Thomas Nast - Part 2

[00:00:06] Hello everyone, welcome to the Almost Immortal History Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Powers.

[00:00:12] Thanks for joining us for the second final part of the Thomas Nass story. When we left off in Part 1,

[00:00:18] Nass was coming into his own as a famous sketch artist covering America's civil war.

[00:00:23] Now, Nass will find his true calling as he takes his talent and growing fame to new heights,

[00:00:29] helping to elect presidents of the United States and take on the most corrupt city government

[00:00:34] that the nation has ever seen. So sit back and enjoy the conclusion of today's episode,

[00:00:39] Political cartoonist Thomas Nass.

[00:00:43] Thomas Nass continued to publish such devastatingly effective portrayals of Confederate soldiers

[00:01:01] and politicians that President Lincoln himself remarked that Nass pictures were

[00:01:06] the best recruiting sergeants on the side of the Union. While eviscerating the Confederacy,

[00:01:11] Nass simultaneously lionized the Union effort generally and President Lincoln specifically.

[00:01:16] Then on September 3rd, 1964, Nass published his drawing Compromise with the South.

[00:01:22] In it, he depicts a world where General McClellan defeats Lincoln for the presidency.

[00:01:27] He shows McClellan shaking hands with a wounded Union soldier with a weeping Columbia,

[00:01:32] a character Nass used to represent the virtue of America, over the grave of the war dead

[00:01:37] and a headstone that reads, to the memory of the Union heroes in a useless war.

[00:01:43] The message clear to all that to elect McClellan would invalidate all that was fought

[00:01:47] and died for the past three years. Compromise with the South became a phenomenon.

[00:01:52] The Republican Party sought permission to use the drawing in campaign literature.

[00:01:56] Harper's Weekly had to print a second run after their first run quickly sold out.

[00:02:00] The timing of Nass' drawing could not have been more impactful.

[00:02:04] Its release and Sherman's tipping point victory in Atlanta proved the turning point in the election.

[00:02:09] Along with Lincoln's victory over McClellan that November, Compromise with the South

[00:02:14] helped Thomas Nass go from well-known to famous.

[00:02:17] Compromise was also a turning point for Nass as an artist.

[00:02:21] He had until now published mostly drawings or art renderings.

[00:02:24] Compromise with the South was the first of Nass drawings as a cartoon.

[00:02:28] He would continue this method, leveraging recurring characters like Columbia,

[00:02:32] who he drew in the image of his wife Sally for the rest of his career.

[00:02:36] With the election over, Nass turned his attention to ending the war with his Thanksgiving Day

[00:02:41] and Christmas pictures that show President Lincoln welcoming Confederate leaders like

[00:02:45] Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee back into the Union.

[00:02:48] While Lincoln and the Union would win the war, Lincoln's assassination just days after

[00:02:52] Lee's surrendered apematics sent the nation and Nass'ed into deep mourning.

[00:02:57] Nass published a weeping Columbia over the coffin of Abraham Lincoln to honor the fallen president

[00:03:02] and capture the mood of most of the nation.

[00:03:05] In order to secure a second term, Abraham Lincoln's first Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin,

[00:03:10] was replaced with Tennessee Senator and Governor Andrew Johnson.

[00:03:13] Hamlin had done nothing wrong and was aligned completely with Lincoln when it came to

[00:03:17] post-war reconstruction in the rights of black Americans.

[00:03:20] But it was thought more prudent to have a unity ticket to win enough votes in the election

[00:03:24] and hopefully unify the country post-war. Johnson was a Democrat,

[00:03:28] but had supported the Union when all around him were seceding and supporting the Confederacy.

[00:03:33] This made him a hero of the North and a grateful Lincoln added him to the ticket in 1864.

[00:03:38] The first sign of trouble occurred on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1865,

[00:03:43] when Vice President-elect Johnson, weary from a night of celebration and weeks of illness,

[00:03:48] took several shots of whiskey to steady himself before the ceremony.

[00:03:52] His illness, combined with the alcohol, proved a toxic mix and the newly inaugurated

[00:03:57] and drunk Vice President Johnson delivered his remarks in front of a mortified

[00:04:02] President Lincoln and other attendees. Just over a month later, Johnson would be sworn in

[00:04:07] as the 17th President of the United States.

[00:04:10] Not only was Johnson neither Lincoln nor a Republican, but it became quickly evident to everyone,

[00:04:16] including Nass'd that Lincoln's post-war call formalized towards none

[00:04:20] with charity for all would not go as envisioned under the new President.

[00:04:24] As many feared, President Johnson was a huge disappointment toward Lincoln's vision of reconstruction.

[00:04:30] He pursued policies that were neither friendly toward black Americans nor the former Confederate states

[00:04:35] making efforts toward reconstruction more difficult.

[00:04:38] Where Nass portrayed Lincoln as the hero, he now found a villain in Andrew Johnson.

