Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-09-11
THE NATURAL APPLICATION OF THE
GREsEBAcKERs.

THE NATURAL APPLICATION OF THE
GREsNBAcKERS.
A correspondent yesterday put some
questions relative to the financial position
of the Republican and Democratic candi-
dates. After stating the propositions of
the Greenbackers, namely, abolition of the
National Banks, the issue of currency
direct from the Treasury, based on air,
and the diversion of the reserve fund in
the Treasury, for the discharge of a small
portion Of the public debt, he asks: eli
General Garfield is elected President,
"will his election be triumph or defeat
"of these theories? In other words Has
General Garfield, in Congress, favored or
opposed these theories? ~ If General
Hancock is elected, will it be triumph
cor defeat of these theories? (3l.Judging
"5by any fair and reasonable inference,
(which of these two candidates Garfield
''or Hancock-is most nearly allied to
Greenbackism For example, should
"Congress pass a law abolishing the ma
+" tional banking system, and authorizing
the issue OF currency direct from the
Treasury, which OF the two candidates
"would be most likely to sign, or which
'smost liable to veto it," OF course it is
not possible to predict with any certainty
what course Hancock would take under
such circumstances, because he has
no record on the subject OF finance.
1t is, however, fair presumption
that he would be guided by his
party and that party has originated
and supported every financial heresy and
every attack upon the public credit that
has been invented and attempted during
the past twenty years. At the present time
we find Democrats everywhere allying
themselves with Greenbackers, and this is
quitenatural, sincethe Greenbackers haveno
ideas on finance save those which they have
borrowed from the Copperheads of old.
They represent that hostility to the honest
discharge of the public obligations, and
that knavish and imbecile yearning for a
deprecated currency, which the Copper
heads first exhibited, and which grew out
of their traitorous hatred to whatever
measures tended to uphold the Union.
The Greenbackers, IN fact, are nothing
more than disguised Copperheads, and
therefore they affiliate naturally with the
Democrats. If such measures as our CORE
spondent refers to were brought before
Hancock for signature, his advisers on the
subject would have to be drawn from the
party which has always favored such
ruinous legislation, and it is consequently
highly probable that he would sign the
bills.
AS regards the financial position of Cen
eral Garfield there is happily no room for
doubt or Misrepresentation. Throughout
his Congressional career he has advocated
honest finance, and his speeches on the sub
iect continue to be among the ablest and
clearest expositions of intelligent currency
principles He has specifically and in
terms declared himself opposed to the
abolition of the National Banks and the
issue Of a sole Government currency. He
has combatted the theory of State Bank
in the most earnest manner. He has de-
clared that sit is the experience of all ma
tions, and it is the almost unanimous
"opinion of ali eminent statesmen and
" financial writers, that 10 nation can
safely undertake to supply its people
with a paper currency issued di-
"rectIy by the Government" In all his
speeches on the currency and the
debt he has advocated adherence to the
most honorable methods, and no word Of his
can be cited in support of Copperhead-
Greenbacl1 folly or knayery, If, there.
fore, the measures referred to by our cor
respondent should ever be brought before
General Garfield in his capacity of Presi-
dent, we may be perfectly certain that he
would veto them, and that he would at
the same time give such valid reasons for
his action that the advocates of the bills
would be put to open shame. General
Garfield can be trusted implicitly to oppose
all financial heresy with the whole of HIS
great abilities and energies, and under his
administration the Greenbackers would find
their occupation, as malignant assailants
of the public credit and the stability of
the currency, gone.
General Garfield, however, only repre-
sents his party faithfully on this subject.
The country owes every measure which
has been enacted for the preservation of
the public credit and the elevation OF the
currency to gold par, to the Republican
party. 1t has had to fight the Copper
heads and the fat-money fools and Green
hackers, and all other currency drivellers
and quacks, since the beginning of the re-
bellion. II has denounced and rebuked
all of them in every platform it has
adopted. 1t has opposed and defeated
them IN OOuSISso dHQ tliiouSu tuc press
and on the stump. 1t has stood by the
national honor as it stood by the national
life. It has rallied the hosts who
won the battles of the Union in
the field, to meet and overcome the
more cowardly but not less malignant
enemies of the country who strove to
break down the public credit, to prevent
the resumption Of specie payments, to
swindle the nations creditors, to rob the
working classes by deprecated coin and
paper. The shifts and changes of these
public foes have been frequent and various,
but through all their disguises the Cop
perhaad original is discernible, and the
Republican party is their natural and i'm
placable adversary. Their last pretense, Of
being themselves Republicans, will not
deceive the people. They are the same
old crew OF wreckers that have been beaten
off 50 often before. They belong to the