Historic American Buildings Survey ( HABS )
Senator Justin Smith Morrill ’ s house in Strafford , Vermont . and tax policy ; however , as a member of the Senate Finance Committee , he played a key role in the vexing conflict over the “ money question .” During the war , three Legal Tender Acts were passed , authorizing the Treasury to issue fiat currency , commonly known as greenbacks . After the war , a battle erupted between “ hard money ” supporters , who wanted to curtail the circulation of greenbacks and force a speedy return to specie payments , and “ soft money ” proponents , who strongly opposed the contraction of greenbacks .
Morrill supported contraction and a return to hard money policies . He noted in 1866 that $ 944 million in currency circulated , including bank notes , legal tender and compound-interest notes , and he urged the country to return to “ sound finance .” He helped draft the legislation that gave the Treasury the authority to contract the currency in circulation . Two of Morrill ’ s closest colleagues in Congress , Thaddeus Stevens and John Sherman , were “ soft money ” advocates . Stevens died in 1868 , but the differences between Sherman and Morrill intensified and led to a rift that chilled their relationship .
Morrill ’ s popularity in Vermont created a sinecure for him . During his final years in the Senate , he was seen as a “ counselor rather than a leader .” When Congress was divided , with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats the Senate , Morrill contented himself with amassing a personal library , designing a stately home in Washington and publishing a collection of essays , titled “ Self-Consciousness of Noted Persons .” His non-partisan pragmatism faded , and he became more entrenched in the postwar Republican beliefs in protectionism and “ hard money .” Morrill continued to take pride in the prosperity of the nation , even as the financial position of the farmers and laborers he championed during the war became more precarious .
Jane Flaherty is an instructor of American History at Blinn College in Bryan , TX , and a visiting adjunct lecturer in the Department of History at Texas A & M University . She received her Ph . D . in American History at Texas A & M University . Her current research focus is on the Union Treasury Department during the American Civil War .
Sources
Atherton , George W . “ The Legislative Career of Justin S . Morrill .” www . hathitrust . org
Barreyre , Nicholas . Gold and Freedom : The Political Economy of Reconstruction . Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press . 2015 .
Congressional Globe and Congressional Record
Cross , Coy F . Justin Smith Morrill : Father of the Land Grant Colleges . East Lansing : Michigan State University Press . 1999 .
Flaherty , Jane . The Revenue Imperative . London : Pickering and Chatto . 2009 .
Foner , Eric . Free Soil , Free Labor , Free Men : The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War . New York : Oxford University Press . 1970 .
Lowenstein , Roger . Ways and Means : Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War . New York : Penguin Books . 2022 .
Parker , William Belmont . The Life and Public Services of Justin Smith Morrill . Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co . 1924 .
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