Wikipedia:Today's featured article/June 9, 2023

The 1880 Greenback National Convention met from June 9 to 11 in Chicago to select candidates and write a platform for the Greenback Party in the presidential election. Delegates chose James B. Weaver (pictured) of Iowa for President and Barzillai J. Chambers of Texas for Vice President. The Greenback Party was a response to government policy tightening the money supply and returning to the gold standard. Many felt that issuance of "greenbacks" would improve economic conditions. Weaver, the favorite for the presidential nomination, won on the first ballot; Chambers, one of his defeated rivals, was his running mate. More tumultuous was the fight over the platform, as delegates from disparate factions of the left-wing movement clashed over women's suffrage and Chinese immigration. In the presidential election, the party received only about three percent of the vote, as Republican congressman James A. Garfield of Ohio triumphed.