Ottumwa weekly courier. (Ottumwa, Wapello County, Iowa) 1872-1899, 1878-08-28
creator but no Redeemer.

gal tender notes as means of finan-
cial relief claim to be greenbackers.
Their continuous cry is, the green
backs are good enough money for us,
give us more greenbacks. These peo-
pie are deceivers or are themselves
deceived. It is not greenbacks they
demand, interpreted in thelightof the
past-what they demand is a bastard.
All this clamor is a specious falsehood
or mistake committed by the ignor-
ant. A greenback never did exist
and never can except as the creature
of the government issued in the dire
extremity Of last resort to preserve
the very life of the nation. Democ-
racy said that even then these legal
tenders were Observation-Disclosures I'M
constitutional; but republicans said,
in the extremity of the life or death
of the nation they were authorized,
6m only then. This was the final de-
cision of the U. s. Supreme Court,
every democratic judge, however,
opposing that decision and avering
that under no circumstances was the
issue of legal tender notes constitu-
tional. Note then that right here is
an insuperable barrier to the clamOr
for an abundant issue of greenbacks
and in this sense q new issue would
"a
an war greenback; could not for a
moment stand the test of judicial de-
decision. Therefore, even though it
retained the old form and was a prom
Use of the government to pay dollar
in coin, yet it could only be creature
of revolution, the progeny of violated
law.
But the clamor is not for the green
back. 1t is for spurious article; a
so-called greenback with all the soul
departed from it; devoid of the vital
principle of promising to pay in coin.
Fiat money is what is demanded.
AS the endorsed and unendorsed can
didate for Congress in this district
puts it: one of a trinity of money, the
other constituents being gold and sill
yer, and when the government has
gold and silver it shall exchange it
for his greenback, but when it has
not the specie it need not do SO; that
is, itsredemption shall be conditional,
like some fellows personal obliga-
tions we know of, viz: to be paid if
convenient.
This absolute money is not green
back money at all; it is fraud, base
shinplaster, and would be as much of
q destroyer to the business interest,
the prosperity of the country, and eve
ry citizen in it, as is the yellow fever
in New Orleans.
These fiatists are not greenbackers;
the republican party is the only gen.
uine greenback party in the land.
The status and purpose of the green
backs now in use have thus been clear
ly defined by the United States Su-
preme Court as reported in Wallace,
volume No. Z:
ut is clear that these notes are OBJ
legations of the United States. Their
name imports obligation, and every
one of them bears on its face a promise
to pay certain sum. The dollar note
is a promise to pay a dollar, and the
dollar intended is the coin dollar of
the United States; a certain weight
and fineness of gold and silver"
This is our greenback; and now af-
ter thirteen years of preparation. of
time, of lenity extended, we are about
to redeem that promise. We hare rir-
tuaHy redeemed it; but the dema-
gogues and their deluded followers
after absolute money say, let us retro
grade, let us repudiate our promise,
let US go back on the greenback and
issue absolute paper money in its stead;
let Us become a nation of regulators.
and so crown the Prince of Darkness
I'm place of the Prince Of Light, and
bring down upon all our people dis
grace, poverty and woe which moth
ing in the past has equaled in severi-