[00:04:42] Nass' view of Johnson as an authoritarian and monarchical figure led him to caricature

[00:04:48] the President as King Andy in his drawings for Harper's.

[00:04:51] For most of his tenure at Harper's, Nass'd worked hand-in-hand with the magazine's editor-in-chief,

[00:04:56] William Curtis. Like Nass'd, Curtis was a Republican progressive who generally agreed with Nass'd

[00:05:01] overall point of view. Though unlike Nass'd, he favored more measured and reason commentary

[00:05:06] for his articles. The two would have a respectful if uneasy partnership.

[00:05:10] In 1866, Harper's published Nass' most famous Johnson caricature called King Andy and I.

[00:05:16] In it, Nass continues his depiction of Johnson as a king surrounded by a subordinate cabinet

[00:05:21] and a subdued Columbia at his feet.

[00:05:24] Off in the distance is a stream of radical Republicans in line for their execution.

[00:05:28] Among them are key members of Congress and journalists including Nass'd himself.

[00:05:33] The impact of Nass' cartoons had a profound impact on Johnson's national reputation

[00:05:38] and the outcome of the 1866 midterm election that kept Congress in Republican control.

[00:05:44] Nass'd viewed Johnson's monarchical tendencies as a danger to the Republic,

[00:05:48] but also spent considerable time creating more narratives through imagery of the effect Johnson's lack of leadership was having on black Americans.

[00:05:56] Nass'd continued to draw positive imagery of what the black family could and should experience as equal American citizens,

[00:06:02] and he counterbalanced those images with the reality of their current experiences,

[00:06:07] like being terrorized by the newly formed Ku Klux Klan or oppression from local southern policies

[00:06:12] designed to slow or prevent racial equality.

[00:06:15] As President Johnson continued to battle with congressional Republicans over Reconstruction,

[00:06:19] vetoing a record 29 pieces of legislation, Nass'd continued to parody him.

[00:06:24] Congress was so incensed with Johnson's obstruction that they overrode the President's vetoes repeatedly

[00:06:29] on key pieces of legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1866

[00:06:33] and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing citizenship rights for former slaves

[00:06:38] and creating equal protection under the law.

[00:06:40] In 1868, Congress brought 11 articles of impeachment against Johnson.

[00:06:45] Because of Johnson's removal of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in violation of an act,

[00:06:49] Congress had just passed to in part prevent such a removal.

[00:06:53] Johnson became the first President impeached in the House of Representatives

[00:06:56] and fell just one vote shy in the Senate from being removed from office.

[00:07:01] As the 1868 presidential election approached,

[00:07:04] Thomas Nass'd no longer needed to hammer away at Johnson,

[00:07:08] impeachment and declining popularity ensured Johnson would only serve one term.

[00:07:12] In fact, at the Democratic Nominating Convention that summer,

[00:07:16] the sitting President only received support from his home state of Tennessee.

[00:07:20] The Democrats would instead select former New York Governor Horatio Seymour

[00:07:24] to face the Republican's candidate Civil War and American hero Ulysses S. Grant.

[00:07:29] While the election seemed a likely grant victory,

[00:07:32] Nass'd lent his talent and voice to the discussion with explosive cartoons.

[00:07:36] When Grant was nominated ahead of the Democrats' convention,

[00:07:39] Republicans challenged Democrats to quote,

[00:07:42] "...match him."

[00:07:43] Once Seymour was nominated, Nass responded by publishing his cartoon titled,

[00:07:47] "...matched?"

[00:07:49] On one side, he drew Grant in military uniform looking statesman-like.

[00:07:54] On the other side, he drew a disheveled Seymour,

[00:07:57] his hair in point sticking straight up to look like devil's horns.

[00:08:01] Underneath him were rioting Irishmen,

[00:08:03] the burning of the Black orphanage in New York City, and even a lynched black man.

[00:08:07] The caption read,

[00:08:09] "...a mob can revolutionize as well as a government."

[00:08:12] All of this was a catharsis for Nass'd,

[00:08:14] who blamed Seymour, the governor of New York,

[00:08:16] during the draft riots for the atrocities that still scarred Nass'd.

[00:08:20] Fortunately, that November,

[00:08:22] Nass could once again return to the President as a hero in his drawings,

[00:08:26] as he thought the world of Grant,

[00:08:28] as did the nation with Grant sweeping to office in a landslide.

[00:08:31] Nass received praise and credit for the role he had played in shaping public opinion,

[00:08:36] including a note from the President-elect himself.

[00:08:38] Nass'd first cartoon of the Grant era in January 1869 was titled,

[00:08:43] "...Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men,"

[00:08:46] featuring President Grant and Columbia welcoming in the new year.

[00:08:49] As Nass'd national fame was on the rise,

[00:08:52] his attention turned more local in 1869.

[00:08:55] In addition to Grant winning the presidency,

[00:08:57] New York City's government had changed hands as well,

[00:09:00] from Republican control to Tammany Hall Democrats.

