Download Jackson Essays for 20 Bill

Jackson: A Symbol of Injustice
Awarded the prestigious honor to remain forever engraved on the twenty-dollar bill, Andrew
Jackson became a figure in American history never forgotten. Future generations of younger
students will not need to know Andrew for them to assume he was a great man. Unfortunately,
the ignorance of idolizing Jackson because he appears on American currency serves to blanket
the realities of his administration. Jackson should be removed from the twenty-dollar bill.
Recognizing the injustices president Andrew Jackson performed, Americans have considered
the dispute over the removal of Jackson’s face from the twenty-dollar bill. The real question
remains why place America’s figures in iconic positions based on fame? Benedict Arnold is
famous, yet he was a traitor to America. Why not place figures that contributed to the well being
of the country and upheld humane morals?
Andrew Jackson, revered as the first common man to become President, symbolized the
average citizen having the opportunity to climb the ranks within America’s democratic system.
However, the profits of Jackson’s administration succeed in concealing his immoral procedures
and behavior. Jackson’s methods worked accordingly to the reasoning of the father of political
science, Machiavelli, who said, “The end justifies the means”. He achieved lucrative results at
the cost of abandoning ethics and destroying the lives of human beings. Replacing Jackson
would be logical to those who support integrity, and understand the values and intentions of a
man America’s chosen to immortalize.
During his presidency, Jackson’s Indian policies transformed the concept of Manifest Destiny
into a reality. Jackson, along with many Americans, possessed a Eurocentric view and failed to
recognize Native tribes as civilized sovereign nations. …The refusal to accept tribes as separate
nations justified the stealing of their land. Still, Jackson’s invasion of Native soil was no different
than if he had invaded France or Spain. President Jackson acted like a bully on the playground,
using America’s strength to take land. Jackson also participated in the treacherous scheme of
using treaties to legally gain land. Signing the Indian Removal Act in 1830, Jackson granted the
president the power to negotiate treaties with tribes. Jackson authorized government officials to
deceive Natives into signing treaties by either getting Natives drunk or misinterpreting the
documents. By 1838, Jackson forced 17,000 Cherokees to move west of the Mississippi river
and in the process 4,000 to 8,000 died. Jackson stands as a symbolic remembrance of the
injustices that occurred during the age of white expansion.
Andrew Jackson not only represents his own unethical actions, but also symbolizes the racism
of an American people in history. Americans strongly advocated Jackson’s policies to quench
their lust for land, and decimate a race they had developed hatred toward for so many years.
The face of Andrew Jackson personifies racism, hatred, and a time when the U.S. enforced
hypocritical policies that morally opposed the constitution.
Replacing Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill could only benefit America’s image problem.
Acknowledging the injustices of history, America would reflect intolerance for hypocrisy, and a
progress from the past. The replacement would show that America promotes power in both
morality and justice.
Adapted From: Should Andrew Jackson be Removed from the Twenty Dollar Bill? American Indian Studies
Program. University of California, Riverside. 12 November 2006
<http://www.americanindian.ucr.edu/discussions/jackson/index.shtml>.
Jackson: A President, Not a Saint
No one can argue that as a president, Jackson made no mistakes; however, they in no way
disqualify him from having a place on the U.S. twenty dollar bill. Jackson made every decision
according to the will of the American people, even the more unsavory ones. Even his now
unquestionably negative actions, such as the Indian Removal Act, were done at the time not
only in the interest of the citizens of the United States, but in regard (however misguided) to the
survival of the Indian nations.
The duty of a president, or any elected official for that matter, is to enact policies concurrent with
the views of the voting population that elected him or her to office. Supporters of Jackson
included urban workers, western frontiersmen, southern planters, small farmers, bankers and
would-be entrepreneurs. It is this unusually diverse voting basis, as well as his humble
beginnings, that sometimes earned Jackson the label of "the People's President".
Jackson had a war record that makes him, even today, and example of the strength and
tenacity of the United States. Jackson served in many campaigns, both on behalf of the militia of
his home state, Tennessee, and the U.S. military. It is with the U.S. military in the War of 1812
that Jackson received his most famous victory -- the Battle of New Orleans. There, on January
8, 1815 Jackson defended a British charge that resulted in only 6 American deaths, but over
2,000 British deaths and injuries. Jackson, and this battle in particular, became a symbol of the
"distinctive American strength" that we still prize today.
Jackson made every decision, not for personal gain, but in what he felt was the best interest of
the United States. Jackson did much to expand the power of the United States, at home and
overseas. He settled disputes with Spain that lead to the acquisition of what is now Florida. He
opened the British West Indian ports to American trade, which greatly helped the American
export business.
It has been argued that the Indian Removal Act was an attempt at genocide made by Jackson,
with malicious intent towards Native Americans. But Jackson himself argued that the Indian
Removal Act was (as he saw it, anyway) in the best interest of the long-term survival of the
Indian Nations. To leave the Indians surrounded by hostile white civilization would, he argued,
"doom [them] to weakness and decay", and that "emigration...alone [could] preserve from
destruction the remnants of the tribes still among us.” In the case of Jackson, although he made
many misguided decisions regarding the Native population, he did so according to the will of the
citizens of the U.S., the interests of that great nation, and without malicious intent.
Jackson, in many ways, is representative of the history of the United States. His strength and
tenacity were well documented, but like our great country, his character and actions are not
without stain. To deny Jackson his place on the twenty dollar bill would call into question the
right of all other figures on our currency: For example, George Washington not only owned
slaves but actively and openly participated in violence upon the Native Americans with the intent
of eliminating them. Although Jackson's policies concerning Native Americans were
questionable at best, and should in no way be exalted, he remains and important, and in many
ways, a positive figure in American history.
Adapted From: Should Andrew Jackson be Removed from the Twenty Dollar Bill? American Indian Studies
Program. University of California, Riverside. 12 November 2006
<http://www.americanindian.ucr.edu/discussions/jackson/index.shtml>.