Why Is Andrew Jackson Inevitable

Throughout history, the United States have clung to their founding values, such as freedom and equality, with brute force. Today, with these values still just as prevalent as they were back then it is decidedly so that the legacy Andrew Jackson left behind is not the best fit to be represented on our currency. A man who was too headstrong and selfish and wrongfully followed his own personal agenda doing whatever he pleased, including mass murder, and does not even support the idea of paper money is hardly the person qualified to personify our great country and its legal tender.

To say that Andrew Jackson was headstrong would be an understatement; he always got what he wanted. For example, he was the only president in the history of the U.S.

Whether or not the Indian Removal Act could have been prevented or not does not change the fact that the Trail of Tears was not inevitable. Although it could be argued that the U.S. was unavoidably going to remove the Natives from their land so they could expand west, they did not need to move them so quickly. In fact, despite Jackson not being president during the Trail of Tears, it was his agreement and furthermore his persistence to President Martin Van Buren, his handpicked successor, that brought about this horror that was nothing short of a genocide. (Remini 1, 10) Above all, racism and stubbornness aside, nothing beats having Jackson on the twenty dollar bill more than the irony in the fact that he resented paper money. In fact, Jackson himself condemned bank paper as an engine of oppression and warned of the insidious "money power" and of the growing control exerted by faceless corporations over ordinary citizens ' lives. (Feller 3, 12) Imagine the reaction Jackson would have if he were to find out he represented the one thing he fought during his

For example, Jackson is known for his success in dealing with the Nullification Crisis of 1832, but more credit may be being given than deserved. His involvement in the matter was nothing short of good, but when it comes down to it, Jackson actually played no direct role in its passage and therefore it cannot be a part of his legacy. (Feller 2, 4) Not to mention, his sternness and stubbornness that he used to stop the succession are the same qualities that in turn would lead to the trail of tears. Additionally, another thing Jackson is praised for is his birthing of the democracy. However, you can’t do whatever you want, call it the will of the people and then label it democracy. “It 's completely justified to say that Jacksonian democracy reflected this same grasping ambition of the newly expanded white voting classes at the expense of slaves and Indians.” (Dougherty, 2) The democracy we use today differs from whatever Jackson decided to postmark as democracy. In conclusion, to have Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill is to commercialize genocide on our country’s currency. Whether you want to justify the actions of a murderer, racist and political fraud is up to you, but you are only fooling yourself into a false sense of security that the man you see on that $20 bill was righteous. Overall, it is hard to believe that in a country where liberty rules above all, a man like Andrew Jackson