Posted on 04/21/2016 8:31:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Politico reports that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is set to announce that Alexander Hamilton will get a reprieve and remain on the $10 bill, while Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20, and Treasury will make other changes including “putting leaders of the women’s suffrage movement on the back of the $10 bill, and incorporating civil-rights era leaders and other important moments in American history into the $5 bill” while relocating Jackson to less desirable real estate (his own Trail of Tears, one might say) on the back of the $20.
There are a few lessons here, not least the power of popular culture: Hamilton, previously the most obscure figure (to the general population) of the men on American currency was clearly saved in large part by the runaway success of the Broadway hip-hop musical celebrating his life. Conservatives may decry the politically correct identity-politics drive to demand a woman on the money and downgrade Jackson, but it’s worth remembering that Jackson has only been there since 1928, when he replaced Grover Cleveland, and decisions about whom we should honor on our money have always said as much about our values at a given moment as about any historical merit.
Jackson was and is a monumental figure in American history, an unapologetic nationalist who left the nation larger and more secure than he found it, bitterly opposed factional threats of secession, and fought for a larger role for the common man in our democracy, and at times in our history, those have been critical values. But Jackson was massively controversial in his own time and ever since for a great many reasons — as controversial as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson, or Woodrow Wilson. And Jackson himself, in life, was never much restrained by the conventions of history. In retrospect, it is surprising he lasted this long on the $20.
Contemporary liberals, of course, focus on his record as a slave-owner and his brutal relocation of Native American tribes from the American South. Conservatives to this day have our own particular complaints to add: Jackson was a major influence in turning the federal government into an engine of partisan patronage, setting the model for client-based governing that the Democratic party in particular has followed ever since. And his demagogy and politics of grievance remain dangers to this day.
The Jacksonians are gone from the Democratic party now — Jim Webb was the last man to turn out the lights on his way out — but the Donald Trump phenomenon has underlined the extent to which they are no friend to principled conservatism, any more than Jackson himself was.
As for Tubman, I would argue that she’s not the most influential woman in American history; that honor should rightly belong to Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the most important of all American novels. But Tubman herself is a worthy honoree, the first ordinary citizen on paper money and a woman of great courage and powerful Christian witness. She was also — this tends to be forgotten today — a nurse and scout during the Civil War and herself a leader of the women’s suffrage movement until her death at 91 in 1913, more than half a century after her “Underground Railroad” exploits.
Tubman’s life is not without its own controversies, like her assistance to John Brown in advance of the Harper’s Ferry raid that ended with Brown being hanged for treason (the justification of Brown’s actions is one of the great ethical dilemmas in American history: How far exactly should one go to stop something as bad as slavery?). And if the debates over the $10 and the $20 lead more Americans to learn the flesh-and-blood stories of Hamilton, Jackson, and Tubman, that can’t be a bad thing. They remind us that our politics have always been messy and sometimes bloody.
Do not weep for Andrew Jackson. He had a good run on the money.
Turning the the paper certificates visually into TOILET paper.
Personally, I find speciesism offensive. Why have only humans on our paper money? I personally favor reptiles. We could be saying “It’s all about the Musk Turtles” if we were more open-minded.
National Joke Review.
Mad Magazine would be a better read than this.
The country we live in now is most certainly not the country created by the great men of our history. It is today something else altogether. Might as well have “truth in advertising” on the swiftly-becoming-valueless currency issued by the despotic oligarchy that rules us today.
That is the ultimate irony.
So our communist muslim president removes the founder of the democrat party from the $20, and replaces him with a Christian, gun rights supporting Republican.
Can't get any better.
Agree the $20 dollar bill just became a collectors item.
Don’t worry. I am too busy weeping for the destruction of the country.
Jackson would just consider the source & move on to more
important matters. He lived in a different time. - I don’t
quarrel with Harriet Tubman being honored. I didn’t know her. She also lived in a different time. - This is all PR
for Hitler-y & her choice of “female” VP. - Gag me with a
spoon! :o(
What? I don't know how he can justify this end conclusion. Both George Washington and Abe Lincoln were just as, if not more, controversial (and hated by many) in their own time.
“Tubman’s life is not without its own controversies, like her assistance to John Brown in advance of the Harper’s Ferry raid that ended with Brown being hanged for treason (the justification of Brown’s actions is one of the great ethical dilemmas in American history: How far exactly should one go to stop something as bad as slavery?).”
“How far exactly should one go...?”
“ethical dilemmas”??
That is a new one for me.
John Brown’s goal was to capture arms and provoke a slave insurrection/race war.
And this fool seems unperturbed by it.
The GOPe is again practicing preemptive surrender through their mouthpiece NRO. How bad do they hate America?
This decision is going to survive until November and then it will quietly die.
I’m Choctaw, so I have nothing but disdain for Jackson because of how he “repaid” Choctaw loyalty and assistance to him during his times of need. HOWEVER!!! he is a hugely important President and was the first “man of the people” not from the elite East or Virginia.
Taking Jackson off the $20 because today it is PC and makes some people feel good, warm and fuzzy is totally and completely ridiculous. Tubman’s current legends far exceed her actual deeds. Not taking anything away from what she actually did, but she would be shocked to see how she is portrayed today. Some of the stories about her compare to George Washington and ‘the cherry tree’ or ‘throwing a dollar across the Delaware’ (or was it the Potomac?).
I swear, the world is being turned upside down by people with “good? intentions.”
That’s just my opinion.
Oldplayer
I didn’t see this in the article.
A black, a woman, an acknowledgement of the fight to end slavery, all accomplished with one choice. That works.
This new $20 isn't going to be issued until 2030. There probably won't be paper money by then.
Keeping it real, I'm more concerned about what's happening that will destroy the economic future of the US. If those wise folks in DC could turn that around, I wouldn't care if they put Bugs Bunny on the dollar bill!
I would rather this gem
Only since 1928...
Yes, just mere days ago...
Good grief where do they find these hack writers?
I object to the change, because it’s not the only one.
Pretty soon we’ll have money that insults us every time we use it.
And of course that’s the plan anyway.
They want to do away with domestic cash. They’re hoping we’ll sign on board as soon as our case insults us every time we use it.
You’ll see Reagan on the Polish Zloty, before you’d see him on a US bill.
The Emancipation Executive Order's purpose was the same.
I believe the War of 1812 was already over when they fought the Battle of New Orleans; they just hadn't got the word yet that it was over.
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