Question: How did a loathesome dirtbag like Andrew Jackson get onto the the $20 bill?

[AStern]

He's one of the worst people in US history IMHO.

[Ocelot II]

1. According to Wikipedia:

Andrew Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since the series of 1928. The placement of Jackson on the $20 bill is considered ironic; as president, he vehemently opposed both the National Bank and use of paper money. After the president of the Second Bank of the United States, Nicholas Biddle, defied Jackson and requested the renewal of the charter of the Second Bank in an election year, Jackson responded by making it a goal of his administration to destroy the National Bank.[3][4] Jackson prevailed over Biddle, and the absence of the Second Bank contributed to a real estate bubble in the mid-1830s. The bubble collapsed in the Panic of 1837, leading to a deep depression.[5]

Given Jackson's opposition to the concept of a National Bank, his presence on the $20 bill was controversial from the start. When pressed to reveal why the various images were chosen for the new bills, Treasury officials denied there was any political motivation. Instead, they insisted that the images were based only on their relative familiarity to the public. An article in the June 30, 1929 issue of the New York Times, stated "The Treasury Department maintains stoutly that the men chosen for small bills, which are naturally the ones in most demand, were so placed because their faces were most familiar to the majority of people."[6] It is also true that 1928 coincides with the 100th anniversary of Jackson's election as president, but no evidence has surfaced that would suggest that this was a factor in the decision. According to more recent inquiries of the U.S. Treasury: "Treasury Department records do not reveal the reason that portraits of these particular statesmen were chosen in preference to those of other persons of equal importance and prominence."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_twenty-dollar_bill

[Johonny]

4. So giant middle finger to Jackson

Is a valid possibility as to why he is on the twenty. . . Interesting.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Don't expect to be invited to a Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

[Haggard Celine]

3. I've never liked him either.

The MAGAs live them some Andrew Jackson. He was an early demagogue in our history. Nothing to admire about the crazy asshole. I think he was mentally ill, maybe bipolar. I hope they eventually take him off of our currency.

[Aristus]

5. If Andrew Jackson were alive today,

he'd be a shotgun-waving, get-off-my-lawn, black jogger-shooting madman.

[Ocelot II]

6. Or he'd have a prominent position in the current administration.

[Wounded Bear]

33. Or both. The two are not mutually exclusive...nt

[bluesbassman]

7. Wearing a red hat too.

Scum that he was.

[Haggard Celine]

13. I think so too.

He probably would have been at Jan. 6 as well. And just think of how many people he killed, especially the Indians.

[electric_blue68]

39. Hmmm...was thinking of "The Trail of Tears"? Forced march from Georgia to ?Oklahoma.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. tRump really likes Jackson. Interesting that Jackson, McKinley and Hoover all caused big depressions. . . nt

[Polybius]

15. Never knew he liked Hoover

What's there to like about him? Conservatives like Calvin Coolidge much more.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. I didn't say he liked Hoover, did I. I put Hoover in for the model of the coming tRump economic disaster. . . nt

[Polybius]

17. Looking back at your post, no you didn't

I misread when I saw Hoover next to Jackson and McKinley (both of whom Trump likes).

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. No worries. It was just enough ambiguous. My fault. . . nt

[misanthrope]

28. My assumption about Trump and McKinley

Trump knew absolutely nothing about the 25th POTUS before someone used McKinley as a way to reinforce Trump's fondness for tariffs. They passed on scant information on McKinley and Trump just gulped it down.

I would be surprised if he could even tell you McKinley's VP. Trump is a genuinely incurious person.

