Proposal to redeem American Civil War bonds in paper money instead of gold.
The plan, part of the debate between hard-money advocates and soft-money or Greenback movement supporters after the Civil War, was sponsored by George Pendleton and was especially popular in the Midwest. Endorsed by the Democratic Party in 1868, it died with the election of Ulysses S. Grant and passage of the Public Credit Act (1869), which provided for payment of government obligations in gold.