[UA] Soft currency

[Royal Minister of Stuff]

Andrew Jackson is considered a bit of a curmudgeon and
a fighter.  There's a song about his exploits which
gets sung in schools and on camp-outs from time to
time called "The Battle of New Orleans."  I'm fond of
it, anyway.  He was called "old hickory" and the
connotations of a rod for spanking naughty boys are
reflected in the popular memory that he was the first
president to crush an attempt at Southern
Independance.  Virginia planned to secede from the
union and Jackson went down to where the would-be
rebels were meeting, in person, and threatened to beat
each and every one personally if they actually tried
to break away from the US.

Abraham Lincoln is revered, often times for the wrong
things.  Pretty much every damn movie you see depicts
him as having a deep voice and a dignified demeanor. 
In reality, he was a tall, gangly guy with a nasally,
squeaky voice and incontinence problems.  He is
certainly perceived as being wise, noble and honest,
but the truth seems to be that he was actually more
shrewd than wise, more practical than noble and more
stubborn than honest.  His wife went insane and he
didn't seem to beleive in punishment.  After out civil
war, he planned to lend money to help the South
rebuild (a plan that would not have weakened the US
right up until WWI.) His assassination (how many s's
are in that?) meant that the northern states
impoverished and humiliated the attempted rebel states
for over fifty years.

George Washington is revered as a great general and a
man with the same kind of charisma as Captain Kirk. 
He is also portrayed as honest and wise, but he damn
near fought on the British side of the Revolutionary
War/American Revolt.  He was a wealthy plantation
owner who happened to see the opportunity for power
and profit in a land which only he and a few others
controlled the taxes.  He was also a Mason, of course.
 Taxation seems to have been a major theme in
Washington's life.  The Whiskey Rebellion, which
largely centered around the new US government's
attempts to tax alcohol and upstate farmers, was all
about taxation and Washington handled it ruthlessly.

Benjamin Franklin is considered a genius and a wit,
which he probably was.  He was also a scoundrel and a
cad, making a sport out of sleeping with other
people's wives.  He did experiment with electricity
and he did publish "Poor Richard's Almanac" which is
so full of witty sayings that he never abided by any
of them.  He seemed, of America's founding fathers,
the only one with any sympathy for the people
originally living on the continent. He even suggested
adopting the turkey as America's symbolic bird,
although, along with over half of his suggestions,
this did not go down well.  He was the fattest of the
people you see on the notes and a consumate prankster.


--- Dylan Craig <wytchfynder at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Another useful touch, which I could get from a text
> I suppose, would be a potted
> 1-phrase summary of each president's perceived
> public characteristics and/or
> fiscal/economic outlook. I'll post the finished
> product back to the list when

=====
-- Rp Bowman, Royal Minister of Stuff
The Electronic Nation of Yokeltania:
http://www.geocities.com/yokeltania/

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