The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-06-18
NIGHT DISPATCHES.
Benjamin F. Butler Writes "
Lengthy Greenback
Letter,
Stating His Views on LIE
Currency Question
President Arthur Visits His
Son at Princeton.
Democratic Conventions Be-
Democratic Conventions Be-
ing Held in the States
Judge Fields Candidacy Dis
cussed by Money.

Judge Fields Candidacy LIS
cussed by Money.
BENZ. Butler Replies.
NEW YORK, June lin response
to q formal announcement OF MS
| nomination by the Greenback-LaDor
| National Convention, Gen. Butler
| says:
LOWELL. Mass, June II.
| Gentlemen of the Committee:
1 received at your handsfne Official
| announcement of the action taken
by the convention at lndianal oils
with deep %sensibillty. In the Or
binary course of political events the
| choice of a convention of representa-
| tive men from any considerable poi
ton of my fellow citizens, according
| to me this the highest honor that
they can confer, would call for a
! grateful acknowledgment, even
though it might be a selection to rep
resent the thought of such a conven-
ton upon the questions which COM
monty divide political parties. The
views upon such questions may
have been inherited or an out
growth of the measures mere
~ of an administration. The grea1
questions which you present are
higher and grander than any mere
poIltlcal measures. Nearly a quarter
OF a century ago, when the very ex-
istence Of the republic and the estaD-
lishment of the Democratic represent.
alive government hung trembling
upon the issue of the greatest civil
war that the world has yer known,
or may ever know. by the wisdom
born of an imperlous necessity a
financial system sprung from the
patriotic impulse to save the nations
life and rescue the hope of free inssi-
tutions for all men from going down
forever in darkness and death, it Was
devised by the great and good men of
that day, to whose care a republican
government was to be administered
for the people and by the people had
been conIided to that system of
finance for a tree people in its infancy
which saved the life Of nation which
would have persisted without it, and
broke the chains which enslaved four
million men, and gave to this country
a prosperity it had never known. 1t
caused the people to assess upon
themselves and pay taxes to an ex-
tent before unknown in any country;
it made it possible for the govern
ment to repay them three-fold all the
I<>,, ~ 1nnI nAany~1 f~,, -:
tor or gave to him a security more
profitable and stable than had ever
been issued by any power IN the
world, and made the financial sys>
tenn of our government at once the
envy and admiration of all men.
This Was done By the legal tender
currency, where questions as to i S
stability were raised by the very
form of the legislation by which it
was enacted and while still graver
doubt prevailed in the minds of many
wise and patriotic men as to whether
legal tender currency is expensive IN
fact. Resting not on the intrinsic
value OF the material from which it
Was coined within the constitutional
compentcy and power of the legisla-
tive branches of the government that
question having been three times |
submitted to the supreme court of ,
the United States.
The very highest tribunal of con-
construction was at last |
decided in the affirmative with such !
unanlmity that there could not possi>
bly, be a reasonable doubt against it, !
or one purpose of your organization:
and of those who thought and acted
with you, although not of it, Was to
support and sustain this money as
The currency OF the people. This
peoples currency, you will remem-
Der, was designated by its friends by
the pet name of the sgreenback
Two years ago I did myself the honor
TO say that that currency, so COM
mended by the merit of its great
deeds, wrought for the peoples safe
y! and prosperity, enacted by the
highest Legislative power, adjudicated
oy such a court and with the decision
ABOUT to be reaffirmed, was All aG>
;ompllshed fact never again to be dis
Iurbed or doubted, SO that its friends
might Well say: See! the end of our
in this regard has come So
ct us rejoice"
Let those who aided in this great
work press on to deal with equally
unsettled, and necessary
for the welfare of the whole
people. The legal tender having be-
'ome the very foundation of, as we'll
IS a measure of value, intertWined
With ali the business of the people
md the prosperity of the nation, it
GEMS to me almost an act of cruelty
o again disturb, causelessly, a tinan-
question which has been set at
est with the assent of all good men
as much so as the question of the
light of man to hold his brother man ,
n slavery. Therefore, 1 said: II
m glad that the question has no
onger u part in political c%onsidera- {
ion, and that craftsmanship NAV +
IoW turn from it as the country has +
Qrned from the questions of slavery '
I'd war" But, alas for the power OF !
he darkness of error, the resurrec. >
ion Of false ideas of thu dead nast 7
ave dug up the remains nf )
ontention from the neacafu :
raves where they silent, and ,
lreaeen, by a rehash, to formulate >
Ito a platform by a party conven- +
on 10 revlvify and agitate a contro- '
ersy winch will unsettle the CON-
lercIal values-hinder and delay The
uslnesS energies of our people with
5eh'l out u single object to ex-
,nu system OF purely paper cur 7
'ncy Issued by corporations. Estah- t
sneu oy. the government indeed u
iof private enolument and pain i
corporations. which CURRENCY it, s
III IS TO be valuable only becanse II 4
made redeemable in the groanHoo ~ +
srGy, whicn this ghoul-like a~;ta> h
OF seeks to repudiate, oyerthrow a
ent tIs aa1 euch a Currency Pres. t
.e@sc;onon with the wisdom and y
nd OF . VI a statesman, by the war v
a sOioler, sustained by the tt