After a decade of political ferment, the Greenback party emerged as the vehicle for grassroots interest in financial reform. Although the party's focus was national, the roots of greenbackism were local. Around the country, the effects of contraction, the devastation of war, the consequences of railroad expansion, and the growth of manufacturing impelled different communities to contend with the processes of economic change. Their concerns and responses differed depending on the particular political and economic conditions of their states. Yet producers from various states and political backgrounds found common cause in the fight against financial monopoly.

Greenbackism was the most geographically diverse of the antimonopoly movements of the late nineteenth century. It was also politically particular in different states, where local issues drove and shaped the movement. This chapter analyzes the financial debate in three states.