[00:09:03] Tammany was founded as a society in George Washington's first year as President in 1789,

[00:09:08] what had started as a noble attempt to represent the common people

[00:09:11] had evolved over time into something else.

[00:09:14] As Tammany's influence grew,

[00:09:16] so did greed, power and corruption from those within the system.

[00:09:20] At the center of that corruption by 1869 was William McGear Tweed.

[00:09:25] Thomas Nass recalled Fire Marshal Tweed from his youth.

[00:09:28] The leader of the Big Six with its menacing tiger logo was still every inch of 5'11",

[00:09:33] but now added 300 pounds of girth,

[00:09:36] earned through an over-indulgent, inopulent lifestyle.

[00:09:39] Tweed had risen to fame and power getting elected or appointed to numerous high-profile positions,

[00:09:44] including one uneventful term as United States congressman and currently as New York State Senator.

[00:09:50] But Tweed's true power was in his role as Grand Satcham of Tammany Hall

[00:09:54] and a self-structured role as head of public works for New York City.

[00:09:58] Tammany's strength came from the thousands of near-automatic votes it received from Irish immigrants.

[00:10:04] Tammany approached the newly arrived immigrants quite literally

[00:10:07] as soon as they got off the boat docking in their new home of America.

[00:10:10] Tammany officials offered the immigrants assistance towards finding housing, jobs

[00:10:15] and a community that understood their hopes, dreams and challenges.

[00:10:19] In exchange, they asked for the new arrivals political support.

[00:10:22] By 1869, Tweed's power city-wide was absolute.

[00:10:26] Gone was most Republican opposition from what Tweed wanted to do,

[00:10:30] in part because of the bribes paid directly to those Republicans from Tweed and Tammany to look the other way.

[00:10:36] In their place, Tweed systematically placed protégés and allies in all the critical positions of power.

[00:10:43] Many of those positions far more high-profile than Tweed's own,

[00:10:47] giving him the illusion of the man behind the curtain,

[00:10:50] but in reality, he was in charge.

[00:10:52] It was such a poorly kept secret that everyone called Tweed boss.

[00:10:57] The key players in what became known as the Tweed Ring were former New York City mayor, now Governor John Hoffman

[00:11:03] and new mayor Abraham Oakee Hall, each protégés of and hand-picked by Tweed himself.

[00:11:10] An opponent of Hall's said of the new mayor,

[00:11:12] he is a notorious liar.

[00:11:14] He never told the truth but once, and then it was by accident,

[00:11:18] and he took off his coat and ran a mile-and-a-half to cover it with a lie.

[00:11:22] Rounding out the powerful ring was former district attorney and treasurer Peter B. Sweeney,

[00:11:27] the financial mastermind of the group,

[00:11:30] and the city comptroller Richard Connolly who helped cook the books.

[00:11:34] Together with Tweed, these men and countless other politicians,

[00:11:38] newspaper men, police, judges, and many more all helped to ensure the ring's power.

[00:11:44] This ring, through a combination of bribery, threats, patronage, graft and illegal voting,

[00:11:50] ran one of the most corrupt yet productive local governments in American history.

[00:11:54] All told, the ring stole somewhere between 30 to 200 million dollars,

[00:11:59] the equivalent of 4 billion dollars today.

[00:12:03] Tweed believed that money would in fact buy everything.

[00:12:06] His policy was to buy off with political offices all of the powerful opponents

[00:12:10] whom he could not bully or bribe into submission.

[00:12:13] Nast, having grown up and around all of this, was aware of the corruption,

[00:12:17] or at least not surprised by it.

[00:12:19] But as Nast's influence grew, he combined his heightened sense of moral righteousness

[00:12:24] with the knowledge that he could now do something about it.

[00:12:27] His first cartoon about Tammany was published in the February 9th, 1867 issue of Harper's titled

[00:12:33] The Government of the City of New York, a Chance to Steel Without the Risk of the Penitentiary.

[00:12:39] The drawing shows a raucous saloon with men wielding daggers ready to fight,

[00:12:43] mixed in with well-dressed underworld figures with guns drawn.

[00:12:47] Sitting above it all, seemingly in charge, with his gun drawn, is a retunned man

[00:12:51] with a sign hanging behind him that reads,

[00:12:54] The Steel S-T-E-A-L Ring.

[00:12:58] In 1869, Nast zeroed in on all the specifics of the ring and its ring leaders

[00:13:03] in greater detail and cutting wit laying bare for all to see.

[00:13:07] In his cartoon The Economical Council, Nast shows figures from the ring

[00:13:11] unpacking crates labeled Taxpayers and Tenants Hard Cash

[00:13:15] with Mayor Oki Hall, who Nast labeled to devastating effect,

[00:13:19] O-K-Hall spelled H-A-U-L, approving of the taxpayer graft.

