The story earlier this month was that the Treasury Department was planning to take Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill. An unnamed woman would replace him on the money. The most recent announcement is that his image won’t disappear completely but remain in a secondary way.

The announcement from the Treasury Department created a small stir. It would have been a huge controversy if it weren’t for the ignorance of most Americans of the contribution of Alexander Hamilton.

He fought alongside George Washington as a colonel, and provided advice to Washington as a member of his staff. Even later Hamilton continued in that role when Washington served as our first president. Hamilton wrote three-fifths of the Federalist Papers along with James Madison and John Jay. His writings on judicial review were important in the formation and functioning of the first Supreme Court.

We should also mention his other writings. Alexander Hamilton was also a journalist, and helped found the New York Evening Post. You know it today as the New York Post.

These reasons should be enough reasons he is on our money. But the most important reason is that Alexander Hamilton was the nation’s first Treasury Secretary. Most people credit him with saving the country from its first debt crisis and establishing a national bank.

His place is history should be secure, but we now are told he should be replaced by a woman. Here are a few women who have been mentioned. Alice Paul, Phillis Wheatley, Deborah Sampson, Sylvia Rivera, Lydia Maria Child, and Sojourner Truth are not exactly household names. A few other women you might have heard about are Harriet Tubman, Susan B. Anthony, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Here is a possible test. The woman to replace Hamilton should have at least read the 85 Federalist Papers he wrote and know something about judicial review and the banking system Alexander Hamilton helped create. Few (if any) of these proposed nominees could pass that simple test. I am not ready to replace America’s first Treasury Secretary who also wrote a majority of the Federalist Papers with someone who never even read the Federalist Papers.