Roy Exum: ‘Old Hickory’ Is Toast

  • Friday, April 24, 2015
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

There is a group of women in New York, all savvy and a bit stealthy, who are plotting to kick Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, to the curb. They claim “Old Hickory” is a lout and that he is personally responsible for the embarrassing T-shirts that read, “Sure, you can trust the government … just ask an Indian” ($14.99, Amazon)

Their plan is to take Jackson’s face off the $20 bill and replace it with a heroic woman, a “disrupter” who led the way and dared to think different.

They hope to have the new currency by the year 2020, which will be the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. They’ve even selected four finalists:

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884 - 1962) – She redefined the role of First Lady and used her newspaper column, radio and speeches to champion civil and women's rights, often in opposition to her husband FDR’s policies. She also said famously, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

HARRIET TUBMAN (c.1822 - 1913) -- Born a slave, she fled North to freedom, later making 19 trips back to the South as an Underground Railroad conductor, leading some 300 slaves to freedom. A nurse during the Civil War, she served the Union army as a scout and spy. She was active in the women's suffrage movement after the war. She once said, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

ROSA PARKS (1913 - 2005) -- Saluted by Congress as the “first lady of civil rights,” she challenged racial segregation by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man. Her arrest, and the ensuing Montgomery bus boycott, became symbols in the struggle for racial equality and civil rights in the United States. She once told us, “I would like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free... so other people would be also free.”

WILMA MANKILLER (1945 - 2010) – She arose to the position as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation and first elected female chief of a native nation in modern times. Her 10-year administration, from 1985-1995, revitalized the nation through extensive community development, self-help, education and healthcare programs for the Cherokee nation’s 300,000 citizens. She proudly stated, “Prior to my election, Cherokee girls would have never thought that they might grow up and become chief.”

Of the four, Harriet and Rosa are early favorites because they were black, but it is Mrs. Mankiller who draws the most interest because it is what Andrew Jackson once did to the Indians is what our savvy girls in New York are hoping will cook his goose. And, let’s admit it, the Indian Removal Act of 1830 is the worst blemish on the United States record book of all the terrible things our nation has done.

Abraham Lincoln and Davy Crockett, in Congress at the time, adamantly opposed it, as did Senators Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled the Cherokee nation was a “distinct community” with self-government “in which the laws of Georgia can have no force” but the belligerent Jackson scoffed at the court. “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it! Just build a fire under them…when it gets hot enough they’ll go.”

In the first seven years 46,000 Indians were “escorted” to Oklahoma by rifle butts, spear-like sticks, pointed pistols and whips. In the terrible winter of 1838-39, the soldier thugs came for the Cherokees.

It was a reign of terror. A private, John Burnett, would later write, "Future generations will read and condemn the act and I do hope posterity will remember that private soldiers like myself, and like the four Cherokees who were forced by General Scott to shoot an Indian chief and his children, had to execute the orders of our superiors. We had no choice in the matter."

A soldier from Georgia added, “I fought through the War Between the States and have seen many men shot, but the Cherokee Removal was the cruelest work I ever knew.”

It has been estimated that 6,000 of the 17,000 Cherokees were either killed by sadistic soldiers or died from the elements – disease, starvation and cold. It has also been widely rumored that when gold was discovered in Dahlonega, Ga., “the white man” accelerated removal of the Indians based on greed alone.

The march west started from a concentration camp that held over 13,000 Cherokee near Cleveland, Tn., as lotteries were held for white settlers on the Indians’ land. An army of 7,000 soldiers did Andrew Jackson’s dirty work, even though Martin Van Buren had assumed the presidency.

The Army wouldn’t allow families to bury their dead. They were forced to leave the corpses and the Indians, trudging in deep despair, would sing “Amazing Grace” as a funeral farewell. Little gold was ever found in Dahlonega but, in a delicious change-of-fate, there came the day in Oklahoma when Lewis Ross, the brother of Chattanooga founder Chief John Ross, needed some saltwater brine to preserve food.

So on a pretty day in 1859, this with the Civil War brewing back East and the Indians far enough away to be safe, Lewis dug down in the Oklahoma soil and – ka-BOOOM – got almost blown out of the hole on his property by the force of this thick, oily, black-colored goo. That’s right, John Ross’ brother was the first guy to tap the Oklahoma oil fields and that little well on his new property dumped out 10 barrels a day.

Oklahoma, where the Cherokees were sent to die out, would become the largest producer of crude in the world within the next 10 years and, as Andrew Jackson’s savagery is now brought to light, I’m betting $20 bills with his face on them will soon be antiques.

I think there will be some changes in the finalists, too, if www.womenon20s.org really does get legs. Amelia Earnhardt, Helen Keller, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, astronaut Sally Ride, Pat Summit, "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias…law, the list is endless and I'm thinking that maybe Hillary Clinton will figure out a way to be a finalist too!

royexum@aol.com

There is a concerted effort to have the picture of Andrew Jackson replaced on our $20 bill. A woman would be the first since the disastrous Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
There is a concerted effort to have the picture of Andrew Jackson replaced on our $20 bill. A woman would be the first since the disastrous Susan B. Anthony dollar coin.
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