[00:13:25] Then Nast published Shadows of Forthcoming Events,

[00:13:28] where he detailed across a two-page Harper's spread

[00:13:31] some of the many areas of ring influence corruption

[00:13:34] from the fire department to the Board of Health, to immigration and voter fraud.

[00:13:39] To illustrate his last point, he drew a menacing Irishman

[00:13:42] in charge of the quote, Ballot Box Stuffers Brigade,

[00:13:45] or showing a policeman on the ring's payroll, Billy clubbing citizens

[00:13:49] from voting the wrong way.

[00:13:51] At the same time that Harper's, led by the images of Thomas Nast

[00:13:55] and the written words of editor William Curtis were taking aim at Boss Tweed and his ring,

[00:13:59] a new ally joined the cause.

[00:14:01] While most city papers were on the payroll of the ring,

[00:14:04] one of the newer papers, The New York Times, was not.

[00:14:07] Founded in 1851, its founders, Henry Raymond and George Jones,

[00:14:12] had known and worked with Harper Brothers for decades.

[00:14:15] They stayed largely above the fray about the Tweed ring until 1870,

[00:14:19] when their editorials lent another powerful voice about the ring's corruption.

[00:14:23] From that point forward, Harper's, with its circulation of more than 100,000

[00:14:27] and the Times, with a circulation close to 60,000,

[00:14:30] worked unofficially in tandem to expose the ring.

[00:14:33] The efforts of Harper's and the Times so incensed Tweed.

[00:14:36] He turned the full might of the ring against each.

[00:14:39] But for all of the articles now being published suggesting corruption,

[00:14:43] Tweed was quite clear what and who he was most concerned with.

[00:14:47] Let's stop them damn pictures, he said.

[00:14:50] I don't care so much what the papers write about me.

[00:14:52] My constituents can't read, but they can see pictures.

[00:14:56] Tweed couldn't have been more right.

[00:14:58] The words did have a powerful and persuasive impact,

[00:15:01] but the images with their detail, clarity and humor were constant body blows

[00:15:06] for all to see and understand.

[00:15:08] They not only explained what was happening,

[00:15:10] but NAS cartoons made fun of each and every one of them

[00:15:13] and pointed out the absurdity, hypocrisy, theft and crime of their actions

[00:15:17] against the very people they represented.

[00:15:20] In essence, turning something that was feared and accepted into something

[00:15:24] everyone could laugh at and begin to question.

[00:15:27] In attempts to silence them, Tweed sought to buy a controlling interest in the Times,

[00:15:31] but to no avail.

[00:15:32] He then threatened to pull Harper's largest contract,

[00:15:35] its textbooks to the public schools,

[00:15:37] but the brothers stood firm with NAS and Curtis,

[00:15:39] especially Fletcher Harper.

[00:15:41] The threats were also personal.

[00:15:43] NAS was worried for both his own safety and that of his family's.

[00:15:47] Rather than to frighten him into inaction,

[00:15:49] these threats served to embolden him in a way he had never known before.

[00:15:53] Always a hard worker,

[00:15:55] NAS'd found another gear throughout 1870 and 1871.

[00:15:58] Working at a breakneck pace,

[00:16:00] NAS would submit up to seven cartoons a week to his weekly paper.

[00:16:04] Though far more impressive than the quantity NAS produced was the quality.

[00:16:08] For someone who had already reached national fame before the age of 30,

[00:16:11] he reached a new professional peak in his 31st.

[00:16:15] NAS'd published Under the Thumb in the June 10th, 1871 Harper's issue,

[00:16:20] one of his most famous cartoons and one of his simplest.

[00:16:23] In it, he draws a bustling town in New Jersey with its thriving community,

[00:16:27] schools, businesses, and people.

[00:16:29] Then just across the river is Manhattan,

[00:16:31] with a giant thumb sitting atop the entire city.

[00:16:34] The cuff link on the hand of the oppressive thumb

[00:16:37] reads William M. Tweed.

[00:16:39] Just weeks later, in his cartoon titled Who Stole the People's Money?

[00:16:43] NAS drew Tweed, the leaders of the ring,

[00:16:46] and others allegedly on the take all standing in a circle.

[00:16:49] Each individual pointing to the person to his right saying,

[00:16:52] "'Twas him!' in answer to the cartoon's question.

[00:16:55] Millions saw the cartoons, including the talented 35-year-old satirist Mark Twain,

[00:17:01] who lent his pen to the effort.

[00:17:03] Perhaps it was only fitting that the father of American literature

[00:17:06] would become great friends with the father of American political cartoons.

[00:17:09] For all their differences, they had much in common.

[00:17:12] They each had world-class talent and wit

[00:17:14] and a love of pointing out and rooting out hypocrisy.

[00:17:18] Twain commented on the Tweed ring in the New York Tribune that fall,

[00:17:22] asking,

[00:17:23] "'What is the chief end of man?' to get rich?

