Treasury’s Secretary Lew to announce Hamilton to stay on $10 bill
For months, angry Americans have fought to keep Alexander Hamilton on the $10, and today they are finally getting their wish.
According to POLITICO, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will announce a decision to both keep Alexander Hamilton on the front of the $10 bill and put leaders of the movement to give women the right to vote on the back of the bill.
Lew will also announce that it plans to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman, the sources said.
The decision comes after much heated contention, specifically in response to Lew’s announcement last summer that the Treasury would replace Alexander Hamilton with a woman. He said:
"America’s currency is a way for our nation to make a statement about who we are and what we stand for. Our paper bills—and the images of great American leaders and symbols they depict—have long been a way for us to honor our past and express our values."
The concept was grounded in preexisting movements: For months, a campaign called Women on 20s has been growing in popularity in its bid to pressure the Treasury Department into replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman in time for the 2020 commemoration of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Aside from the significance of the number 20 for women, activists condemning Lew’s announcement pointed the finger at Jackson because he is easily the most controversial of the men now featured on American currency notes. Jackson’s presidency was infamously defined by his brutal military campaigns against American Indians. Ironically, he was also a serious opponent of the central banking system, so the very concept of putting him on a bill is either a naive paradox or a joke cast about a hundred years later.
The campaign to “Save Alex” was not just one of grassroots organizations and activists — some of the nation’s most prominent voices fought to keep the founding father in his rightful place. Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke was a major opponent to the decision, writing, “I must admit I was appalled to hear of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew’s decision last week to demote Alexander Hamilton from his featured position on the ten dollar bill,” the typically-circumspect ex-chairman wrote on the blog he publishes for the Brookings Institution. He added in another piece specifically about Hamilton that placing a woman on a currency note was “a fine idea, but it shouldn’t come at Hamilton’s expense.”
On the White House’s “We the People” website, two petitions immediately appeared to keep Hamilton on the $10 bill.
In addition, there will be a new design to the $5 bill featuring civil rights era leaders.