Don’t Mess With Alexander Hamilton: Keep this U.S. Virgin Islander On The $10 Bill

The Obama administration has made a bold step to put a woman on the $10 bill, which is currently the home to Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, will be replaced by a woman on the currency in 2020. During the summer of 2015, Americans can weigh in on who we would like that woman to be.

While I commend and applaud President Obama for recognizing women and our contributions to the United States of America, I am offended that with all the intellectual heavyweight, scholarly prowess, and historical depth maintained in the administration, the president and his team selected Alexander Hamilton to resign to the dustbin of history over more obvious choices like President Andrew Jackson.

President Jackson, who by my estimation and because of the Indian Removal Act culminating in the Trail of Tears, and the slaughter of Native Americans, plight of hundreds of slaves he owned that worked on the Hermitage Plantation, and the confiscation of farm land previously owned by Cherokee Indians under his watch—he proved himself to be one of the worse choices to occupy the White House. Jackson was not a good man or a great president. As such, removing his visage from the annals of history on the $20 bill makes much more sense than removing Hamilton on the $10 bill.

Born and raised in Nevis, British Virgin Islands out of wedlock, spending much of his life on neighboring St. Croix under Denmark rule, and dedicating his life to the abolition of slavery, Alexander Hamilton was responsible for designing the U.S. economy and its financial system and assuring the country’s rise from its colonial vessels to the world’s most advanced country in less than a century.

A self-made man, orphaned Caribbean immigrant, and a living and breathing patriot of his time, Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton founded the venerable Bank of New York still in operation at One Wall Street. If ever there stood a man who was the physical embodiment of the American Dream, it is Alexander Hamilton. How can we in our right minds walk away from that?

The debt Americans and U.S. Virgin Islanders owe Alexander Hamilton is immeasurable. Surely the Obama administration can find another means of honoring a deserving woman patriot. Alexander Hamilton, or “Alexander the Great” as we call him in the U.S. Virgin Islands—should only be replaced by someone of lesser stature. Don’t mess with “Alexander the Great” on the $10 bill. Don’t do it!