Despite his refusal to join the formal organization, Felton shared a number of the key ideas of the Greenbackers. In November 1877 coming out strongly for the repeal of the Resumption Act which restored the gold standard, charging that the tight money economy with which it was associated served to turn "monopolists, corporationists, national bondholders, and the money changers" into "the unchallenged lords of the country." Felton was also sharply critical of the country's banking establishment and the financial system, which he accused of being "a deliberate conspiracy on the part of the creditor class to rob, defraud, and impoverish the debtor class."