[4] As the sectional differences that led to the Civil War grew, Dillaye joined (and was later president of) the Young Men's Democratic Union Club.
[5] He was appointed to the post of General Appraiser, a patronage position in the New York Custom House in 1856, but differences with the administration and Congressman Daniel Sickles led to his removal two years later.
[7] The next year, 1859, Dillaye was arrested in Pittsburgh, charged with forging certificates of deposit to purchase shares of stock in a bank there.
[14] In the 1870s, Dillaye relocated to Trenton, New Jersey and worked for the Irish World as a journalist in addition to continuing his legal practice.
The reduction of currency in circulation, combined with the economic depression, made life harder for debtors, farmers, and industrial laborers; the Greenbackers hoped to draw support from these groups.
One of them, calling itself the Union Greenback Labor Party, met in St. Louis in March 1880 to nominate candidates for the upcoming presidential election.
[15] Because Dillaye had previously declared he was not interested in the nomination, many delegates protested, seeing him as a placeholder for eventual re-unification with the other half of the divided party, the National Greenbackers.
[15] Dillaye, himself, supported reunification and urged the delegates to send representatives to the National Greenbackers' convention, which was set for June 1880 in Chicago.
[21] Dillaye's health was poor that year, but he helped with Weaver's campaign, travelling to Indiana on a trip that was rumored to involve fusion negotiations with the Democrats.