[dsc]

19. Actually if he had never become President Hoover would be fairly fondly remembered

as a very skilled organizer and humanitarian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover

War upon Germany was declared in April 1917, and American food was essential to Allied victory. With the U.S. mobilizing for war, President Wilson appointed Hoover to head the U.S. Food Administration, which was charged with ensuring the nation's food needs during the war.[79] Hoover had hoped to join the administration in some capacity since at least 1916, and he obtained the position after lobbying several members of Congress and Wilson's confidant, Edward M. House.[80] Earning the appellation of "food czar", Hoover recruited a volunteer force of hundreds of thousands of women and deployed propaganda in movie theaters, schools, and churches.[81] He carefully selected men to assist in the agency leadership—Alonzo E. Taylor (technical abilities), Robert Taft (political associations), Gifford Pinchot (agricultural influence), and Julius Barnes (business acumen).[82]

World War I had created a global food crisis that dramatically increased food prices and caused food riots and starvation in the countries at war. Hoover's chief goal as food czar was to provide supplies to the Allied Powers, but he also sought to stabilize domestic prices and to prevent domestic shortages.[83] Under the broad powers granted by the Food and Fuel Control Act, the Food Administration supervised food production throughout the United States, and the administration made use of its authority to buy, import, store, and sell food.[84] Determined to avoid rationing, Hoover established set days for people to avoid eating specified foods and save them for soldiers' rations: meatless Mondays, wheatless Wednesdays, and "when in doubt, eat potatoes". These policies were dubbed "Hooverizing" by government publicists, in spite of Hoover's continual orders that publicity should not mention him by name.[85] The Food Administration shipped 23 million metric tons of food to the Allied Powers, preventing their collapse and earning Hoover great acclaim.[86] As head of the Food Administration, Hoover gained a following in the United States, especially among progressives who saw in Hoover an expert administrator and symbol of efficiency.[87] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society during his tenure.[88]

[rampartd]

21. hoover got great publicity for handling the 1927 flood

which, of course, was handled in the most racist and classist manner imaginable.

https://www.johnmbarry.com/rising_tide__the_great_mississippi_flood_of_1927_and_how_it_changed_america_58205.htm

[ITAL]

24. Also saved Russia during their famine in the 1920s

AND fed Europe once more after WWII at the behest of President Truman. Hoover was not a good president, but he was one of our greatest humanitarians.

[dsc]

38. yeah he just rose to the wrong job.

[Polybius]

8. He was a highly complicated character

Although he was involved in many questionable actions, he co-founded the Democratic Party with Martin Van Buren and accomplished significant successes. The Admins even added an Andrew Jackson avatar right here on DU. Presidential historians rarely put him in the bottom 25 either.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

10. His genocide of Indigenous Americas was unquestionably worse than "questionable". . . nt

[Polybius]

11. Most certainly

Even for the time.

[allegorical oracle]

32. Here in Fla., he's best known for fighting the Seminole Indians. The two executions

of British men (for assisting the Seminoles) occurred near where I live.

Wikipedia:
Jackson invaded Florida, captured the Spanish fort of St. Marks, and occupied Pensacola. Seminole and Spanish resistance was effectively ended by May 1818. He also captured two British subjects, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot, who had been working with the Seminoles. After a brief trial, Jackson executed both of them, causing an international incident with the British.

Have no use for him and am not surprised TSF admires him. (At one point Jackson owned 150 slaves).

[allegorical oracle]

12. There have been MAGAts in every century. nt

[milestogo]

14. It was originally designed as toilet paper, but there was a mix-up.

[ITAL]

18. He was a fairly popular figure for a long time

He was really the first "common man" President, as he rose from basically nothing and made himself though his force of will. The public loved him for that for years afterward. Even many figures in the Whig Party, which formed basically solely as a response to him kind of admired him (even as they feared the man). I remember reading a bio of Abraham Lincoln, and even as devout a supporter of Henry Clay as he was, he invoked Jackson positively in speeches as a younger politician. I want to say that even presidents as late as Harry Truman counted him among their heroes (okay, so does Trump, but that's only because Steve Bannon made the connection...Trump probably didn't know a thing about him prior)..

Jackson didn't back down during the Nullification Crisis, which later Lincoln partially used as justification for going after the secessionists. Jackson also hated the idea of a permanent political class. Mostly why he was beloved IMHO was his symbolism. The years immediately preceding his presidential terms saw a massive increase in voting rights expanded beyond the wealthy gentry and Old Hickory personified that to the public (even though by that time he was wealthy himself) proving that those other than aristocrats with family connections like John Q. Adams could achieve high office.

