NOVEMBER 5 1818- BIRTH OF BENJAMIN BUTLER, UNION ARMY CIVIL WAR GENERAL AND MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE

1818- BIRTH OF BENJAMIN BUTLER, UNION ARMY CIVIL WAR GENERAL AND MEMBER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE
“I stand here, therefore, for inconvertible paper money, the greenback, which has fought our battles and saved our country, which has been held by us as a just equivalent for the blood of our soldiers, the lives of our sons, the widowhood of our daughters, and the orphanage of their children. I stand here for a currency by which the business transactions of forty million people are safely and successfully done, which, founded on the faith, the wealth, and property of the nation, is at once the exemplar and engine of its industries and power—that money which saved the country in war and has given it prosperity and happiness in peace. To it four million men owe their emancipation from slavery; to it labor is indebted for elevation from that thrall of degradation in which it has been enveloped for ages. I stand for that money, therefore, which is by far the better agent and instrument of exchanged of an enlightened and free people than gold and silver the money alike of the barbarian and the despot.” [Speech on House floor, January 12, 1869 on national currency]