Andrew Jackson leaves a legacy of pain and despair

The time has come for this nation to address the issue that many Americans fear to look back… The time has come for this nation to address the issue that many Americans fear to look back at. Some of the teachings in our high schools did not contain the accuracy that a top-notch education system should. Before we let another generation grow up in ignorance, let us correct our mistakes.

Let us start at the top, with the worst president to have held office in this nation. The next time you reach into that wallet to buy a new favorite CD or DVD, think of the man staring back on that twenty dollar bill. Andrew Jackson is not the righteous common man that we were taught about during our high school U.S. history courses. During his presidency, from 1829 to 1837, he was our own version of American monarchy.

Upon arrival at my first American Presidency class of this semester, I encountered a discussion about the five greatest U.S. presidents of all time. We named the leaders that had enormous impacts on our nation’s history. The top five included Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Reagan and Kennedy.

Then someone named America’s seventh president, Andrew Jackson. Consensus let him slide as a great president in our nation’s history, despite my objections. So you say, “Well he is on the $20 bill, right?”

On the contrary, Andrew Jackson was the worst president the United States has ever seen, and yet we still let him remain on the $20 bill. He is not worthy of being the face on an American dollar, just like Saddam Hussein’s face is no longer welcome in Iraq. I say, once a mass murderer, always a mass murderer.

Andrew Jackson was a general and a hero before becoming president. He said it best in a quote that is commonly attributed to him: “I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be president.”

Jackson knew himself too well. He knew his selfishness and ruthlessness made him a man that was not fit to be president. Jackson was a great general, an excellent leader, but a president that would commit unspeakable crimes to the political system and an entire race that lived in North America.

Jackson came into office and created the spoils system. The spoils system created a precedent to hire only those in a president’s own party to work for their administration. This policy spurred political decisiveness along party lines that continues to mar our political system. Hiring your friends may be fun, but it does nothing to help this nation.

Just look at Federal Emergency Management Agency’s failed leader, Michael Brown. His role as the leader of the Arabian Horse Association did not prepare him to deal with the aftermath of Katrina, no matter how good of a friendship he had with President Bush. Any president who hires friends that are not qualified applicants deserves condemnation by the people he is serving.

Contrary to the old Westerns that use to circle the television screens, Native Americans lived in Georgia rather peacefully and only wished to be left alone. In 1831, the United States Supreme Court told Jackson it was unconstitutional to remove the natives from Georgia and transfer them to Oklahoma.

Jackson’s response was, “John Marshall has made his decision; let him enforce it.” This great nation of ours can not condemn racism or lawlessness until we condemn our own racists and leaders that refused to follow our own laws.

Not only did Jackson disobey the rule of law, he forced an entire race to march from Georgia to Oklahoma. Not exactly a daily hike. In the event known as the Trail of Tears, 4,000 innocent men, women, children and elderly marched to their deaths. Andrew Jackson was a strong president, but so were Saddam and Adolf Hitler. Being a strong president does not make one a good president. Jackson lost a chance at earning a positive legacy with his contempt toward the Supreme Court of the United States and his crime against humanity.

Jackson’s dismissal of human rights and the rule of law also involved his judicial appointments and disrespect for African-Americans. Roger Taney is recognized as one of the worst Supreme Court Justices to serve on the court. Taney’s disdain for the law was quite similar to Jackson’s. Most notably, his ruling in the Dred Scott case said Congress could not rule on slavery, making a legislative means to ending slavery impossible. Taney is blamed by some for helping accelerate our nation’s Civil War.

If this article opened up the eyes of one of my readers, then it was more than worth being printed. Let us make the history of our nation accurate and objective, not subjective as to how we want it to be portrayed.

When naming the top five U.S. presidents, leave Andrew Jackson off that list and drop his name in the bottom five below Hoover and Nixon where it belongs. It’s time for our country to remove this man from the $20 bill as well as condemn his actions as president. Until we begin to be honest with our own history, our words do not mean as much to others.

Don’t want your 20’s anymore? Send them over to me at sdn2@pitt.edu.