Hamilton’s just the man for the $10 bill

By Reg Henry

Friday, Sept. 18, 2015 | 2 a.m.

With today’s column, I renew my application for patron saint of hopeless cases and lost causes, a position currently filled by St. Jude.

While I am no saint, which is admittedly a problem in seeking the job, I stand ready if the saint should ever retire. My first desperate case is already at hand.

It concerns Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who laid the financial foundations that allowed the newly minted United States to rise as a great nation. Not all Americans appreciate his greatness, but they know his face — it’s on the $10 bill.

Americans get their money’s worth with Hamilton. He was one of the most extraordinary figures in a revolutionary generation full of them, overcoming dubious parentage and being orphaned as a child.

He was Gen. George Washington’s aide-de-camp, wise in counsel and courageous in battle. He founded the New York Post so that one day Americans could read the headline “Headless Body in Topless Bar.”

He also wrote many of the Federalist Papers and assisted at the birth of the Constitution. His financial genius came to full flower as the first secretary of the Treasury.

That last detail makes it all the more galling that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced back in June that, starting in 2020, Alexander Hamilton will surrender his prominent position on the bill to be replaced by a notable woman. His image apparently will remain but be diminished.

Where’s the professional courtesy? The critics are right: Jack Lew, thy name is Aaron Burr, the vice president who fatally shot Hamilton in a duel in 1804. (Americans hazy on their history should not mistake Burr for the equally sinister Vice President Dick Cheney, who accidentally shot and wounded a hunting buddy in 2006, an act not of infamy but stupidity.)

The latest wound to Hamilton’s reputation would appear certain. A committee decided in 2013 that the $10 bill should be redesigned next because of counterfeiting concerns. It remains only for Lew to announce the woman to be honored.

Even the curmudgeon community agrees that a woman should appear prominently on one of our bills, all things being equal. But all things are not equal here because of historical disproportion.

The problem with replacing Hamilton with a distinguished woman is that it can’t be done without appearing patronizing, because no woman — indeed, no man — can match his indispensable service to the nation. You’d have to come up with a Founding Mother.

Yes, I know women could not qualify for that title at the time. Men in three-cornered hats put up posters: No Founding Mothers Need Apply. Too bad, because the likes of Abigail Adams, brilliant wife of John, could have done the job.

Those mentioned most prominently as choices for the $10 bill — Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Eleanor Roosevelt — were great women, but Hamilton was extraordinarily great.

A curtsy to equality could be done gracefully. President Andrew Jackson could move over for a woman on the $20 bill. So, too, could President Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 note. Grant was a great general but a poor president, and whoever is in Grant’s tomb won’t roll over in his grave.

But in honoring women, keep Hamilton somewhere prominent. At a time when abuse is heaped upon immigrants for political gain, it is worth remembering that Hamilton was one. He was born on Nevis in the West Indies and became the epitome of the American success story (until the duel rather spoiled it). He was the immigrant Founding Father, and his example is needed more than ever, if only to spite Donald Trump.

The Treasury move comes at the oddest time. Only a government agency could boot a traditional American hero aside just as he is becoming newly popular.

This is in part due to the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” which is done in hip-hop style with a multiracial cast rapping through the history. (In truth, I am not much for rap, but I like some good hopping as much as the next person, especially if it’s hip.)

This is not your grandfather’s history lesson, but by all reports the production is brilliant, and theatergoers are flocking to it. Its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, was inspired by Ron Chernow’s terrific 2004 biography titled “Alexander Hamilton.” The historian loves the show.

President Barack Obama has seen it. As St. Jude seems not to be paying attention, perhaps the president can help Hamilton, who certainly does not deserve a bad rap from the Treasury.

Reg Henry is a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist.