved it by the
official figures of the government.
They have shown that the panic
of 1873, altbouh due to q COM
binaLioa of causes was most
attributable to the persistent
policy of contraction. Their
diagnosis of the finan :ial problem
was fully supported by the disco
ton of the facts.
Why, then, did not they main
tain solid, unbroken front? We
answer, because an emergency
arose far more vital and potent
than any currency question pos
sibly could be. The great mass
of the honest Greenback men
were Republicans. At an early
period of the campaign the
Democratic portion of the new
organization, with some excep-
tions, deserted It's ranks, and re-
turned TO their old partisan
affiliation. The Republicans
who remained gradually discover
ed that they were being used as a
means to weaken the Republican
strength in the doubtful States,
at a time when human rights
were imperiled by the rapacious
partisanship of a solid South
murderousIy bent upon reversing
the results of the war. In ali the
view there was meanwhile no
substantial hope of carrying even
one State for Peter Cooper. 1t
was under these circumstances
that the Green back men decided,
one by one, to return to the ranks
of the Republican party, where
alone their ballots could aid any
good purpose. They periodically
yielded their convictions to the
domineening necessities of the
hour. 1t was wise; it was noble
it vas self-sacrificing In them to
do this. The currency question
could wait; imperlled human
rights could not.
1t is, however, fatal mistake to
assume that the Greenbackers
have, once for all, abandoned their
principles. In no sense is this
true. But they have learned that
currency reform is to be properly
sought and finally obtained only
in the Republican party. This is
the only party that is progress
sive, the only one that is teacha-
BILE. the ORly one that learns by
experience. A spirit of compro-
mise framed the currency plank
in the Cincinnati platform. Both
bullioDists and greenbackers in the
convention made concessions In
order to produce q plank upon
which both could stand harmoni-
ousl y and without self-stultifica-
ton. Such an accommodation of
differing views showed the absence
of unreasoning obstinacy IN the
membership of that representative
body, aud promises well for the fu-
ture. Now that the Presidential
campaign is at an end, the posi-
ton on the monetary issue here
after to be assumed by the Re-
publican party will have to be de
termined, as the last was, by dis
cussion and argument. Secession
for opinions sake is q Democratic
not q Republican. resort. 1t is
fortunate for the Republican party,
aAd it is fortunate for the cause of
currency reform, that the green
back men are still in the ranks OF
the party of freedom and progress.