How the Worst President Ever Ended Up on a Controverisal New Coin (James Buchanan)

AOL News ^ | 8-19-2010 | Alex Eichler

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Today, the U.S. Treasury released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it.

To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.

The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.

Sununu's initiative drew inspiration from the 50 State Quarters Program, which launched in 1999. The runaway success of that effort, according to his legislation, "shows that a design on a U.S. circulating coin that is regularly changed... radically increases demand for the coin, rapidly pulling it through the economy."

The bill also suggested that a program wherein Presidents are featured on a succession of $1 coins, and First Spouses commemorated on gold $10 coins, could help correct a state of affairs where "many people cannot name all of the Presidents, and fewer can name the spouses, nor can many people accurately place each President in the proper time period of American history."

So the bill passed, and the Washington dollar coin appeared not long after. It was followed by Adams, Jefferson, et al., with the First Spouse coins minted alongside.

Now we're up to Buchanan, the fifteenth President, who took office in 1857 and turned things over to Abraham Lincoln in 1861, and whose coin (produced at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints and purchasable through the U.S. Mint website) has occasioned the aforementioned grousing. Here's where some feel the coin program is falling short:

1. The coins aren't circulating.

Many Americans have never gotten into the habit of using $1 coins, and as a result, over a billion commemorative Presidential coins are sitting around in a stockpile at the Federal Reserve. As BBC News reports, if these coins were stacked up and laid on their side, they'd stretch for 1,367 miles, or the distance from Chicago to New Mexico.

2. They don't seem to be educating people, either.

In February 2008, a year after the first presidential coins were minted, The New York Times reported that a survey had found large numbers of American teens to be woefully ignorant of their country's history. It was far from the first time Americans had gotten a dismal grade in history, suggesting that Sununu's commemorative-coin campaign isn't having much of an effect in that arena, either.

3. James Buchanan was kind of a crappy president.

In fairness, this is a grievance with a specific president, not the presidential coins program as a whole. Still, it seems to come up in all the coverage of the new coin: Buchanan wasn't very good at his job.

That's the consensus of historians, anyway, who have traditionally censured Buchanan for his failure to prevent the Civil War. Last year, a C-SPAN survey of historians granted Buchanan the dubious distinction of worst president ever.

Still, all of this isn't reason enough to declare the commemorative-coins program a total failure. If more coin collectors start avidly pursuing the presidential coins, it could have the effect of pushing down the national debt, thanks to the way the value of the coins fluctuates with their availability. And if the dollar coins were to catch on and replace paper $1 bills entirely, it could save the country between $500 and $700 million each year in printing costs.

Plus, if things stay on track, 2012 will see the release of the Chester A. Arthur dollar coin -- marking the first time that long non-commemorated president's face has ever appeared on any nation's currency. And who are we to deprive him of that?

[mstar]

After 145 years the only scars that would still be there would be the ones that are carefully cultivated

So have you visited the area?

[cowboyway]

So you'll admit that Lee's order was meaningless window-dressing?

You're pathetic. Your liberal tactics are worthless with me. I know who you are and what your game is.

That he turned a blind eye to the abductions and forraging and destruction of private propety?

General Order #73 is written historical proof that he did exactly the opposite of what you and the coven are trying to allege. Your attempts to revise history to suit your damn yankee mythology and PC agenda ain't playing in Peoria, boy.

[rockrr]

I’ve been all over the country.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

It’s funny, though, that while you say the town was never to recover after Sherman passed through, the official Mt Croghan website says that the town was thriving after the Civil War, that it was, around 1900, a “growing farm town with eight to ten stores,” rail connections (built in the early 1900s) and so on. It was doing so well that they got around to actually chartering the town in 1911. It was the Great Depression, which wiped out the local bank, combined with a fire in 1931 that really killed the town. According to their website again, “After burning down this time, the town never again regained its former prestige.”

[mstar]

I’ve been all over the country.

Oh, so you have visited Mt. Croghan, South Carolina then?

[cowboyway]

He targeted secessionists, enemies of the peace of the nation

Oh please. Your Saint Shermy did no such thing.

If they lived in the South his rabble targeted them.

had no problem sending other Southerners to their death while they increased their wealth at home.

You don't really want to go there, do you?

To take the war to those people for a change was a just thing.

So you do advocate targeting women and children in America's current wars.

[rockrr]

And if I say yes, then are you going to ask if I stood on the corner of Hough St. and Camden Rd? What’s your point?

[Hegewisch Dupa]

wow. In the world of knotted panties, his are Gordian.

