For the man on the 20-dollar bill, the night of June 1 at downtown Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore/Café was not a good one.

Andrew Jackson is a main character in the new book  “Jacksonland” — and its author, National Public Radio journalist Steve Inskeep, was less-than-complimentary about the seventh president.

Inskeep’s address, which lasted about 45 minutes on the 33rd anniversary of the opening of the popular independent bookstore, drew about 175 people.

“This is Andrew Jackson,” said Inskeep, referring to a slide. “He’s run-down, his facial features are wrinkled and he’s painfully thin. He’s just fought a bitter duel where he’s killed a man....

“He was a slave trader and a greedy real estate speculator,” Inskeep, who hosts NPR’s Morning Edition, said of Jackson. “He was an unbelievable character.”

The biggest real estate deal brokered by Jackson was with Native Americans for the Deep South, termed Jacksonland. 

Inskeep’s book focuses on Jackson’s dealings with the Cherokee, in particular his dealings with one John Ross, principal Cherokee chief from 1827 to 1866.

“He was an unbelievable character, too,” Ingress said of Ross. “He was a man who considered options — he wanted the Cherokee to be ‘in’ on the system.”

But, according to Inskeep, being in on the system did not mean — to Ross  — ceding ancestral land. Several times Ross filed lawsuits with the Supreme Court to squelch Jackson-led removal efforts.

An 1835 ruling by Chief Justice John Marshall establishing a Cherokee nation was countermanded by then-President Andrew Jackson leading eventually to the Trail of Tears, which, Inskeep called, a sad chapter in U.S. history.

At bayonet point, about 46,000 Native Americans, including 1,600 Cherokee, were forced from their homeland. Because of heavy rains, snow, disease and starvation an estimated 4,000 Cherokee died on the forced walk to Oklahoma.

In “Jacksonland,” Ingress does not dwell on the tragedy’ instead the ending of his book focuses on Cherokee life just prior to the relocation. “They were planting corn, they were building houses,” he writes. “It was civil obedience.”

A photo in the book depicts modern-day Cherokee, N.C., heart of the Eastern Band Cherokee reservation and home of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, the mega-revenue-making for the Cherokee nation.

“It’s assimilation,” Ingress said of the casino. “It’s what John Ross envisioned.”

Inskeep then voiced even more harsh words about Jackson, who called Ross a “scamp” and who wrote that Native Americans “have savage habits....

“In addition to all this Jackson was a bigamist,” Inskeep said. “He married Rachael before her divorce was final....

An event attendee, Mary Olsen, said, “I don’t think he belongs on the 20-dollar bill. “I think it should be Susan B. Anthony.”

Attendee Toby Ives asked, rhetorically, “I don’t know why we’re so unpopular in the world? Do they hate us for our history?”

Charlie Walter added, “It’s like Winston” Churchill once said, referring to the late British leader’s famous quote: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.”

Earlier, Inskeep was introduced as someone who has appeared on national television news programs such as “Face the Nation” and “Meet the Press.”

 “Let me say this,” Inskeep responded, “There’s no greater honor than to be speaking in an independent bookstore.”