[00:17:26] In what way?

[00:17:27] Dishonestly if we can, honestly if we must.'"

[00:17:30] NAS had echoed similar sentiments throughout his drawing,

[00:17:33] such as the new Ten Commandments,

[00:17:35] with examples like

[00:17:36] Thou Shalt Steal and

[00:17:38] Thou Shalt Vote Often.

[00:17:40] In the October 21st issue,

[00:17:42] NAS published his most famous cartoon.

[00:17:44] It served as an exclamation point

[00:17:46] for the sentence of narrative imagery

[00:17:48] NAS had been creating all year.

[00:17:50] Titled The Brains,

[00:17:52] NAS draws the body of Boss Tweed

[00:17:54] in his standard three-piece suit

[00:17:56] and his 300-pound girth,

[00:17:58] but he replaces Tweed's head with a bag of cash.

[00:18:01] The implication lost on no one.

[00:18:04] Throughout NAS' 1871 crusade,

[00:18:07] he not only produced powerful imagery,

[00:18:09] he also kept hammering the same themes

[00:18:11] over and over to ensure no one missed the point.

[00:18:14] NAS often have Tweed say the phrase,

[00:18:16] what are you going to do about it?

[00:18:18] To challenge the readers to act.

[00:18:20] When NAS didn't draw Tweed in his

[00:18:22] customary and opulent business attire,

[00:18:24] he drew him in prison inmate clothes,

[00:18:26] further maddening Tweed,

[00:18:28] as he knew the more who could picture him behind bars

[00:18:30] might make the situation more likely.

[00:18:32] As NAS had done throughout his career,

[00:18:34] he continued to use Columbia

[00:18:36] to represent that virtue of the nation.

[00:18:38] He added the vicious and villainous

[00:18:40] Tammany Tiger to represent the danger,

[00:18:42] the NAS youth of Tweed's Big Six Tiger.

[00:18:45] However, the challenge for NAS,

[00:18:47] Harper's and The Times,

[00:18:49] was for all of their insinuations

[00:18:51] and the obvious for everyone to see graft in plain sight,

[00:18:54] there was for years no clear evidence

[00:18:56] to convict the Tweed ring.

[00:18:58] That changed in mid-1871

[00:19:00] when a former local sheriff named Jimmy O'Brien,

[00:19:02] who had himself tried to cut a deal

[00:19:04] with Tweed for power, turned on the ring.

[00:19:06] He visited the office of New York Times

[00:19:08] reporter Lewis Jennings,

[00:19:10] who had been charged against Tweed.

[00:19:12] Hot night, O'Brien said to the suspicious reporter.

[00:19:15] Warm, replied Jennings.

[00:19:17] You and Tom NAS'd have had a tough fight, said O'Brien.

[00:19:20] Still have, answered Jennings.

[00:19:22] O'Brien reiterated. I said, had.

[00:19:25] O'Brien walked over to Jennings

[00:19:27] and handed him what was under his arm.

[00:19:29] Ledgers from Connolly's Comptroller office,

[00:19:31] where O'Brien had a friend working

[00:19:33] that detailed all of the financial discrepancies

[00:19:35] in numbers that couldn't possibly add up,

[00:19:37] all signed off on by Tweed

[00:19:39] and the other members of the ring.

[00:19:41] O'Brien's evidence and the corresponding stories

[00:19:43] from the Times and cartoons to drive home

[00:19:45] the points from NAS'd

[00:19:46] led to a meeting of influential New Yorkers,

[00:19:48] such as John Jacob Astor on September 4th

[00:19:50] at Cooper Union, to further examine

[00:19:52] the city's finances.

[00:19:54] This committee of 70 decided to do all they could

[00:19:57] to support reform and governance of New York City.

[00:19:59] They threw their considerable support

[00:20:01] behind the efforts of Samuel Tilden,

[00:20:03] the Democratic Party chairman of New York,

[00:20:05] who also wanted to end Tammany's corruption of his party.

[00:20:08] Building on the New York Times evidence,

[00:20:11] Tilden's investigations of additional financial transactions

[00:20:14] revealed 190 payments approved by Tweed, Connolly, and Marr Hall,

[00:20:18] and in each case where the money went.

[00:20:21] All were examples of graft, bribes, and ill-gotten gains.

[00:20:25] Tilden used this information to have a state attorney

[00:20:27] appointed that even a begrudging Governor Hoffman agreed to.

[00:20:30] Just days later, on October 26th,

[00:20:33] the state attorney asked for and received a warrant

[00:20:36] for the arrest of Boss Tweed.

[00:20:38] Thomas Nest, in one last attempt to appeal to voters

[00:20:41] of New York City before the city's 1871 election,

[00:20:44] published The Tammany Tiger Loose.

[00:20:46] In it, he sets the scene of a Roman gladiators' coliseum.

[00:20:50] The tiger had already killed two figures labeled

[00:20:53] justice and trade and is about to do the same

[00:20:55] to Columbia herself.