[mstar]

Again, an exact quote in context from The Cheraw Visitors Bureau 5/2000;

"Other places in Chesterfield County include the monument marking the first secession meeting on the grounds of the Old Courthouse on Main Street. The Robert Mills Courthouse on this site was burned by the Union Army. Next door is the John Craig House, c. 1798, Sherman's personal headquarters. The Austin-Craig House, C. 1858, already put to the torch, was saved when a slave reported that it belonged to a Yankee. Fire marks are visible in this, one of the rare homes in Chesterfield to escape destruction. Nearby Mt. Croghan was almost completely destroyed, never to really fully recover. © Sarah Spruill The Cheraw Visitors Bureau 5/2000)"


The context of the sentence as well as a actual study of the history of Mt Croghan will prove the city never recovered from Sherman's torch. Anyone can proof text history by internet search engines.

[mstar]

After 145 years the only scars that would still be there would be the ones that are carefully cultivated

And if I say yes, then are you going to ask if I stood on the corner of Hough St. and Camden Rd? What’s your point?

You seem to be such an authority of the "carefully culivated" remains? So have you been?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Yeah, I did so a search on Mt. Croghan, consulting the town's own official website with several pages on town history rather than a passing mention in a tourist brochure. But if you know better, maybe you should contact them and tell them that they have their history all wrong, that it wasn't a growing town in 1900, that it wasn't doing well enough to incorporate in 1911, and that it was Sherman's fire rather than the fire of 1931 from which " the town never again regained its former prestige."

[Non-Sequitur]

General Order #73 is written historical proof that he did exactly the opposite of what you and the coven are trying to allege.

Oh barf.

Your attempts to revise history to suit your damn yankee mythology and PC agenda ain't playing in Peoria, boy.

Revisionism is a Southron trait.

[mac_truck]

The Cheraw Visitors Bureau 5/2000;

Are these the same folks who told you they were still fishing silverware outa the river using large magnets?

[Non-Sequitur]

It was the Great Depression, which wiped out the local bank, combined with a fire in 1931 that really killed the town. According to their website again, “After burning down this time, the town never again regained its former prestige.”

That was Sherman's fault, too. Didn't you know?

[mstar]

Yeah, I did so a search on Mt. Croghan, consulting the town's own official website with several pages on town history rather than a passing mention in a tourist brochure. But if you know better, maybe you should contact them and tell them that they have their history all wrong, that it wasn't a growing town in 1900, that it wasn't doing well enough to incorporate in 1911, and that it was Sherman's fire rather than the fire of 1931 from which " the town never again regained its former prestige."

Let's look at the article in its full context from website;

"Mount Croghan is one of the three oldest towns in Chesterfield County. Cheraw and Chesterfield are the other two. The name of the hill around which Mount Croghan was built, and which has been the only name the community and town have ever known dates back almost two hundred years to 1780 and the Battle of Camden. Mount Croghan got its name from Major Croan, a French officer who was famous during the Revolutionary War. While traveling to Virginia after the Battle of Camden, Major Croan made his camp on a hill just above the present site of Mount Croghan and gave it this name. By 1809 Mount Croghan was a voting precinct and had a Post Office. Elizabeth Baptist Church is another landmark. The first covenant of the church was constituted by Elders Joel Gulledge and Samuel Timmons in 1825. There was a balcony for slaves. Between the years 1874 and 1877, the slaves began petitioning the church for letters of dismission to join other churches. The cemetery of Elizabeth Church is one of the oldest in the county.

In 1836, the people of Mount Croghan were concerned about organizing a school to educate their children. At that time, academies were important types of schools. It was then decided that an academy should be started. Mary Burch gave the land for the school to be built about a mile north of Mount Croghan at the old Elizabeth Church. Joseph Burch, Stephen Jackson, John Huntley, Sandy May, Joel Baker and Samuel Timmons gave of their time and materials so that this school might be built.
When the Academy was started, it was the only school within a radius of twenty miles. Alexander Whitton was the first teacher at the Academy.
The importance of the old Elizabeth Academy increased until it meant more to the people educationally and socially than any other place in the small community. The Academy was considered equal to a high school, and some of the children who attended were later considered the best educated people in Chesterfield County.

Mount Croghan was one of the towns burned down by General William T. Sherman and his army in 1864 as Sherman and his troops divided the South. Most of the recorded facts of Mount Croghan’s history were destroyed. During the Civil War, the northerners burned the Academy and stuck their swords and bayonets in the surrounding ground to see that nothing of value was buried there.

Mount Croghan Academy failed in the year 1900. Mount Croghan was a growing farm town with eight to ten stores in the early 1900's. The Chesterfield and Lancaster Railroad, running south of Mount Croghan gave the transportation of merchant and farm goods.

