Would You Trust This Man With Your Country?

Ah, you thought ... oh. Nah. I was talking about this guy:

Not the lighthearted type, he - one might guess. The weight of the world on his eyebrow ridges, apparently.

I encountered the above gentleman (if I may stretch the term a tad) this evening in an unexpected context. My daughter needed a toothbrush, so we made our way to the local too-ubiquitous-to-name drugstore and she found a "beautiful" notebook without which her world would be poisoned by wanton tragedy and deprivation, and she remembered (I didn't) that she still needed to pay me back for the last impossible-not-to-purchase thing and - the rest is U.S. History.

That's right - this guy is on hard currency. Hover the mouse on him and all is revealed; hopefully you didn't ruin the suspense by skipping ahead.

So some rumors about the man are most likely true, such as his fondness for drink and his administration's ringing reputation for corruption. But the scandals that embarrassed his White House often originated before his inauguration and his enlightened (for the era) policies promoting the rights, dignity and autonomy of freedmen and native Americans should soften modern hearts towards his presidency. So is that why he's on a dollar coin?

I thought 'nope - he's there because he beat Robert E. Lee." Although recently there's been an upswell of love for past chief executives of the nation at the U.S. mint, I reasoned, "Well, surely not every president gets his own coin." But shame on me for my anti-egalitarian cynicism, because they do - apparently they just have to be dead.

 

And as it happens they mostly are. The Great Equalizer puts their mug in a bunch of pockets!