Change the $10 bill? Not so fast, say Hamilton's kin

Many Americans today may have little knowledge of the man on the $10 bill: Alexander Hamilton, the onetime Philadelphian famous for his early contributions to the country's financial system and the Federalist papers.

But some with a more personal connection to the founding father - his direct descendants - are grappling with the Treasury Department's recent decision to demote their ancestor, who may share the ten-spot in some capacity when it is redesigned in 2020 to feature a woman.

The decision surprised Hamilton's fifth-great-granddaughter Debbie Hamilton, 63, who lives outside Los Angeles.

"I think it's wonderful that they are going to put a woman on a bill," she said. Then she paused.

"But I guess I'm a Hamilton first."

While, she said, the country needs to honor women on its currency, she does not want Alexander Hamilton to lose his position on the $10 note or even have to share it, given his place in American history. Debbie has signed a petition calling for a reversal of the Treasury Department's decision.

Her brother, Douglas, of Columbus, Ohio, shares her views. Douglas Hamilton, 64, works in computer sales, an industry that did not exist when Alexander debated the virtues of banking and agriculture with Thomas Jefferson.

But he has managed to remain connected with his ancestry. In 2004, 200 years after Alexander Hamilton's death, Douglas played the part of his fifth-great-grandfather in a reenactment of his fatal duel with political rival Aaron Burr.

Still, neither Debbie nor Douglas Hamilton suggests that the Treasury not swap out one of the many men on U.S. currency for a woman. They just don't want it to be the 10.

Instead, they propose the 20, which features a portrait of Andrew Jackson.

Douglas Hamilton suggested that a woman replace Jackson, citing the seventh president's record as a slaveholder and his role in negotiating the forced relocation of Cherokee Indians in what has come to be known as the Trail of Tears.

Ideologically, Hamilton makes the most sense to keep on the tenner, his great-granddaughter said. The first secretary of the Treasury championed a national bank, while Jackson opposed paper money and vetoed the renewal of the Second Bank of the United States, based in Philadelphia.

Others are on record disagreeing. In Salon last week, Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg argued that the Treasury should replace both men with women, writing that "featuring Hamilton's image on currency has served as a reminder that the American republic has never really privileged democratic impulses."

But beyond debate over which man should lose his place on American paper money, Debbie Hamilton challenged the notion that featuring just one woman on paper money is sufficient.

"They should put a collage," she said. Perhaps, she mused, it could feature Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, Alexander's wife.

Larry Robertson, another descendant in the Hamilton line, offered a compromise that would preserve the places of his ancestor and Jackson.

Create a $15 bill, he suggested, and put Betsy Ross on it.

@MadelineRConway