Thomas Nast once explained the purpose of his barbed political cartoons: “I try to hit the enemy between the eyes and knock him down.” Armed with only a pencil and his biting wit, he scored a string of successes, skewering the nearly impeached President Andrew Johnson, ending the reign of William “Boss” Tweed’s corrupt political machine and derailing the presidential bid of newspaper editor Horace Greeley.
Born in Landau, Germany in 1840, Nast moved with his family to New York City when he was six. After briefly studying art, Nast became an artist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper at the age of 15. He joined the New York Illustrated News in 1859 and traveled to Sicily the following year to cover Garibaldi’s campaign, sending reports to both American and European publications.
The Civil War Years
By 1862, Nast was illustrating Civil War battles for Harper’s Weekly, beginning an association that would last for a quarter of a century. Like his fellow “special artists” including Alfred R. Waud, he sketched reportorial scenes such as Union sharpshooters ambushing a confederate camp. Other illustrations, like “On to Richmond,” were inspirational; some showed traces of satire, including the 1862 drawing of Quantrill’s Raid.
Following Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Nast produced a double page illustration on the subject, depicting the cruelties suffered by slaves in the past and presenting hopeful scenes of the future.
His 1864 allegorical illustration entitled “Compromise with the South” criticized the Democratic Party slogan, implying that abandoning the fight would make the sacrifices of Union soldiers “useless.” The engraving gained widespread recognition and has been credited with re-electing Lincoln to his second term.
By the war’s end, Nast had achieved fame in the U. S. and abroad. But his greatest achievements were still to come.
Post-War and Reconstruction
In 1867, Nast painted 33 oversized canvases of allegorical scenes depicting American history. In performances dubbed the Grand Caricaturama, the eight by twelve foot paintings were rolled across stages in Boston and New York, complemented by live narration and piano accompaniment. During that same year, he worked on artwork for several books, a pursuit he continued throughout his career, culminating in over 100 illustrated books.
Like other Radical Republicans, Nast believed Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction policies amounted to selling out to white Southerners, threatening to negate the freedoms achieved by emancipating the slaves. The March 30, 1867 issue of Harper’s Weekly ran “Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum,” one of Nast’s most powerful drawings. Johnson is represented as Emperor Nero watching the “Massacre of the Innocents,” a reference to the race riot in New Orleans in 1866.
Battling a Political Boss
1869 marked the beginning of a three-year campaign led by Nast and the New York Times against corrupt politician William “Boss” Tweed. The cartoons of this period are some of the best and arguably the most influential of Nast’s career.
“Boss” Tweed was a fixture in New York public life, having served as Congressman, Senator and Commissioner of the Department of Public Works. He led a ring of Democrats based in Tammany Hall. The Tweed Ring defrauded taxpayers of millions and millions of dollars.
Nast attacked Tweed, repeatedly labeling him a thief. He created a symbol of a predatory cat -- the “Tammany Tiger” -- to represent the Tweed Ring. His depiction of Tweed’s body topped by a bag of money for a head is one of his best-known caricatures, along with a memorable landscape showing Tweed and his cohorts as vultures captioned “Let Us Prey.”
Nast’s popularity soared. The circulation of Harper’s Weekly’s tripled from 100,000 to 300,000, largely as a result of his crusade against the Tweed Ring.
The tide eventually turned against Tweed. He was convicted in 1873 but he escaped from jail two years later and made his way to Spain. In what must have been a bitter irony for Tweed, he was captured when a Spanish customs agent recognized him from one of Nast’s cartoons.
Politics and Political Symbols
A loyal supporter of U. S. Grant, Nast waged war against rival presidential candidate Horace Greeley. Nast was relentlessly cruel in his anti-Greeley campaign, but Greeley’s own penchant for hyperbole and frequent vacillations gave Nast plenty of ammunition. Greeley lost the election of 1872.
In his coverage of political events of the 1870s, Nast popularized the use of the Donkey and the Elephant as symbols to represent the Democratic and Republican parties. Although both parties eventually embraced the symbols, Nast intended them to be uncomplimentary. He is also known for modernizing the symbols of Columbia, Uncle Sam and Santa Claus.
In addition to winning continued favor from the public, Nast was admired by European artists including Edgar Degas and Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh collected a number of Nast’s drawings. American author Mark Twain corresponded with Nast, expressing his appreciation of Nast’s work.
Waning Popularity and Fortune
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, Nast’s fortune began to change. Fletcher Harper died in 1877, depriving Nast of his major supporter and champion at Harper’s Weekly. He soon clashed with editor George W. Curtis over ideology; tensions had been mounting between the two men for some time. Although Nast lost his life savings when the investment firm Grant and Ward failed in 1884, he still severed his relationship with Harper’s Weekly in 1887.
Nast worked for several other publications and even started his own newspaper, but it was unsuccessful. He returned to historical art, taking a commission to paint Lee’s surrender to Grant. It was completed on April 9, 1895, thirty years after the event.
President Theodore Roosevelt had great regard for Nast and offered him a consular post in Ecuador. Sorely in need of money, Nast gratefully accepted. Within five months of his arrival, he contracted yellow fever and died on December 7, 1902.
As historian Morton Keller noted on the centennial of Nast's death, we "should remember him, in all his passion and conviction, as one of the most compelling and evocative voices in America's time of greatest trial."
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