Free Republic

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to announce this week that Alexander Hamilton's face will remain on the front of the $10 bill and a woman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill, a senior government source told CNN on Saturday. Lew announced last summer that he was considering redesigning the $10 bill to include the portrait of a woman. The decision to make the historic change at the expense of Hamilton drew angry rebukes from fans of the former Treasury Secretary. The pro-Hamilton movement gained steam after the smash success of the hip-hop Broadway musical...

Has “Hamilton” saved Hamilton? Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” said on Wednesday that he had received assurances from Jacob J. Lew, secretary of the Treasury, that admirers of Alexander Hamilton would not be disappointed by a forthcoming redesign of the $10 bill. Mr. Lew has said that he wanted to add a woman’s image to that bill, which now features Hamilton’s portrait. That plan has won support from many, but there have also been complaints from those who don’t want to see Hamilton, the country’s first Treasury secretary, replaced.

Aaron Burr, Patriot and Vice President On February 6, 1756, a boy was born into privilege in Newark, New Jersey. Young Aaron Burr, Jr. was son of the president of the College of New Jersey, and grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinist theologian regarded as a leader of the evangelical movement of the 18th century, an equal to the great preacher George Whitfield. Privilege then wasn’t quite what privilege is today, of course; there were no Rolls-Royces to drive, no Waldorf Astorias to stay in during constant vacations, no jet-setting to Monte Carlo, no celebrity photographers and magazines to put...

Hamiltonian, Wilsonian, Jeffersonian, or Jacksonian?

Tom Woods and Michael Malice square off in an Oxford-style debate in New York City. Click "SHOW MORE" below for the results. The resolution was: “Alexander Hamilton was a hero for the cause of liberty.” Malice argued in the affirmative; Woods argued in the negative. Woods was the winner. When the audience was polled before the debate, the numbers were: 16% for the resolution; 41% against; 43% undecided. After the debate, the numbers were: 26% for the resolution; 66% against; 8% undecided.

The monthly New York City libertarian gathering called the Junto has seen arguments such as one between Wall Street analyst David Stockman and investor and Junto founder Victor Niederhoffer over whether long-term stock-watchers should be optimistic or, like a growing number of Wall Streeters these days, should be learning prepper and survivalist skills. Not long ago, I wrote of a Junto debate on whether the government should be small or non-existent. Last night, the Junto saw what might be considered the “retro” version of that debate: whether Alexander Hamilton was a hero in the cause of liberty or, as some...

Alexander Hamilton s ousting from the ten-dollar bill is a most telling sign of our times. He is a figure of the old times, the man who spearheaded the effort to get the United States out of debt and the new government running within its constitutional bounds. Although he disagreed with much of the Constitution, he believed firmly in the limited powers of a federal government. He wrote most of the Federalist Papers, all the while believing that its giving the common citizen the powers that it did would eventually lead them to destroy the government with mutations that would...

My favorites are Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine.

Every great musical improves on second (and third, and fourth) hearing; Hamilton, which opened Thursday night at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre after an extended run last winter at the Public, is no exception. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s electrifying adaptation of Ron Chernow’s celebrated biography of the least-known U.S. Founding Father is not, to use that cliché, a game-changer. It is, in truth, the quintessence of a Broadway musical destined for the record books: Of-the-moment in its rolling, roiling waves of rap used to tell its tale yet timeless in its unembarrassed detours into the sentimental ballads and roof-levitating choral numbers that are...

In the interview, she says, "I don't know why they picked the $10... I want a woman on the bill. It might be easier to change the 20 than it is to change the 10." She added that the suggestion to have a woman share a bill, "sounds pretty second-class to me" and emphasized, "a woman should have her own bill." The U.S. Treasury's current plan to put a woman on the $10 bill in 2020 includes keeping Alexander Hamilton on the banknote in some form.

The Coinage Act of 1965 marked the end of silver coins, contrary to what LBJ promised. July 23 marks the 50th anniversary of the Coinage Act of 1965, which stripped U.S. coins of silver and made legal tender out of base metal slugs. It’s an anniversary that comes at an apt time, as Congress considers monetary reform. ... The anniversary of the 1965 Coinage Act is a reminder of why reform is needed. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, President Lyndon B. Johnson called the law he signed a “very rare and historic occasion.” It certainly was; it superseded...

