Skip to main content

Why is Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill?

Historians aren't entirely sure! He doesn't really seem like a very good choice, and there aren't very good records of why the decision was made when it was.

The decision was made all the way back in 1869 by the US Treasury, but their own records do not provide any clear rationale for choosing Jackson. The decision was made in secret, by unnamed bureaucrats, and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury. It may have had something to do with his populist image; he grew up a poor orphan and yet went on to become not only a wealthy lawyer but President of the United States. With his true rags-to-riches story, a lot of people saw Andrew Jackson as personifying the American Dream.

Still, it's kind of baffling that he was chosen, because Jackson was strongly opposed to the idea of central banking and paper money! Combine that with the history of grave crimes committed by Jackson (particularly against Native Americans), and he seems a more embarrassing choice all the time.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more