Greenback Party

The Greenback Party (known successively as the Independent Party, the National Independent Party and the Greenback Labor Party) was an American political party with an anti-monopoly ideology which was active from 1874 to 1889. The party ran candidates in three presidential elections, in 1876, 1880 and 1884, before it faded away.

The party's name referred to the non-gold backed paper money, commonly known as "greenbacks", that had been issued by the North during the American Civil War and shortly afterward. The party opposed the deflationary lowering of prices paid to producers that was entailed by a return to a bullion-based monetary system, the policy favored by the Republican and Democratic parties. Continued use of unbacked currency, it was believed, would better foster business and assist farmers by raising prices and making debts easier to pay.

Initially an agrarian organization associated with the policies of the Grange, the organization took the name Greenback Labor Party in 1878 and attempted to forge a farmer–labor alliance by adding industrial reforms to its agenda, such as support of the 8-hour day and opposition to the use of state or private force to suppress union strikes. The organization faded into obscurity in the second half of the 1880s, with its basic program reborn shortly under the aegis of the People's Party, commonly known as the "Populists". Later, during the early 20th century, parts of the agenda from both parties were accomplished by the Progressives.