The Mount Croghan Methodist Church was built in 1907 and still stands in its original site. It was derived from Antioch Church on the Hornsboro Road, which no longer stands.

Mount Croghan Baptist Church was derived from the Elizabeth Baptist Church. Mount Croghan Baptist met at the school until a building was erected in 1922.
A Charter of Corporation for the Town of Mount Croghan was applied for by a group of leading citizens on October 3, 1911. The declaration showed that there was a population of 150 inhabitants. The boundary lines of the town were set forth. The Secretary of State, R.M. McCrown, granted the Charter of Corporation. The Charter was written in his own handwriting. It was later recorded by him on May 28, 1914.

The year 1909 was a red-letter year for Mount Croghan. The people, believing that the greatest contribution to man was the school, believing that ‘Man cannot live by bread alone,’ realizing that an educated person is able to live with himself with a greater degree of satisfaction, and that intellectual maturity would lift them out of the provincial into something of the cosmopolitan and universal, erected a school. It was erected in 1912.

The Depression started in the late 1920's and lasted until the mid 1930's. Mount Croghan was no exception to this event.



The Mount Croghan Bank was the strongest bank in the county until it went broke during the Depression. Before the Depression, a dollar was worth $1.18, but during the Depression, its value decreased to 38 cents.

The Mount Croghan School gymnasium was built of white rock hauled in by citizens from the fields in 1932 and 1933. It was the first governmental project of its kind in South Carolina to be signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Mount Croghan burned a second time in on September 3, 1931. A whole block of five stores was destroyed including the mercantile establishments of Mr. Rufuf Nicholson and Mr. Press Tucker, a vacant store owned by Mr. Tucker formerly occupied by the post office, the Baker and Rayfield Dry Goods Store and a vacant store owned by Mr. D. F. Nicholson. After burning down this time, the town never again regained its former prestige.

Mount Croghan began to lose its population in the 1950's with the increase in industry in nearby towns and the decrease of farming.

The population of Mount Croghan for the 2000 census was 155.

The town limits of Mount Croghan have a radius of one mile. Contained within the one mile radius are the business area, two churches and residential homes.

Mount Croghan is located ten miles east of the Town of Pageland and ten miles west of the Town of Chesterfield." Town of Mount Croghan ©2009 55 Burch Street, Mount Croghan, SC 29727 | tel. (843) 634-3810 Email: mtcroghan@mtcroghan.com"


Now if you go to the Chesterfield County article you will see the same sentence used in context with Sherman. Maybe they used it twice. But as I said a careful study of the area shows it never recovered from Sherman .

I mean isn't this what you Yankees are so proud of . . .you know, beat us like what was it "a hired mule".

Usually you all are bragging here, what's wrong?

[rockrr]

Do you always strain at gnats or is this a special occasion?

[RinaseaofDs]

Sherman treated The South like Cromwell, and Cromwell’s son-in-law, treated Ireland. ‘Scorched earth’ came from Cromwell. His army moved most of the Irish landholders out and moved English families in to work those holdings. This all happened 1670 to 1690 or so.

The first five Amendments in the Bill of Rights largely came out of that experience. England is still paying the price for Cromwell, as are the Irish.

I remember my great uncle once referring to himself as a ‘son of the niggers of Europe’. He referred to African-Americans as ‘smoked Irishmen’. I never understood it until I started learning a bit of English history.

[Non-Sequitur]

mean isn't this what you Yankees are so proud of . . .you know, beat us like what was it "a hired mule".

Rented mule. And y'all sure do enjoy whining about it, don't you?

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

See, I'd think you'd be the one all bragging here. I look at that and see that, yeah, Sherman burned what looks to have been a wide spot in the road when he passed through in March, 1865. Despite that, the town seemed to recover just fine, actually growing enough that by the early 1900s it was able to incorporate, had "eight to ten stores," railroad connections, new schools, etc., and generally sounding not much different than a lot of other towns in South Carolina that never saw a United States soldier.

You seem intent, on the other hand, of pronouncing all of that growth to be no more than the prolonged twitching of a corpse in order to reinforce your southern martyr complex.

[Non-Sequitur]

Sherman treated The South like Cromwell, and Cromwell’s son-in-law, treated Ireland. ‘Scorched earth’ came from Cromwell. His army moved most of the Irish landholders out and moved English families in to work those holdings. This all happened 1670 to 1690 or so.

Well if you truly want to compare Cromwell's actions in Ireland with the Union army's action in the South then feel free to do so. It betrays a sad ignorance of both historical events.