"This dismissive characterization of one of our great presidents is not occurring in a vacuum," Jim Webb wrote. | AP Photo Webb defends Andrew Jackson, rips 'political correctness'

Former Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb slammed criticism of Andrew Jackson in light of the Treasury Department's announcement last week that it would replace the former president's image on the $20 bill with that of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, suggesting that coverage of Jackson's time as president has fallen prey to a culture of political correctness and a "myth of universal white privilege."

Writing in an op-ed for The Washington Post published Sunday evening, the former Virginia senator criticized the newspaper itself for summing up Jackson's "legendary tenure" as being “known primarily for a brutal genocidal campaign against native Americans." That characterization, Webb wrote, "offers an indication of how far political correctness has invaded our educational system and skewed our national consciousness."


"This dismissive characterization of one of our great presidents is not occurring in a vacuum," Webb wrote. "Any white person whose ancestral relations trace to the American South now risks being characterized as having roots based on bigotry and undeserved privilege. Meanwhile, race relations are at their worst point in decades."

Webb commented that the most "important discussions are being debated emotionally, without full regard for historical facts."

"The myth of universal white privilege and universal disadvantage among racial minorities has become a mantra, even though white and minority cultures alike vary greatly in their ethnic and geographic origins, in their experiences in the United States and in their educational and financial well-being," he continued.

Like Alexander Hamilton, late of Broadway fame, Webb remarked that Jackson, too, was a "brilliant orphan."

"Self-made and aggressive, he found wealth in the wilds of Tennessee and, like other plantation owners such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, owned slaves. He was a transformational president, hated by the reigning English American elites as he brought populist, frontier-style democracy to our political system," Webb wrote. "Jackson became the very face of the New America, focusing on intense patriotism and the dignity of the common man."

Acknowledging that Jackson ordered the removal of Native American tribes east of the Mississippi River, Webb contended that Jackson's "approach" was "supported by a string of presidents." It was "a disaster," Webb noted, but cast doubt as to whether its motivation was "genocidal."

"Robert Remini, Jackson’s most prominent biographer, wrote that his intent was to end the increasingly bloody Indian Wars and to protect the Indians from certain annihilation at the hands of an ever-expanding frontier population," Webb continued. "Indeed, it would be difficult to call someone genocidal when years before, after one bloody fight, he brought an orphaned Native American baby from the battlefield to his home in Tennessee and raised him as his son."

Pointing to Jackson's actions that ended the Second National Bank as well as marshaling troops to quell secessionists in South Carolina, Webb praised Jackson's "coarse but refreshing openness to the country’s governing process."

As a society, Webb concluded, contributions from both Tubman and Jackson should be respected, adding, "And our national leaders should put aside their deliberate divisiveness and encourage that we do so."