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greenback

(Encyclopedia)greenback, in U.S. history, legal tender notes unsecured by specie (coin). In 1862, under the exigencies of the Civil War, the U.S. government first issued legal tender notes (popularly called greenba...

Greenback party

(Encyclopedia)Greenback party, in U.S. history, political organization formed in the years 1874–76 to promote currency expansion. The members were principally farmers of the West and the South; stricken by the Pa...

Weaver, James Baird

(Encyclopedia)Weaver, James Baird, 1833–1912, American political leader, b. Dayton, Ohio. Reared in frontier areas of Michigan and Iowa, he practiced law in Iowa. He served in the Union army in the Civil War and ...

McCulloch, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)McCulloch, Hugh məkŭlˈək [key], 1808–95, American financier and public official, b. Kennebunk, Maine. Educated at Bowdoin College, he studied law in Boston and practiced two years at Fort Wayne,...

Pendleton, George Hunt

(Encyclopedia)Pendleton, George Hunt, 1825–89, American political leader, b. Cincinnati. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1847 and served (1854–56) in the state senate. He was an antiwar Democrat in the House...

Legal Tender cases

(Encyclopedia)Legal Tender cases, lawsuits brought to the U.S. Supreme Court involving the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act of 1862, which was passed to meet currency needs during the Civil War. The act ha...

Cooper, Peter

(Encyclopedia)Cooper, Peter, 1791–1883, American inventor, industrialist, and philanthropist, b. New York City. After achieving success in the glue business, Cooper, with two partners, erected (1829) the Canton I...

Granger movement

(Encyclopedia)Granger movement, American agrarian movement taking its name from the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization founded in 1867 by Oliver H. Kelley and six associates. Its local uni...

Phillips, Wendell

(Encyclopedia)Phillips, Wendell, 1811–84, American reformer and orator, b. Boston, grad. Harvard (B.A., 1831; LL.B., 1834). He was admitted to the bar in 1834 but, having sufficient income of his own, he abandone...

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