I have read numerous recent letters by people who feel that former President Andrew Jackson’s picture should be removed from our currency. After all, he was the principal culprit in causing the death of about 4,000 Cherokee Native American men, women and children as they were driven from their lands in a death march known as the Trail of Tears.

In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that America must honor the treaties made with the Cherokee Nation. Despite his inaugural pledge to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Jackson simply ignored the constitutionally granted powers of the court and refused to enforce its ruling. This allowed Southern militias to carry out this act of ethnic cleansing without interference from the then-commander in chief.

We don’t need to dwell on this terrible event in our history or remove Jackson from our currency. But we certainly need to know that this atrocity could have been prevented if our U.S. Constitution had been obeyed.

Today, we have a president who put America on notice during his State of the Union address stating that regardless of the constitutional powers given to Congress, he may ignore them and accomplish his political agenda via executive orders. If our president does try such a move, like 1832, will Americans again do nothing as another president does an end run around our Constitution?

Ted Sirois

Saco
 


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