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Message:: [QUOTE="chip, post: 1742952, member: 19122"]The native american tribes in the northwest part of our continent erected totem poles, these poles would display carved images of birds, animals, fanciful designs, and were part of the tribes history. A totem would not only set a respect on the totem it would also carry penalties for violating the totem which is the taboo inherent in totems. In western culture as it has developed our totems are not found erected on poles, they are most often put on coins and traded among us. They are also used as idealizations by sports teams and even by commercial corporations. The totems of our american tribe has shifted over the years from the feminine representation of Liberty, to the celebrity and power of once elected leaders who have become part of our national totem. And just like the reverence that a beaver clan would hold for their totem animal, we now through usage and custom hold such reverence for our presidential totems. The passing away of liberty from our coinage has been accompanied by the introduction of presidential icons, starting with Lincoln in 1909, to Washington in 1932, to Jefferson in 1938, to Roosevelt in 1946, and finally the half dollar, non president Franklin in 1948 and then after the murder of JFK the presidents held all the coinage by 1964. Most nations at one time would put the image of the emperor, king prince or queen on their coinage, there are some few exceptions. An Image of a king or queen has in effect a way of subtly saying that Victoria has brought your daily bread, or the Emperor is lending himself to your business. While with the Liberty coins the message is more that Liberty buys you this meal, this home. Along with the totem aspect of the coin, the taboo aspect also came into play, I remember reading in Solzhenitsyns Gulag works of a tailor who ended up in a penal labor colony, his crime was antisoviet terrorism, he used a piece of paper to hold his needles, on one side of the paper was a picture of stalin, the simplistic terror was that the tailor had driven pins into the leader. When america came along, we were an exception to the world, Our first president declined the offer of becoming king, and was vociferous in rejecting his image graven on coins. But the taboo aspect was still current among us, laws were made against defacing and mutilating coinage. Ideals were in effect made the totem of our society and the ideal was represented as a woman, Lady Liberty. Lady Liberty took many forms, with hair flowing, with a cap, seated, standing or walking, she could be matronly, or young, robust or thin, not all the same but representing aspects of liberty. The first change came about in 1909, when for the centennial of Lincolns birth the cent coin showing Liberty with a feathered bonnet was changed to the homely visage of Lincoln. At that time many of the civil war veterans were dying, the republican party was holding majorities in congress and in the executive office, and Lincolns humble beginnings and tragic end tended to displace what opposition there might be. Democrats had for over 40 years had the bloody shirt of the civil war and the assasination of the president waved in their faces, so no opposition there, the events were far enough in the past that they could be idealized. But lincoln had been the president elected with the lowest percentage of the popualar vote, he was roasted with epithets all during his presidency,  baboon, usurper, the original gorilla, a mulatto, stories were made of him touring the scenes of battle and laughing and jesting among the corpses still lying unburied. Many of his own party wanted to be rid of him, but the events of his  murder just at the close of the war made him a martyr, and for hundreds of thousands of families his loss was shared intimately. Lincolns humble beginnings also made opposition less to putting his image on the cent, in the early part of the century economic issues and social issues were at the forefront, Lincolns image would tend to allay fears of social stratification, if not allay the process. By putting presidential images on coins we tend to idealize those presidents, yet each one had some vociferous detractors in their own day, and many of their published views are ignored in the process of idealization. Washington, was thought to be aiming to crown himself king, and his popularity with the people made the days contrarians grasp at fictions to tarnish him with, usually criticizing Hamilton was the oblique way that Washington was censured. Jefferson was accused of cowardice during the War of Independance, he was accused of fatherring children by his slave Sally Hemmings, and then selling his own children from the relationship. Roosevelt was called a communist, a socialist, one commentators of his day held in him such low regard he would refer to FDR as "that man in the white house", he was extremely popular though and appeared on the dime replacing winged liberty, (the mercury dime) the year after his death. Kennedy was put on the half dollar soon after his murder, though he also was hated by some partisans, in fact the dallas newspaper on the day he visited and was assasinated ran a political ad excoriating him and his policies.  1964 saw a landslide for his vice president, and soon after because of  inflationary trends  silver was no longer feasible as a material for coinage. It has now been a generation since precious metals were used in daily transactions by the public, it has been over 60 years since Lady liberty graced our public coinage, the american tribes totem has shifted over time from the personification of the ideal of liberty, to the idealization of the personifications of political power. And the taboo has shifted, though it lags it comes.[/QUOTE]

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