Andrew Jackson needs to be removed from the 20 dollar bill.
An image from our National Parks, monuments or most any other President, would be a better choice than the shameful choice of Jackson! Better yet, lets put Tecumseh, Sitting Bull or other Native on the bill.
Andrew Jackson does have a few very good points to his credit. Including defeating the British in New Orleans (After the war was already over) but his disregard for the rule of law, including executions of his own troops and prisoners, was just the tip of the iceberg that is his criminal ego.
He is the face of - The Trail of Tears.
The Cherokees went to the Supreme Court in 1831. This time they based their appeal on an 1830 Georgia law which prohibited whites from living on Indian territory after March 31, 1831, without a license from the state.
The court decided in favor of the Cherokee. It stated that the Cherokee had the right to self-government, and declared Georgia 's extension of state law over them to be unconstitutional. The state of Georgia refused to abide by the Court decision, however, and President Jackson refused to enforce the law.
Jackson exclaimed “The Supreme court made its decision, let them enforce it.”
THIS STATEMENT ALONE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH REASON FOR JACKSON TO BE KICKED OFF THE 20 DOLLAR BILL AND REMEMBERED IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE MOST CRIMINAL OF ALL PRESIDENTS!
The U.S. government sent in 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees into stockades at bayonet point. They were not allowed time to gather their belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. Then began the march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.
By 1837, the Jackson administration had removed 46,000 Native American people from their land east of the Mississippi , and had secured treaties which led to the removal of a slightly larger number. Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery.
Even before he was elected President, Andrew Jackson had been instrumental in forcing Native Americans out of the South. Once in office, he continued this policy at an accelerated pace. The Cherokee nation was one of the "Five Civilized Tribes" in the southeast, and like all other tribes existing east of the Mississippi River, their removal was essential to Jackson 's plan.
In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma . The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.
I am part Cherokee and I do not have a problem with the fact that natives were conquered. Through out history people have been conquering each other. I do have a big problem with the breaking of treaties and all the other dishonorable acts. I small way to make up for some of these many shameful deeds is to Dump Jackson from our 20 dollar bill!
Next we should return the Black Hills to to the Sioux as it is and was theirs by birth AND by treaty. But that is another blog for another time.