[00:20:57] In the stands, cheering The Tammany Tiger on,

[00:20:59] is the Tweed Ring.

[00:21:01] The Tweed Ring is the first to be heard

[00:21:03] from the Harper's Manhattan office to his home in Harlem.

[00:21:06] Nest noticed a passenger looking at the Tammany Tiger Loose

[00:21:09] image in the latest Harper's issue.

[00:21:11] The man's face grew angry.

[00:21:13] He clenched his fist and seemingly,

[00:21:15] in answer to the tiger's question,

[00:21:17] what are you going to do about it?

[00:21:19] The man on the train said,

[00:21:21] we are going to kill you as he punched at the tiger.

[00:21:24] Nest said after seeing this scene unfold,

[00:21:26] I knew that I too had made a hit.

[00:21:29] This is really the most impressive political picture

[00:21:31] ever produced in this country.

[00:21:33] The efforts of everyone involved finally paid off.

[00:21:36] On election day, the entire Tammany slate

[00:21:38] was defeated by the reformers,

[00:21:40] with one astonishing exception.

[00:21:42] Despite being at the center of the attacks

[00:21:44] and having been arrested and released on bail

[00:21:47] just a week earlier,

[00:21:49] boss Tweed would keep his seat in the state senate.

[00:21:52] Even still, his power had all become to an end.

[00:21:55] Weeks after the election,

[00:21:57] the warrant was issued for Comptroller Richard Connolly,

[00:22:00] now known as Slippery Dick.

[00:22:02] When state attorney Charles O'Connor came to Connolly's house

[00:22:05] to bring him to jail or to collect the 1.5 million bail,

[00:22:08] Connolly's wife, Mary, who controlled the money,

[00:22:11] said that was too much and told her husband to go to jail.

[00:22:14] Weeks later, the bail amount would be reduced to 500,000,

[00:22:17] which Connolly posted and promptly fled to Europe.

[00:22:20] Peter Sweeney would also be arrested,

[00:22:23] post bail, and flee to Canada

[00:22:25] as he said were health reasons.

[00:22:27] Having some fun with that excuse,

[00:22:29] the Times asked of their readers

[00:22:31] who goes to Canada in the dead of winter when they are sick.

[00:22:34] O'Kee Hall's time as mayor would end the following year

[00:22:37] and he would also flee the country,

[00:22:39] though not before being arrested

[00:22:41] and acquitted three separate times.

[00:22:43] Nass would lampoon each of the men week after week.

[00:22:47] Throughout Hall's arrest and trials,

[00:22:49] Nass continued to label the deeds

[00:22:51] of the ill-gotten gains as those of Mayor H.A.U.L. Hall.

[00:22:55] In a prescient cartoon before Hall's first trial,

[00:22:58] Nass published a cartoon titled

[00:23:00] Portraits of the Mayor's Grand Jury,

[00:23:02] in which Nass drew 12 separate portraits

[00:23:05] of O'Kee Hall himself.

[00:23:07] Governor Hoffman would eventually repudiate Tweed

[00:23:10] and escape prosecution,

[00:23:11] though his dream of higher office was stifled

[00:23:13] and he retired from politics the following year.

[00:23:16] Despite his reelection,

[00:23:17] Tweed's world continued to crumble around him

[00:23:20] and while it took another year,

[00:23:22] William Tweed would finally be tried in January 1873.

[00:23:26] Despite the overwhelming evidence

[00:23:28] and the sheer volume of the 220 counts against him,

[00:23:32] the jury said they could not reach a verdict

[00:23:34] and Tweed was temporarily freed

[00:23:36] in what was clear to all as the result of jury tampering.

[00:23:39] Nine months later, Tweed was tried again

[00:23:41] in the same courtroom with the same judge

[00:23:44] and the same 220 counts but with a new jury.

[00:23:47] This time, private investigators were hired

[00:23:49] to keep an eye on jurors to ensure

[00:23:51] there would be no attempts to influence them.

[00:23:53] This jury returned a guilty verdict to Tweed

[00:23:56] on 204 of the 220 counts.

[00:23:59] The judge ordered Tweed sent to prison for 12 years

[00:24:02] and admonished Tweed in public remarks,

[00:24:04] telling the now prisoner that the evidence against him

[00:24:06] was overwhelming and that instead

[00:24:08] of protecting the public, you plundered it.

[00:24:11] Nass commemorated the moment with a cartoon

[00:24:13] of Columbia locking the prison door labeled WM Tweed.

[00:24:17] He surely thought, as did everyone,

[00:24:20] that would mark the conclusion of Boss Tweed.

[00:24:22] But they were wrong.

[00:24:24] But they were wrong.

[00:24:26] Nearly two years in prison,

[00:24:28] Tweed's lawyers and another apparent travesty of justice

[00:24:31] were successful in appealing and overturning the conviction.