He was an early believer that the president should have term limits, and that the Electoral College abolished (partially since he lost in 1824 despite having the most popular votes).

That said, obviously he has horrific things on his ledger, even not counting the Trail of Tears (which given treatment of Natives before and after isn't even be the worst thing we did to them). The Bank Wars crippled our economy. His institution of the spoils system, which became more and more corrupt in the decades after he left. His tendency to make the political personal and vice versa presaged figures (and his extraordinarily thin skin) like Donald Trump.

James Parton, an early biographer of Jackson still has the best description ever for that man of contradictions.

"Andrew Jackson, I am given to understand, was a patriot and a traitor. He was one of the greatest generals, and wholly ignorant of the art of war. A brilliant writer, elegant, eloquent, without being able to compose a correct sentence or spell words of four syllables. The first of statesmen, he never devised, he never framed, a measure. He was the most candid of men, and was capable of the most profound dissimulation. A most law-defying law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior. A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint."

Pretty much.

[rampartd]

22. jackson was a hero

he commanded probably the most diverse army ever assembled at new orleans.

[ITAL]

25. A very complicated figure

As I said prior. His triumph at New Orleans was astonishing in its completeness over a much better equipped enemy.

[Polybius]

30. Which is why there's an avatar of Jackson right here on DU

The Admins wouldn't have put it up if he didn't do good things.

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Born in SC and rose to prominence in TN -- always more popular with Southerners than Northerners.

Remember, he owned a large plantation and many slaves. He was a Southerner of his day, through and through. Most of the US was rural at the time, and as a frontier soldier and "Indian fighter", that added to his popularity, since most rural Americans shared his attitudes towards non-whites. And in his battles -- electoral defeat, then victory in a rematch -- with John Quincy Adams, he was seen as siding with the "common people" vs the educated and moneyed elites. No wonder Steve Bannon tries to present Turnip as a second Jackson -- they shared a great many flaws, but no virtues (since Turnip doesn't have any), and for MAGAts that superficial resemblance is good enough.

[Mossfern]

23. I went to Andrew Jackson Hight School in Queens NY in the early 1960's

This was our school song:

Let us sing of Andrew Jackson
And be like him if we can
He was nearly always right
And he dearly love to fight
For he was a mighty man
He was daring and audacious
He was steadfast and pugnacious
There has been no other like him
Since our history began

Old Hickory and Victory
Shall be our battle cry
Forever shall we fight
And ever be in the right
Oh Andrew Jackson for you!

We weren't taught about the nasty stuff he did.
The song is kind of damning praise though.

[choie]

27. The same way a fascist bastard

like trump became president.

[AntiFascist]

29. Check this out...

A local story recalls that Andrew Jackson was in fact born in Boneybefore and smuggled into America under his mother’s dress, therefore making his Presidency illegitimate – there is even evidence of him being born in Boneybefore before embarking on the voyage to America.

https://carrickfergushistory.co.uk/

[PCB66]

31. He won the Battle of New Orleans.

That made him a hero in his time.

History reflects perception, not reality.

[valleyrogue]

34. Better question: How did a loathesome dirtbag like Donald Trump get elected? n/t

[allegorical oracle]

35. Didn't hurt that in the 1950s there was a huge hit song about Jackson--

The Battle of New Orleans

In 1814, we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip'
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans
We fired our guns and the British kept a-comin'
There wasn't as many as there was a while ago
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico

On Billboard magazine's rankings of the top songs in the first 50 years of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, "The Battle of New Orleans" was ranked as the 28th song overall and the number-one country music song to appear on the chart.

[DFW]

37. You think that's bad? That is just paper.

You have seen the guy they let into the Oval Office for real last January!

[electric_blue68]

40. Wow, what a mixed bag of good, and horrific actions!