THE BROADSIDE, October 2, 1878

• Very rare Greenback campaign broadside

This was a short-lived political campaign newspaper published in Boston, during the 1878 congressional and state election season. The paper was strongly associated with the Greenback and anti-monopoly political movements that emerged in response to the economic hardships following the Panic of 1873. This issue carried the headline “The Nation's Money,” suggesting a focus on one of the era's most contentious issues: currency reform and the debate over paper money, gold, silver, and the national banking system.
Like many campaign newspapers of the late nineteenth century, The Broadside was designed less as a general news journal than as a vehicle for political persuasion. Its issues addressed economic policy, banking, labor concerns, and election controversies, often in language intended for ordinary voters rather than financial experts. This is the volume 1, number 18 issue. 
Single sheet, printed on one side only, 19 1/2 by 24 inches, nice condition.

Background: Published during the height of the 1878 midterm election season, Volume 1, Number 18 of The Broadside serves as a crucial artifact of post-Panic of 1873 anti-monopoly activism, anchoring its partisan message around the central campaign topic of currency reform under the prominent headline “The Nation's Money.” Operating as a targeted vehicle for political persuasion rather than an objective news source, this Boston campaign sheet addressed ordinary voters in accessible language, translating complex financial disputes—such as the contraction of paper money under the Resumption Act of 1875, the influence of the national banking system, bimetallism, and labor rights—into a direct populist crusade. By championing Greenback monetary policy, the paper framed government-issued paper currency as a democratic tool designed to relieve debt-burdened farmers and industrial workers, explicitly positioning the Greenback-Labor movement against Eastern banking monopolies and the gold standard in the run-up to the crucial October and November state and congressional elections.