[00:24:34] But the day after Tweed was released,

[00:24:36] he was arrested again on civil charges

[00:24:38] of misappropriating more than $6 million

[00:24:40] in public funds dating back to his time as commissioner

[00:24:43] and then sent to the Ludlow Street Jail.

[00:24:46] The jail on Ludlow looked more like a library than a prison

[00:24:49] and Tweed's cell was more like an apartment

[00:24:51] with a bedroom and a sitting room.

[00:24:53] Tweed's time at Ludlow also didn't resemble jail

[00:24:56] as he had come to know it.

[00:24:58] The warden, at Tweed's request,

[00:25:00] allowed excursions outside the jail

[00:25:02] by walking or carriage ride,

[00:25:04] accompanied by prison staff and by Tweed's own children.

[00:25:07] He was also allowed to visit his family at their homes.

[00:25:10] That December, he took a carriage ride to his son Richard's house

[00:25:13] on Madison Avenue to visit with his wife and kids.

[00:25:16] After dinner, Tweed went upstairs

[00:25:18] to sit with his wife, who was ill in bed.

[00:25:20] After a while, the warden asked Tweed's son

[00:25:23] to go get his father so they could return

[00:25:25] to the Ludlow Street Jail.

[00:25:27] Tweed's son reappeared moments later, stunned,

[00:25:29] saying that Tweed had fled.

[00:25:32] Tweed had paid about $60,000 in bribes

[00:25:35] to get help with an elaborate escape

[00:25:37] that took him by carriage from New York to New Jersey

[00:25:40] where he would hide out for months

[00:25:42] before sailing for Florida for several more weeks,

[00:25:44] then on to Cuba.

[00:25:46] Once in Cuba, the American consulate was tipped off

[00:25:49] to a man claiming to be John Sacor,

[00:25:51] and they warned the U.S. State Department

[00:25:53] that he might be a fugitive.

[00:25:55] Upon further investigation, they realized

[00:25:57] John Sacor was likely William Tweed.

[00:25:59] President Grant was told by the State Department

[00:26:01] and they put plans in motion to capture Tweed.

[00:26:04] It was unclear how he learned of Grant's plan,

[00:26:06] but before they could grab him,

[00:26:08] Tweed again fled, this time to Spain.

[00:26:11] He arrived in Vigo, Spain on September 6, 1876.

[00:26:15] The Americans worked with Spanish authorities

[00:26:17] to locate Tweed, but with no photographs available,

[00:26:20] the Spanish authorities distributed copies

[00:26:22] of Harper's Weekly and the vast amount of images

[00:26:25] that Thomas Nast had produced

[00:26:27] in great and clear detail of their target.

[00:26:30] It only took a few days with Nast's pictures

[00:26:32] to locate Tweed and arrest him.

[00:26:34] Once back in the United States,

[00:26:36] Tweed was finally incarcerated for the last time.

[00:26:38] He had been in declining health for several years

[00:26:41] and with no hope left for him,

[00:26:43] his situation deteriorated quickly.

[00:26:45] Tweed died in prison on April 12, 1878.

[00:26:48] While there were a number of people

[00:26:50] rightly applauded for the takedown of boss Tweed

[00:26:52] in the Tammany Ring, it was Thomas Nast

[00:26:54] who put forth the longest and most powerful case

[00:26:57] that changed the most minds

[00:26:59] and in the end, fittingly, was the cause

[00:27:01] of Tweed's capture as a fugitive.

[00:27:03] The ordeal had left Nast exhausted, frustrated

[00:27:06] and during Tweed's escape even somewhat humiliated,

[00:27:09] but once his own images had been used for Tweed's capture,

[00:27:12] a certain poetic justice and immense pride

[00:27:15] felt Thomas Nast's spirits.

[00:27:17] The most important work of his life was now complete.

[00:27:21] After the Tweed Ring's defeat,

[00:27:23] Nast turned what energy he had left

[00:27:25] towards helping his friend President Grant's

[00:27:27] election effort.

[00:27:29] The Grant administration had been rampant with corruption,

[00:27:32] but no one believed that the President himself

[00:27:34] was anything but honorable,

[00:27:36] even if he surrounded himself with those who were not.

[00:27:39] In the midst of the re-election campaign,

[00:27:41] Nast took a trip to Washington D.C. to assess the situation himself.

[00:27:44] When President Grant learned he was in town,

[00:27:46] he invited Nast to the White House

[00:27:48] and then to dinner with his family.

[00:27:50] I had a very pleasant chat with him about everything in general,

[00:27:53] Nast wrote to Sally.

[00:27:55] When he was in Washington and told Sally in another letter,

[00:27:58] he is always very pleased to see me.

[00:28:00] It's funny how all of the senators are in a flutter about me being here

[00:28:03] and are all afraid that I will do them up in a cartoon.

[00:28:06] Darling, the power I have is terrible.

[00:28:09] It frightens me.

