Monuments Harriet Tubman on Currency

More than just a president, Andrew Jackson had an illustrious military career. I just read the book An American Lion and I think Jackson should stay in a place of prominence like on the $20 bill
Jackson was a disaster for the country, all around. To quote Michael Todd Landis, "Andrew Jackson exhibits four attributes of demagoguery: 1. Disregard for laws and autocratic behavior; 2. Condemnation of the established government and use of outsider rhetoric; 3. Employs lies and fear tactics; 4. Incites violence.

  • He disrespected treaties with native Americans; indeed, his treatment of these people was barbarous (even to many of his contemporaries)
  • He ordered postmasters to burn abolitionist mail, in his attempt to remove federal deposits (which was forbidden by law) he went through several secretaries of the Treasury before finding someone who complied--end result was a long and pronounced depression
  • As a general, he disobeyed presidential orders to defend the mouth of the Mississippi and sacked Pensacola instead; this caused a serious crisis with Spain--while the country was already at war with Britain
  • He instituted a "reign of terror" in New Orleans that continued after cessation of hostilities
  • His autocratic military behavior led to hundreds of desertions
  • He claimed falsely that the administration of Adams was mired in corruption (he had lost an election to Adams--which he, Jackson, then claimed had been stolen); the false claims that he made against Adams through the years were nothing short of libelous
  • He incited violence against abolitionists, political adversaries and anyone he deemed to be an anti-Jacksonian
  • He was an enslaver, owned about 150
  • He was rigid; he stated that that the greatest regrets of his time as were that he did not ‘shoot Henry Clay’ and ‘hang John C. Calhoun’
This list can go on and on. IMO he was one of the worst presidents that this country has had. We'd be better off with my Uncle Henry on the $20 bill. 🙂
 
Jackson was a disaster for the country, all around. To quote Michael Todd Landis, "Andrew Jackson exhibits four attributes of demagoguery: 1. Disregard for laws and autocratic behavior; 2. Condemnation of the established government and use of outsider rhetoric; 3. Employs lies and fear tactics; 4. Incites violence.

  • He disrespected treaties with native Americans; indeed, his treatment of these people was barbarous (even to many of his contemporaries)
  • He ordered postmasters to burn abolitionist mail, in his attempt to remove federal deposits (which was forbidden by law) he went through several secretaries of the Treasury before finding someone who complied--end result was a long and pronounced depression
  • As a general, he disobeyed presidential orders to defend the mouth of the Mississippi and sacked Pensacola instead; this caused a serious crisis with Spain--while the country was already at war with Britain
  • He instituted a "reign of terror" in New Orleans that continued after cessation of hostilities
  • His autocratic military behavior led to hundreds of desertions
  • He claimed falsely that the administration of Adams was mired in corruption (he had lost an election to Adams--which he, Jackson, then claimed had been stolen); the false claims that he made against Adams through the years were nothing short of libelous
  • He incited violence against abolitionists, political adversaries and anyone he deemed to be an anti-Jacksonian
  • He was an enslaver, owned about 150
  • He was rigid; he stated that that the greatest regrets of his time as were that he did not ‘shoot Henry Clay’ and ‘hang John C. Calhoun’
This list can go on and on. IMO he was one of the worst presidents that this country has had. We'd be better off with my Uncle Henry on the $20 bill. 🙂
I humbly disagree!
Andy was one of the great Americans in our history.
 
Jackson $20s will still exist and still be printed. Why not honor a true American freedom fighter like Harriet?

Let’s not equivocate, let’s put her, the first woman to be so honored, on the bill. As millions of African Americans are forced to see monuments to their enslavers and tormentors in town squares and even inside the Capitol, perhaps everyone else can stomach having to see a freedom fighting black woman on currency?
What’s wrong with her image on a one dollar coin? I get the feeling you think that is “beneath” her legacy
 
Andrew Jackson was a law breaker and a really poor president because:
  • During his raid on Florida, he waged war on the Spanish--in direct defiance of a presidential order. During this campaign, he arrested 2 British citizens and, without trial or hearing, executed them.
  • In order to destroy the Second Bank of the US, he removed the federal reserves--in direct defiance of the law (it took him 3 secretaries of the treasury before he could find one willing to comply)
  • Refused to enforce a SCOTUS ruling regarding regulation of Native American lands
  • According to Forrest McDonald, a Conservative historian with the University of Alabama, Jackson destroyed the fiscal integrity of the US
  • Created the Spoils System
In Columbian's list of worst presidents because of inhumanity, Jackson ranks #3 because of his genocide.
 
Had Tubman not have gotten sick and been unable to go with John Brown on his hair brained raid you could also add treason. She was able to set Brown up with contacts in Maryland, recruited members and helped raise money for his raid.
Kind of makes her an accomplice, & guilty of conspiracy wouldn't you say...?
 
Had Tubman not have gotten sick and been unable to go with John Brown on his hair brained raid you could also add treason. She was able to set Brown up with contacts in Maryland, recruited members and helped raise money for his raid.

Harriet Tubman at best had a peripheral role in John Brown's plans. From the end of February 1858 until May 1858 when Brown travelled to Canada to establish his "rebel" state in exile and issue his provisional constitution, he met with Tubman at her home in St. Catherines on April 4th to discuss his planned invasion of Virginia although according to Brown's son John Jr., the plan to specifically attack Harper's Ferry was not made until the summer of 1859.

Tubman provided Brown with safe routes used by her and the underground railroad and she told him that she would try to recruit escaped slaves living in Canada to join his liberation army.

William S. McFeely in his book Frederick Douglass, notes that prominent blacks that Brown had been claiming were allies of his plan such as Douglass, Tubman, Henry Garnet and Jermain Loguen, as well as members of the Secret Six, failed to appear at the May 8th inauguration of his rebel government that was held in a black school house in Chatham, Ontario. Furthermore, Tubman did not appear at any future meetings and there is nothing in any correspondence to Brown from Tubman nor anyone else that indicates she would join him in his raid.

David S Reynolds' biography titled John Brown Abolitionist mentions Tubman in a single short paragraph in regards to Brown's meeting with her in St. Catherines, Canada with no mention of her planning on actively participating in his raid. Likewise, in two paragraphs of Stephen B. Oates' To Purge this Land With Blood - A Biography of John Brown, the author also mentions Brown's meeting in St. Catherines with Tubman, providing him with contacts and safe routes in Virginia and her agreement to recruit blacks from her community in Canada. Only one author from the five biographies I have of Brown and Douglass and one book of the personal correspondence and letters of Brown (The Life and Letters of John Brown, Edited by F. B. Sanborn, 1885), suggests that Tubman was supposed to participate in Brown's raid. W. E. Burghardt Du Bois in his bio John Brown, states "[o]nly sickness, brought on by her toil and exposure, prevented Harriet Tubman from being present at Harper's Ferry."
Du Bois employs footnotes throughout his book but this passage is strangely lacking one if it was based on fact.
 
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I don’t think the Susan B. Anthony’s are minted anymore. Harriet Tubman would make a fine substitute.
It would actually get used if they made it the size of the Ike dollar.

The Susan B sizing was no bueno. The public overwhelmingly rejected it, & future attempts at that size dollar coin. The Ike felt like a dollar, & was used.
 
Both the Susan B. Anthony and the Sacagawea dollar coins were pretty much flops and a big disappointments. The two depicted on those coins didn't have much of a following. There seems to be a faction of our population that is desperate for heros and another part that of our population that is more than willing supply them. Tubman has a following and it just may succeed this time. Why not the one dollar coins?
 
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