ernor for two or
three years and, as has been seen, was elected in 1883. I
of course supported the Republican candidate and made, I suppose,
thirty or forty speeches in each of those years. He had said
in explaining and defending his fiat money scheme that the
word "fiat" means "let there be." God said "fiat lux," "let
there be light," and there was light. He argued that fiat
money was excellent from the very fact that it cost nothing
and had no intrinsic value. So if a bill were lost or destroyed
a new one could be supplied without cost. He also said that
it would stay in the country and would not be sunk in the
morasses of Asia, especially in China and India, where silver
and gold were absorbed and never heard of in civilized nations
afterward. I quoted these sentences with the following comment:
"That, Fellow-citizens, is precisely the difference between
Omnipotence and Humbug, between the Almighty and General Butler.
God said let there be light and there was light. General
Butler says let there be money and there is--rags. This is
the first time in our history that the American workingman
has been gravely asked to take for his wages money it costs
nothing to make, that it is no loss to lose, that it is no
gain to get, and that even a Chinaman won't touch." Butler
was very angry and answered, rather irrelevantly, as it seemed
to me, by saying that I did not go to the War, to which I
replied as follows:

"I see that the Greenback candidate for Governor has seen
fit to taunt some persons, including myself, who have ventured
to exercise the privilege of free speech in this campaign,
that they did not go to the war; while he boasts that he not
only went to the war but hung a rebel. Those persons who
did not go to the war may, perhaps, possess at least this
advantage, that they can form an impartial opinion of the
merits of those who did. It is the pride and the honor of
this noble Commonwealth of ours, that of the hundred thousand
brave soldiers and sailors she sent to the war, there was
but one notorious braggart; there was but one capable of parading
up and down the Commonwealth, vaunting that he had hung a
man; exhibiting himself as the Jack Ketch of the rebellion.
I bow reverently to the brave, modest, patriotic soldier,
who, without thought of personal gain, gave youth, health,
limb, life to save the country which he loved. I am willing
to abide by his opinion, and to yield to him every place of
hon