It is ironic how a president who famously opposed the national bank and the use of paper money made it onto the 20 dollar bill, or maybe you didn’t know that, because you might not know anything about one of the most irrelevant and lackluster founding fathers, Andrew Jackson. After the rise of Hamilton: The Musical in the mid-2010s, it seems that every American knows about the figures that appear in our wallets, except Jackson– who is not included in the musical.
The decision to put Jackson on the bill has been a topic of controversy from its start, an article from a 1929 issue of the New York Times writes, “The Treasury Department maintains stoutly that the men chosen for small bills, which are naturally the ones in most demand, were so placed because their faces were most familiar to the majority of people.”
The article states that the people chosen for the bills are faces that are in the most demand and the most recognizable, and even though the decision was chosen on the 100th anniversary of his election, the US Department of Treasury does not reveal the reasons behind putting someone on our money. In this quote, they argue that the reason for putting Jackson on the bill was because he was deemed a recognizable or impactful person, but someone such as Abraham Lincoln, who is not featured on paper money, would be a much more recognizable figure.
Although some will claim that Andrew Jackson embodies the American Dream, as he was a common man from Tennessee who overcame his hardships to become a now prominent figure in American politics, his innocent act couldn’t be further from the reality of his reputation. In truth, Jackson was the cause of many American tragedies, such as the Trail of Tears, which was when Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, displacing Native Americans to the west from their homes east of the Mississippi. The president we see every day in our wallets should not be someone associated with such crimes as severe as genocide, which doesn’t accurately reflect our society’s values.
When Jackson was inducted into his presidency, the second national bank controlled the nation’s money, but Jackson detested the national bank and wanted to implement fiscal independence to the states instead of national control. In 1832 he abolished the bank and bankruptcy overwhelmed the nation. Personally, I believe that someone who is on our money should be someone who supports this system of economy.
The people who grace our precious money should be reflective of the American values of diversity of our nation. This is not to say that Jackson is the only person with a controversial history on 0ur money, they all have their own problems, some very similar to Jackson, but at least you aren’t looking at your 10-dollar bill with wondering who it is, it’s Alexander Hamilton, and at least he liked the bank.
