Hillary backs Tubman on $20

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

I could not care less for the man that helped create the political apparatus that has the temerity to call itself the Democratic Party (points if your can name this movie reference ), established the mode of majoritarian dictatorship as the model for future Presidents and promoted the principle of "by any means necessary" expedience on the part of both Parties but especially the Democrats when it comes to desired objectives. His militant hatred of banks and stubborn resistance to both all forms of sanity and reason helped to plunge this country into a Depression. Were it not for the untimely death of General Harrison, there may never have been a Jacksonian era, but instead he would be joining the list of failed Presidents along with his machine boss Martin Van Ruin.

The only thing Jackson can be credited with, are his steadfast desire to preserve the union and also the expansion of the suffrage, albeit to many an illiterate white racist farmer whose ignorance and prejudice he proceeded to take full advantage of against the banks, The Indians, blacks and anybody he perceived as being his enemy.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Grant should be on currency not for his Presidency, but for leading the victorious Federal forces against the traitors.

Washington (winning Independence from the British Oppressors, setting up the Gov't under the constitution) and Lincoln (leading the country back together and abolishing slavery) probably deserve double billing (pun intended ).

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

This thread has certainly traversed its own trail of tears for any history lover.

I despise Jackson because he represents an attack on republican institutions in favor of populist democracy run wild. Was he racist? Yes, just like Lincoln was. Shocker! Everybody was a racist in 1800's save for a small percentage of the people. This is why judging actors in a historical context based on modern value based assesments, distorts the historical record. Put it another way, everyone before X date was Y, they are evil?

This is not how progress works and it is not how history plays out. Nobody was running in 1776 on a platform of endorsing gay marriage. Gays were not given equal rights nor even contemplated as a group in 1787 at the convention. Should we say, everyone before 2008 was anti-gay? Screw Them ALL!!!

We celebrate Lincoln because he was a man beyond his time who moved the ball forward, he was however still a man of the 19th century and imbued with the same biases. In 1858, his campaign was "yes blacks are unequal, but slavery is still immoral".

The problem with Jackson is not that that he killed Indians because he was a racist. Lincoln would have to as part of the militia if he had seen action, and sent the Army to suppress an uprising in Minnesota. The problem with Jackson is that he was a stubborn son of a bitch who wasn't going to be told what to do, because ironically, the system worked. Jackson didn't care, because Jackson cared not a lick about isntitutions or restraints that prevented him from getting his way. He was an ends justify the means kind of guy.

Excesses aside, Jackson engrained in the notion that elections belonged to the people, that majority rules, that voting should be extended beyond just those who own property, (in a way, beyond just those of Slave holders in terms of the South). Women, blacks, etc were just another milestone in the road to mass enfranchisement, the first steps of which were championed by Jackson. Democrats should condemn Jackson for his terrible actions, but they should also embrace the positives that he stood for and like it or not, the Democrats continue to adhere to (albeit on an expanded basis). The tools have changed, the approach to gov't has changed, and they have accepted the market place as opposed to trying to reverse history. The interests served (those wronged by the market, immigrants, the people at large as opposed to just a few) and those opposed (be it business, nativism, the excesses of the market) and so on have not.