Doug Hamilton is just fine with plans to put a woman’s portrait on U.S. paper money, but he’d prefer that the Treasury Department leave the $10 bill alone — particularly the prominent visage of his great-great-great-great-great grandfather, Alexander Hamilton.
The 10-spot is a source of family pride in Hamilton’s house in suburban Columbus, a dignified symbol of the historical importance of his ancestor, whose picture has been on it since 1929. So naturally, Hamilton started making some noise when he heard about the proposal that has Alexander Hamilton sharing the note with a deserving woman yet to be chosen.
The 64-year-old salesman for IBM has joined a growing number of voices in a backlash against what he calls the “diminishing” of Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury who founded the nation’s banking system.
“He’s the father of paper money,” says Doug Hamilton, who has a son and grandson carrying the name of their famous ancestor. (His daughter, Elizabeth, was named for Alexander Hamilton’s wife.)
He’s urging people to sign a petition on the White House “We The People” website, and this weekend he’ll be preaching the Hamiltonian gospel at a series of annual events in New York and New Jersey planned around the anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s death on July 12, 1804, a day after his duel with Aaron Burr.
The trip also will include a preview of the hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” based on Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton, opening on Broadway.
Outcry over Hamilton’s possible demotion has been somewhat lost in the wave of excitement over the inclusion of a woman’s portrait on paper currency. The Treasury Department says the $10 bill was chosen because it’s up next for a redesign to improve anti-counterfeiting features. The new bill would go into circulation in 2020.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said this week that he’s sticking with the plan, despite critics arguing that a woman should be featured on the $20 bill in place of Andrew Jackson, whom many historians view less favorably because of his treatment of Native Americans and his ownership of slaves.
“Right now is the time to call that out,” says Barbara Howard, founder of the group Women on 20s, which advocates replacing Jackson with a deserving woman from history. Doug Hamilton has joined forces with Howard’s group and others trying to change Lew’s mind.
Meanwhile, former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in a blog that he was “appalled” at the idea of adding a woman to the $10 bill at Hamilton’s expense. The New York Times wrote in a Fourth of July editorial that it’s a much better idea to bump Jackson, an undistinguished president who, ironically, hated the idea of paper currency.
“The announcement has really befuddled people,” says Rand Scholet, president of a group called The Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society, which planned some of the events this weekend expected to draw hundreds.
According to the Treasury Department, putting Hamilton’s portrait on the $10 bill was included in the changes made by the government “to restore faith in economic power of the United States and currency” after the economic crash of 1929 and into the Great Depression.
Doug Hamilton has known since he was a kid that he was related to the founding father. His grandmother first told him, and he confirmed it later through genealogical studies. But all that aside, he says his ancestor’s towering achievements have earned him a permanent place on the bill, and the picture should remain untouched.
“We think,” Doug Hamilton says, “he is somebody the younger generation should look up to.”
(AP)
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15 Responses
How hard would it be to start printing a new bill? I think $15 is open.
It annoys a great many people for a variety of reasons. Hamilton is a gigantic figure in American history, probably more than any of his contemporaries other than Franklin and Washington. And what annoys many is that two of the figures on the paper money (Andrew Jackson and Ulysses Grant) are significant questionable (Jackson’s policy of ignoring the Supreme Court when it tried to stop the ethnic cleansing directed against Indian is not well regarded today, Grant in the light of history was well intentioned but serious inept as president and allowed corruption to flourish).
Dollars to doughnuts it will be an African American woman with moslem background.
If so put her on the two dollar bill or better still add to the deficit and make a three dollar bill in honor of Obama to match his phonyism.
IF THEY REALLY WANT A WOMAN ON ABILL , THEN WHY THEY CREATE A NEW BILL EG. $25BILL WITH WOMAN ON IT. 4 OF THESE BILLS WOULD EQUAL $100 JUST LIKE CURRENTLY 5 OF 2O’s equal $100. this would remove any complaints from descendents…..
Oy Vey, if we have a bill with the picture of a woman, can you imagine all these men who don’t look at pictures of women or even don’t look at them, what are they going to do ? But don’t worry, money talks !
The person who should be removed from the currency is Andrew Jackson, currently on the $20 bill. Jackson was an unapologetic slaveowner who destroyed the economy and committed genocide against American Indians. Hamilton, on the other hand was one of the first prominent Americans to call for the abolition of slavery, created the foundation for America’s modern capitalist economic system, and was the complete opposite of Jackson regarding attitudes towards American Indians.
can any explain why they can’t make a $25.00 bill. Problem solved.
Alexander Hamilton was a fallible but significant Founding Father in his participation in the Revolutionary War and the Constitutional Convention, and in founding a treasury system that got America out of its first national debt. He is irreplaceable (except to an administration that is trying to revise U.S. history). If you want to put a woman on currency, I agree with the $20 bill or $50. I think the portrait the should consider would be Betsy Ross.
Hamilton belongs on US currency, given his role in founding the American banking and monetary system. And a woman – preferably a leader of the suffragist movement – belongs on the 20-dollar bill, given the suffragists role in putting the 20th Amendment – the women’s right to vote – into the constitution.
Andrew Jackson does not belong on US currency, given his role in destroying the Second Bank of the United States. US currency honors 2 other slaveholders (Washington and Jefferson) and, I think, one other participant (besides Jackson) in the wars against the Native Americans (Grant).
take the antisemite Grant off the $50.
“one other participant (besides Jackson) in the wars against the Native Americans (Grant)”
Also Lincoln, although he was a very minor player — he was a Captain during the Black Hawk War but never saw actual combat.
Re comment no. 3: Can you name an African American woman with a Muslim background who is a significant American historical figure? I can’t. I would take your bet, but I am trying to cut down on doughnuts.
There is no need for a woman on US currency.
It’s funny to seek how many people care and will protest about the picture on their money. As long as it’s money put pictures of monkeys for all I care.
How ironic don’t you think the man that refused to recognize the Jewish help in the American revolution of Chaim Salomon Who all but sponsored George Washington’s army when he did not have the funds for it and when George Washington wanted to put a significant Jewish recognition of that fact on the one dollar bill to recognize the. Jewish effort in the war Alexander Hamilton refused and only allowed the very small Jewish star made up of American stars in the very small right-hand corner of the back of the one dollar bill The poetic justice served of having him killed by Aaron Burr and now be removed by a woman whom he did not recognize as equal and no less a Negro whom he had as slaves wouldn’t that be justice served