NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) -- After nearly a century as the face of the $20 bill,
President Andrew Jackson is being replaced by abolitionist Harriet
Tubman, who helped free slaves from the Southern landowners he defended.
What should Americans recall about his legacy?
A POPULIST TO THE CORE
America's
seventh president campaigned as the champion of the common man against
the rich and powerful. Preceding him in office were four Virginia
plantation owners and two Harvard-educated Massachusetts lawyers.
Jackson, by contrast, was born to Irish immigrants near Lancaster, South
Carolina, on March 15, 1767, and was orphaned by 14, a year after he
volunteered to fight the British in the Revolutionary War. At 17, he
became an apprentice to several lawyers, and moved to the frontier
outpost of Nashville after earning his license.
"Andrew Jackson came from nowhere. He had no family, few advantages, little education," Feller said.
"Old
Hickory" was a bona-fide Washington outsider, and the enthusiasm of his
supporters was evident at his raucous first inauguration, which was
overrun by drunken well-wishers who were only persuaded to leave when
the alcohol-laced punch was moved onto the lawn. Jackson himself had to
escape from a window.
A MILITARY HERO
Jackson
is often remembered today for pushing through the infamous Indian
Removal Act of 1830, which forced tribes from their land in the
Southeast and pushed them into an uncertain future in Oklahoma and
beyond, along what became known as the Trail of Tears. But at the time,
he also was considered "the greatest war hero since George Washington.
The Battle of New Orleans was one of the greatest battles in the history
of modern warfare," Feller said.
A TOUGH TWO TERMS IN WASHINGTON
Jackson
founded the Democratic Party and championed the union, helping to
resolve the Nullification Crisis after South Carolina rejected a federal
tariff and threatened to break apart the young nation. "Disunion by
armed force is treason," he admonished, outflanking his vice president
John Calhoun, who claimed states had a constitutional right to nullify
any federal law and to secede.
Jackson also
made an unprecedented use of his veto power, which many members of
Congress criticized as exceeding his authority. That didn't help him
during the Petticoat Affair, a social catastrophe that led to the
dissolution of nearly his entire cabinet.
NO FAN OF PAPER MONEY
In
Jackson's day there was no single national currency, said historian
Daniel Feller, director of the Papers of Andrew Jackson at the
University of Tennessee. Paper money was printed by individual banks,
and their value could fluctuate greatly. Some of it was worthless, and
Jackson felt bankers were abusing the citizenry.
"Jackson thought that paper money wasn't real money," Feller said. "Real money was gold and silver."
