The True Irony of Replacing Jackson

Andrew Jackson was one of our most reprehensible Presidents in many respects.

He was most definitively a slave owner, at one time holding over 150 on his cotton plantation, the Hermitage, near Nashville. His hatred for Native Americans was deep and abiding ranging from the Battle of Horseshoe Bend to the Indian Removal Act (commonly know as the Trail of Tears). The Indian Removal Act was an affront to decency on several levels since it was also designed to secure land for slavery and promote the superiority of State’s Rights (though in fairness he did not support South Carolina’s secession threat in the Nullification Crisis over the Tariff of Abominations).

It’s also probably true that his wife Rachel was technically a bigamist, but it’s beyond a doubt that he was responsible for the adoption of the Jackass (yeah, it’s really not a Donkey and never was) as the symbol of the Democratic Party.

But what is really ironic about using his portrait on the $20 Bill is that he hated Banks, especially central Banks and by causing the failure of the Second Bank of the United States by removing Federal deposits, ushered in an age of hardly any regulation, rampant speculation, and corruption. His solution, requiring Gold or Silver for land purchases, caused a liquidity crisis that crushed the U.S. economy for 5 years in the worst depression the nation had ever seen.

Indeed it led directly to his censure by the Senate.

In short Jackson was a horrible human being, a false populist who let his commercial cronies and political allies steal freely from the public treasury in addition to being an unapologetic racist and anti-Constitutional autocrat.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.