\COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RINF
Andrew Jackson was simply a violent madman. He is well gone.
He tried destroying money, effectively favoring the gross
inflation of local banks for the benefit of Jackson’s constituency, backwoods
farmers. I've never understood why he was given a place on money.
He fought several duels, literally horsewhipped one man, had
a towering rage of a temper, and was responsible for the atrocity we call the
Trail of Tears, in which long-settled home- and farm-owning native people in
the Southeastern US were sent packing out to what became Oklahoma but was then
wilderness. Literally thousands died. It was like something the Nazis might do.
Alexander Hamilton, however, deserves more than any figure
to be on the face of money. That clever man practically created all the key
elements of today's money system.
Harriet Tubman is certainly a significant historical figure,
but it has not been American practice to put general historical figures on the
face of money.
Also, I can't help feeling there is tremendous cynicism and
hypocrisy in putting her on a bill. Money and slavery were intimate associates.
The US has never apologized for or compensated for slavery. There is not even a
monument to this important and dreadful institution in Washington.
All the blubbering in the Declaration of Independence and
Bill of Rights about freedom and rights was put into accurate perspective by
Britain's magnificent Dr. Samuel Johnson when he asked: "How is it that we
hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?"
He was referring to the likes of Thomas Jefferson.
