Disgruntled Democrats, rural rebels and a handful of breakaway Republicans cast their lot with the Greenbacks on March 14, 1876 at the organizing convention of the Texas branch of the new third party.

The devastating depression triggered by the Panic of 1873 shook American society to its core. Out of this crisis arose the Greenback Labor Party with its catchy slogan “More Money, Cheaper Money.” Nothing ailed the crippled economy, the Greenbacks argued, that a massive influx of paper c...