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THBWilder W. Perry, Prominent Businessman & Activist from Maine, Correspondence Incl. Passionate Greenback Party Letters, Ca 187
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About Auction
LiveSep 8, 2017 - Sep 9, 2017
Cowan's Auctions dawnie@cowans.com
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- Lot Description
Lot of 68, featuring 8 letters written by Greenback Party supporter Wilder W. Perry, accompanied by 54 letters and song written to him by politicians and supporters, ca 1878-1891. Plus 6 additional letters addressed to either George or Susan Cleveland.
Wilder W. Perry, a member of the Maine Legislature, and editor and proprietor of the Camden Herald, was aptly described in a letter included in the archive as "able and influential" doing a great deal "to educate the people" of the Greenback cause (ALS, T.H. Merch (?) Rockland, ME, October 7, 1880). Perry often used strong language representative of many grassroots movements in the American political landscape. This archive features a number of letters from supporters bursting with political fervor for change and reform, many using fiery language similar to Perry's articles for a variety of newspapers. H.B. Piece from City Point, VA wrote Perry, "We need men in congress who can remember after they take their seats who sent them and what they were sent there for'Those old leaders must be got rid of: they are in the way of reform-and the people require a change" (City Point, VA March 15, 1879).
Change for the Greenback Party meant end of government corruption, regulation of the railroads and other corporations, and the conservation of natural resources. Fellow newspaperman and Greenback supporter F.L. King wrote Perry:
The fact exists that monster corporations wield a fearful power and a quiet pop gun will not blow them out of existence. The breath of man are opposed to a hurricane is useless. Better avoid the blast, hedge, and fight the devil with fire. The monster corporations have a power you cannot resist singlehanded'Monster corporations receive their power from the people. The people furnish the powder the monsters used to destroy them. I want people to know that this is their power and how to use it. Give no more powder to the enemy but use your own powder in your own musket, and stand at the breech instead of the muzzle (Worcester, MA, March 21, 1879).
However, the Greenback's primary goal and reason for creating the party was to support the continued issuance of greenbacks, or paper currency printed during the Civil War. At a convention, Perry wrote to his wife:
We had a glorious time discussing the currency question. Elllis Freeman, his father, Capt. Kent and I talked against contraction, and against the National Banking system, while scar Glover, defended, single handed, as best he could, the hard money contraction ideas of the bond holds, and National Bank men. We had a good time'(Camden, ME, Nov 11, 1877).
The third party had two presidential candidates for the 1880 and 1884 election; James Weaver and Benjamin Butler. Perry represented Maine at the Greenback National Convention and represented Camden in the state legislature in 1879 and 1880. Perry carried support from a variety of parties and movements. His party also caught the attention of some suffragettes, specifically Lucy Snow, who discussed the party at the Lewiston Convention. A friend relayed Snow's speech to Perry. A portion of it reads:
Don't the stupid reformers know that they will need the women to help them out? That they are the chief earner store of the new edifice?...It matters not what the color of the backs are black or green paper'the crisis of the age is to be met the wrong and injustice of centuries to be paired(?) and a readjustment of the elements to be accomplished'I can only hear the still small voice and I do not need the thunder tones that will yet resonate from North to South of our awakening. Let the green back party move forward they are the vanguard of in the march of the political agitation but only if they do not wait on "side issues" I can tell them that there are new issues even now pressing forward into the arena, (Rockland, July 18).
But, by the late 1880s and 1890s the party's numbers began to decline. The Populist Party and the Democratic Party absorbed a large number of Greenback supporters after they assumed many of the issues on its platform. Still, Perry continued to be politically active and supported the People's Party and the Prohibition Party.
Condition
Very good, some light toning of the paper and typical folds. Some of the letters contain their original envelopes.
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