Reflections on the anniversary of America’s most tragic duel… Early in the morning of July 11, 1804, the Vice President and the former Secretary of the Treasury stood on the Plain of Weehawken – a wild land in New Jersey, where the laws were different from civilized New York, across the water – and they had their interview, like many a pair had before them, on that “field of honor.” There was a time in American history when every product of our education system (yes - public, private, and homeschooled alike!) knew the participants in our most famous duel. Children...

They all pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honors,” and it was more than just an idle boast. The Founding Fathers were committing treason against the most powerful empire that the world to date had ever seen. It was also their Mother Country, to which many of their friends, family, and neighbors were still loyal. And while they certainly, in the words of Patrick Henry, “made the most” of their treason, the idea that they would establish the most free and powerful nation in the history of mankind was not the most likely outcome. So in singling out these 7...

Removing Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill would be an injustice. THIS Fourth of July, as Americans contemplate their country’s birth and today’s global status, which founding father might they single out for celebration? Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison would be likely choices. But they would be the wrong ones. For 200 years, the man who did most to set the United States on the path to prosperity and world power has been treated as a second-tier founder. Alexander Hamilton shares no granite on the face of Mount Rushmore, nor is he granted a monument or memorial in our nation’s Capitol....

Greetings and salutations on this most patriotic of days. I hope that this Independence Day finds you all safe and well, with plenty of time to spend with friends and family, as well a chance to contemplate the past and future of our country. Given the importance which I’m sure most of you reading this place on the Constitution of the United States and its welfare going forward, perhaps we could start by revisiting the words of one of its chief proponents in the days of the Founding Fathers. Let’s hear from Alexander Hamilton in the opening volley of one...

Ben Franklin is the prototype for the celebrity-as-politician. His autobiography is still in print; if he were alive, he’d be on Drudge’s columnists’ list, and command speaking fees that would turn Hillary Clinton green with envy. A popular T-shirt has a quote erroneously attributed to Franklin: ‘Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.’ But John Witherspoon? He wasn’t a fan of self-promotion, which was no less prevalent then. Today, in D.C., his statue stands at a tiny triangle where Connecticut Avenue intersects with N Street and 18th Street N.W. It is routinely ignored. At...

Ten Fold: Loopy Lew dumps founder for feminism by Daniel Clark So this is what we get from a Treasury secretary who has to learn how to write his own name as part of his on-the-job training. When Jack Lew was appointed, his signature consisted of a lazily scribbled series of eight loops, which more closely resembled a tragic Slinky accident than any person’s name. The only way it came anywhere near spelling a word was if he happened to be quoting Arnold Horshack. (“Oooo! Oooo!”) President Obama joked that when he saw it, “I considered rescinding my offer to...

A woman will be on the new $10 bill, bumping Alexander Hamilton aside. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew says he will choose the woman by year's end, based on "input from the public." In one survey of the "public," the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, Wilma Mankiller, placed fourth. I understand the wish to counter sexism prevalent in early America, but "Mankiller?" The name alone probably reveals something about the attitude of some of those voters. Fortunately, more voted for Harriet Tubman. Tubman escaped slavery to become a leader of the Underground Railroad, then repeatedly returned to slave territory...

we petition the obama administration to: place Ayn Rand on the ten dollar bill. Ayn Rand is the perfect candidate for the woman on the ten dollar bill.1. An immigrant who fled oppression2. Success story in literature, philosophy, and Hollywood- a true rags to riches story. She embodies the American dream3. Authored the most read book by an American author4. Has influenced more people than any other woman in American history male or female.If she isn't in the running to be on the ten then no other woman should be on that list.Published Date: Jun 19, 2015

<p>In fairness to them, some of the reason for the upset is righteous. “Alexander Hamilton is not someone that people have a problem with,” said the director of the Women On 20s campaign. Why kick the great man off the currency instead of the far more dubious Andrew Jackson? I couldn’t agree more.</p>