Andrew Jackson

[Liberal]

Yes, thanks, David.

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And weren’t the Creek Indians rounded up in the Trail of Tears along with the Cherokee?

Yes, they were. Some 3,500 Creek Indians died in Alabama alone. Also brutalized were Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw people. In all, estimates are that 100,000 people were cattle-driven westward. No one knows how many died. It was a horrible event.

Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan’s Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, wrote:

I saw the helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and driven at the bayonet point into stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on an October morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and forty-five wagons and started toward the west.

[Spoke]

I have some recommended reading for this thread. Others have mentioned the hazards of judging historical figures by 21st century standards. Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars by Robert V. Remeni, while it is not an apologist work, and certainly does not absolve Jackson in his treatment of the Cherokee, does provide some historical context which helps make his actions more comprehensible, at least.

Jackson is a fascinating character who did a lot of good, and did a lot of evil. If it were up to me, I’d replace him on the currency with Davy Crockett, another iconic frontiersman/statesman, and one who argued for the rights of Indians.

Here are links to the full texts of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia.

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Duck Duck Goose quoted an on-line list of the 20 Greatest Presidents in U.S. History:

7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
   As president, Jackson greatly expanded the power and prestige of the presidential office and carried through an unprecedented program of domestic reform, vetoing the bill to extend the United States Bank, moving toward a hard-money currency policy,

I wouldn’t be so proud of Jackson’s veto of the 2nd Bank of the United States, or of his move toward hard currency. These moves, coupled with the economic climate in existence at the time, basically caused the Panic of 1837 – the worst recession the U.S. had ever gone through up to that point.

From the whitehouse.gov entry on Martin van Buren:

Jackson’s financial measures contributed to the crash. His destruction of the Second Bank of the United States had removed restrictions upon the inflationary practices of some state banks; wild speculation in lands, based on easy bank credit, had swept the West. To end this speculation, Jackson in 1836 had issued a Specie Circular requiring that lands be purchased with hard money–gold or silver.

In 1837 the panic began. Hundreds of banks and businesses failed. Thousands lost their lands. For about five years the United States was wracked by the worst depression thus far in its history.

[Duckster]

Since there appears to be quite a few posts with more than just mud sticking, I have two questions?

1. Who would you want on US currency and why?

2. Is there ever a point when looking at historical figures and their actions that applying 21 century standards to behavior might be a tad too much? Or should every person on US currency be so “lily-white and politically correct” as to really have no significance at all?

[Liberal]

Why use people at all?

$1 — Statue of Liberty

$5 — Bald Eagle

$10 — Liberty Bell

$20 — Empire State Building

$50 — Golden Gate Bridge

$100 — American Flag

and so on…

[plnnr]

I’m all for redesigning our currency and giving a few of our lesser known Presidents a chance.

$1 - James K. Polk
$5 - William Henry Harrison
$10 - Grover Cleveland
$20 - Chester A. Arthur (a personal favorite)
$50 - Millard Fillmore
$100 - Martive Van Buren (my all-time favorite)

[Neurotik]

Maybe something along the lines of incompetence rankings:

$1 - Pierce
$5 - Hayes
$10 - A. Johnson
$20 - Buchanan
$50 - Grant
$100 - Hardint

[Tars_Tarkas]

$1-- Lady Liberty
$2-- Uncle Sam
$5-- Red Cloud
$10-- Hamilton
$20-- Any Indian just to make Jackson roll over in his grave.
$50-- Godzilla
$100-- Franklin
$500-- John Carter of Mars
$1000-- King Kong
$5000-- Elvis
$10000-- Chase
$100,000-- Jesus and Mohammad holding hands
$1,000,000,000,000-- Tars Tarkas, simultaniously giving the thumbs up, OK sign, V for Victory, and the middle finger!

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Libertarian wrote:

Why use people at all?

$1 — Statue of Liberty
$5 — Bald Eagle
$10 — Liberty Bell

Just FTR, before the 20th century, nearly all U.S. coinage carried artistic renditions of Lady Liberty. The “tradition” of putting dead statesmen on U.S. currency – coin or paper – is a recent invention.

And the Statue of Liberty does appear on the U.S. Mint’s platinum Eagle bullion coins.

[Spoke]

Yeah, didn’t George Washington actually oppose the notion of putting his image on the currency when the idea was floated during his lifetime?

[Liberal]

Probably. He was the last good president that we had.