Should Andrew Jackson be on the Twenty-dollar Bill?
Historians continue to debate the merits of the decisions and actions taken by President Andrew Jackson during his two terms in office. Living between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Jackson played a central role in virtually all of the controversial issues of his time-Indian removal, economic reform, states' rights, and slavery.
Overshadowed in popular culture by the Founding Fathers and even wartime Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, Jackson nonetheless played a pivotal role in America's development. In 1929, the Treasury Department replaced Grover Cleveland's portrait on the twenty-dollar bill with that of Jackson, a nice bit of irony considering Jackson's opposition to paper money. Today, some people advocate replacing Jackson's image with that of some other prominent American, such as Martin Luther King or even President Ronald Reagan.
Prepare a written speech (2-3 paragraphs) that should praise or condemn specific policies and actions of Jackson. You will decide what to praise or condemn by considering the perspective of the individual or group you have been assigned to represent.
The roles include:
·Chief John Ross & Native Americans
·Henry Clay & the National Republican/Whig Party
·John C. Calhoun & South Carolina
·Nicholas Biddle & the Bank of the United States
·Martin Van Buren & the Democratic Party
·The White Southern Farmer
·Frederick Douglass & African-American Slaves
Questions to think about as you construct your argument:
·How did Jackson or his policies affect the life of your assigned individual or group?
·In what way did your assigned individual or group specifically interact with Jackson or his policies?
·At the end of his tenure in office, how did the life of your individual/group change? Was it for the better or for the worse?
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/andrewjackson/edu/webquest2task.html
