Is it time to replace former President Andrew Jackson with a woman on the $20 bill? That’s what a group called Women on 20 wants, listing Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson, Margaret Sanger and Susan B. Anthony as potential candidates. They’re now trying to encourage President Obama to undertake such an initiative.
Why the $20 bill? Why not the $5 bill, for instance?
This is a terrible move because perhaps the $20 bill would serve as a reminder that Jackson ended the central bank of his day 183 years ago. Jackson understood the inflationary and political dangers of maintaining a central bank, which is kind of ironic because his face is on the most used Federal Reserve Note today.
Here is what he said in a speech regarding his decision to shut down the central bank:
“I can perceive none of those modifications of the Bank charter which are necessary, in my opinion, to make it compatible with justice, with sound policy, or with the Constitution of our country,” stated Jackson. “Every monopoly, and all exclusive privileges, are granted at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair equivalent. The many millions which this act proposes to bestow on the stockholders of the existing Bank must come directly or indirectly out of the earnings of the American people.”
This is also quite an important statement: “Their power would be great whenever they might choose to exert it; but if this monopoly were regularly renewed every fifteen or twenty years, on terms proposed by themselves, they might seldom in peace put forth their strength to influence elections or control the affairs of the nation.”
No wonder why Jackson had a few attempts made on his life.
So why replace Jackson when this man understood the dangers of such a vile organization like a central bank? You’re better off getting rid of Ulysses Grant, who raped and pillaged villages during the civil war, and putting Rosa Parks – or Amity Shales, or Ella Fitzgerald – on the $50 bill instead.
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