Show Me the Money: Put Tubman on the Twenty

Dick Polman on Jan 27, 2021

Besides, the insurrectionist-in-chief loved Andrew Jackson and put the guy’s picture on the Oval Office wall. In his words, “Andrew Jackson had a history of tremendous success for the country.” If living as a member of the landed gentry with slave labor and ethnic-cleansing Native Americans is what constitutes success, then, yes, Jackson was boffo.

As the recent excellent book “Jacksonland" chronicles in great detail, “Jackson’s style of negotiating (with Native Americans) was frank and coercive. In talk after talk over the years, he told native leaders he was their friend, and that he wanted to pay for their land - but that if they failed to sell, white settlers would take their land for nothing.”

Jackson, his family members, and his closest business associates, ultimately stole more than 45,000 acres. Having thus enriched himself prior to becoming president, he worked with his postmaster general to suppress anti-slavery mail from northern abolitionists.

Yes, we’re only talking here about faces on currency. But it’s high time we honored people like Tubman who truly made American great. This was a woman who in her last years preached hope to people of color during the worst of Jim Crow. 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.”

And she was right on the money, where she belongs.

Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com