The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1912-08-09
new NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Scientist Was the Real Father of
the Greenback.
Colonel Waits Story Of Dr.. T. sterry
Hunt and His Invention of Green
Ink With Which the Notes
Were Printed.
BY E. J. EDWARDS.

Il suppose that you have often
heard it said that Gov. Salmon p.
Chase, when secretary of the treasury
in Lincolns administration, was first
called the father of the greenback, J"
said the late John r. Wait, who for
many years represented Connecticut
district In the lower house of con-
gress.
| 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 ] use the word" Judge Wait re-
piled. "Mr. Chase, when secretary of
the treasury, did secure from congress
authority to issue legal tender note,
which was nothing more than prom
ise on the part of the United States
government to pay at some time to the
bearer of the note It's face value. Sec
rotary Chase, however did not invent
the greenback; | mean by that. that
he was not the father Of the particu-
lar form of legal tender note which be-
came 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 govern
ment saw fit to redeem them in.
1.-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 stones throw from the birth
place of Benedict Arnold. His name
was Thomas Sterry Hunt He Is bet
ter known today as T. Sterry Hunt,
the famous professor OF geology and
chemistry of McGill college, Mon
treal, one of the foremost men Of sci
ence.
Hunt, as lad, showed great
capacity for science, and he began the
study OF medicine with an old friend
of mine While studying medicine,
however, he saw what the opportuni-
ties for scientific investigation were.
so that he went to New Haven, and
studied under the famous Silliman,
professor OF chemistry at Yale.
1T was while he was studying chem
istry that he became almost by chance
possessed of information which he af-
forwards 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 II up again, and at the begin
ming of our Civil war he announced
that he had invented green ink
which would stand any climatic raw
ages and retain its color for all time.
so much for that Now, after Sec
rotary Chase had received authority
to issue legal tenders, he was anxious
to give the notes IA distinctive appear,
ance. He wanted to have them as un-
like ordinary banknotes as possible.
One day, he was speaking incidentally
about this to Judge Lafayette s. Fos-
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, saying
that former townsman of his, DR.. T.
Sterry Hunt, had invented green ink
which would never fade, but that 1t
had never been put upon the market.
That will be just the thing said
the secretary of the treasury. lie got
samples OF green ink printing pre-
pared. obtained proof that the ink
would not fade, and then gave the
order that the new legal tender notes
should, upon their reverse side. be
printed with this green ink. And in
that sense" said Colonel Wait, DIR
T. Sterry Hunt is the father of the
greenback"
Copyright 1911. by Il. ]. Edwards. All
Rights Reserved)