This is Jim Webb's bizarre defense of Andrew Jackson's place on the $20 bill
Former Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb is just a tad disgruntled by the most recent wave of criticism leveled at former President Andrew Jackson, in light of the news that Harriet Tubman will be sharing in his $20 bill spotlight. He tackled the ongoing debate in a Washington Post op-ed published Sunday:
Webb acknowledged that Jackson owned slaves and also infamously ordered Native American tribes to head east of the Mississippi River, but questioned whether the Trail of Tears was really intended to be "genocidal."
He ultimately asserted that both Jackson and Tubman deserve respect for their contributions to the nation. Read the rest of his stance, including a gratuitous Mark Twain quotation, here.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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