Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1911-07-13
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The Chance Recovery That
Helped to Give the
Country the GreenbaCk
BY Holland.

81 suppose that you have often heard
1t said that Governor Salmon P. Chase,
when Secretary of the Treasury in Lin
coins administration, was first called
The father OF the Greenback,' " said
the late John T. Wait, who for many
years represented a Connecticut dis
trict in the lower house of Congress,
and who was an intimate personal
friend OF Connecticut's great war gov
ernor, William A. Buckingham, and
also a cousin Of Morrison R Waite,
Chief Justice OF the United States Su-
preme Court from 1874 to 1888, who
persisted in spelling the family name
with the final "e."
replied to Colonel Wait that / sup
posed 1t had passed into history that
Secretary Chase was the father Of the
greenback.
well, he was not, in the sense In
which I use the word" Judge Wait re-
Piled 'Mr. Chase, when Secretary OF
the Treasury, did secure from Con-
gress authority to Issue legal tender
note, which was nothing more than a
promise on the part of the United
States Government TO pay at some time
to the bearer of the note its face value.
Secretary Chase, however, did not in
vent the greenback; / mean by that,
that he was not the father of the par
ticular form of legal tender note which
became known throughout the country
as the greenback, and which contained
the fundamental idea upon which the
old Greenback Party was founded,
which was the issuing by the Govern
ment OF legal tender notes which were
to be practically irredeemable, or at
least redeemed in anything the Gov
eminent saw fit to redeem them in.
The real father of the greenback, "
continued Colonel Wait, was born in
the town of Norwich, Conn, which is
my home. His birthplace was only
about a stones throw from the birth
place of Benedict Arnold. His name
was Thomas Sterry Hunt He is better
known to-day as T. Sterry Hunt, the
famous professor of geology and chem
istry at McGill College, Montreal, one
of the foremost men of science.
Hunt, as lad. showed great capa-
city for science, and he began the
study Of medicine with an old friend OF
mine. While studying medicine, how
ever, he saw what the opportunities
for scientific investigation were, so
that he went to New Haven and stud
led under the famous Silliman, pro-
lessor of chemistry at Yale
1T was while he was studying chem
istry that he became almost by chance
possessed of information which he
afterwards so utilized as to give us
the greenback. He put the discovery
aside for a while, but something which
he never could explain led him to take
It up again, and at the beginning Of
our civil war he announced that he had
invented a green ink which would
stand any climatic ravages and retain
its color for all time.
80 much for that Now after Sec
rotary Chase had received authority to
issue legal tenders, he was anxious to
give the notes a distinctive appear
ance. Heswented to have them as un-
like ordinary banknotes as possible
One day, he was speaking incidentally
about this TO Judge Lafayette S. Eos.
ter, who at that time was a Senator
from Connecticut and was often con
suited by Lincoln. saying that he earn
estly desired to get the legal tender
note so printed that It would be In
stantly identified by the eye. Judge
Foster suggested that he have the
back printed in a green ink, sayini
that a former townsman OF his, DR.
T.. Sterry Hunt, had invented greer
ink which would never fade, but tina
Il had never been put upon the market
That will be just the thing sale
the Secretary of the Treasury. HI
got into communication with Dr. Hunt
had samples of green ink printing pre-
pared, obtained proof that the inl
would not fade, and then gave the or
der that the new legal tender notel
should. upon their reverse side, b.
printed with this green ink And II
that sense" said Colonel Wait, Or
T. Sterry Hunt is the father of thu
greenback."
Copyright, 1911. by E. J. Edwards. AL
Rights Reserved.)
Tomorrow Mr.. Edwards will tell o
'Three Famous Hamlets That violated
Tradition"