A historical marker along the Trail of Tears. Photo by Stanley and Terrie Howard / Historical Marker Database
Indian Country cheered when the Obama administration announced the removal of Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill. But failed Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb, a former Senator from Virginia, claims Jackson was not motivated by "genocidal" actions when he ordered the removal of Indian nations from their homelands in the Southeast:
One would think we could celebrate the recognition that Harriet Tubman will be given on future $20 bills without demeaning former president Andrew Jackson as a “monster,” as a recent Huffington Post headline did. And summarizing his legendary tenure as being “known primarily for a brutal genocidal campaign against native Americans,” as reported in The Post, offers an indication of how far political correctness has invaded our educational system and skewed our national consciousness. This dismissive characterization of one of our great presidents is not occurring in a vacuum. Any white person whose ancestral relations trace to the American South now risks being characterized as having roots based on bigotry and undeserved privilege. Meanwhile, race relations are at their worst point in decades. . . . As president, Jackson ordered the removal of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi to lands west of the river. This approach, supported by a string of presidents, including Jefferson and John Quincy Adams, was a disaster, resulting in the Trail of Tears where thousands died. But was its motivation genocidal? Robert Remini, Jackson’s most prominent biographer, wrote that his intent was to end the increasingly bloody Indian Wars and to protect the Indians from certain annihilation at the hands of an ever-expanding frontier population. Indeed, it would be difficult to call someone genocidal when years before, after one bloody fight, he brought an orphaned Native American baby from the battlefield to his home in Tennessee and raised him as his son.Get the Story:
Jim Webb: We can celebrate Harriet Tubman without disparaging Andrew Jackson (The Washington Post 4/25) Also Today:
Tubman replacing Jackson on the $20 a deeply symbolic move (AP 4/21)
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