[00:28:11] But you will keep a good look out for me

[00:28:13] and will not let me use this power in a bad cause.

[00:28:16] Nast would go on to help Grant win re-election.

[00:28:18] So much so that the President,

[00:28:20] when asked what he owed his election victories to,

[00:28:23] he readily answered,

[00:28:25] the sword of Sheridan and the pen of Nast.

[00:28:27] Because of the ongoing harassment throughout the Tweet Affair

[00:28:30] and his growing wealth and family now with four children,

[00:28:33] the Nast moved out of New York City

[00:28:35] and settled into a spacious two-story home in Morristown, New Jersey.

[00:28:39] He would come to name the home Villa Fontana

[00:28:42] in honor of the beautiful homes he had seen during his time in Italy.

[00:28:45] Nast stayed active in political affairs throughout the 1870s,

[00:28:49] though his contribution was less about who he supported

[00:28:52] and more about the lasting contributions he made

[00:28:54] to the political culture and symbolism.

[00:28:56] In 1874, there were concerns among some Republicans

[00:28:59] that President Grant would run for a third term,

[00:29:01] something that was not illegal

[00:29:03] but had never been done before

[00:29:05] since President George Washington had set the precedent

[00:29:07] of voluntarily giving up power after no more than two terms.

[00:29:10] Nast knew these concerns were ever blown

[00:29:12] as President Grant was on record

[00:29:14] saying he had no intention of seeking a third term.

[00:29:16] Around the same time,

[00:29:18] the New York Herald published a story intended as a hoax

[00:29:20] but caused an uproar instead

[00:29:22] that all of the animals in the city zoo had escaped

[00:29:24] and were looking for prey.

[00:29:26] Nast combined these two stories

[00:29:28] into his creation of an elephant

[00:29:30] that he labeled the Republican vote.

[00:29:32] His elephant was meant to represent a large, plundering animal

[00:29:36] or political party being made afraid

[00:29:38] of doing its job from the other animals in the zoo.

[00:29:41] He matched this symbol by drawing the Democratic Party donkey,

[00:29:44] which he usually referred to as a jackass.

[00:29:47] He intentionally drew each animal repeatedly

[00:29:49] in the midst of or seconds away from chaos and disaster,

[00:29:53] a none too subtle message to the politicians

[00:29:55] and voters about the ways the parties were being run and viewed.

[00:29:59] Nast also helped to popularize

[00:30:01] the modern image of Uncle Sam.

[00:30:03] If Columbia was the virtue and character of the nation,

[00:30:07] Sam was more humorous and mischievous to Nast.

[00:30:10] Only later during World War I,

[00:30:12] with the Uncle Sam we know today

[00:30:14] take on more of the virtues of Nast's Columbia.

[00:30:17] Nast continued to draw and comment on issues ranging from

[00:30:20] suffrage, racial equality and immigration,

[00:30:23] and specifically the poor treatment of Chinese immigrants.

[00:30:26] Nast linked the two issues in an 1878 cartoon

[00:30:29] using Uncle Sam to point out the hypocrisy

[00:30:31] of racial discrimination and xenophobia,

[00:30:33] saying,

[00:30:34] In a tragic twist of fate,

[00:30:43] Thomas Nast lost most of his money in the 1880s

[00:30:46] along with his friend former president Grant

[00:30:48] when the two had put most of their savings

[00:30:50] with the firm of Grant and Ward.

[00:30:52] Ferdinand Ward turned out to be a swindler

[00:30:54] and had set up a Ponzi scheme that wiped everyone out.

[00:30:57] Nast spent years trying to recover financially

[00:31:00] by lecturing, selling drawings

[00:31:02] and paintings new and old,

[00:31:04] including a collection of his Christmas pictures,

[00:31:06] which he had produced nearly every year

[00:31:09] since 1862 to the delight of millions.

[00:31:12] While they never lost their home in Morristown,

[00:31:15] the Nast never fully recovered financially.

[00:31:18] At the turn of the century,

[00:31:20] Secretary of State John Hay,

[00:31:22] once an aide to President Lincoln

[00:31:24] and longtime admirer of Nast,

[00:31:26] convinced then-president Teddy Roosevelt,

[00:31:28] also a Nast admirer, to give Nast an ambassador's post,

[00:31:31] mostly to help with his financial situation,

[00:31:33] but also to honor one of America's leading citizens.

[00:31:36] Unfortunately, the post was not a plum or powerful one,

[00:31:40] but it was what was available,

[00:31:42] Guayaquil Ecuador.

[00:31:44] Even more unfortunate and in this case tragic

[00:31:47] was that Ecuador in the summer and fall

[00:31:49] when Nast took his post there

[00:31:51] was overrun with death from yellow fever.

[00:31:54] Nast was aware of this,

[00:31:55] which is why he did not bring Sally,

[00:31:57] the children or now his grandchildren with him.

[00:32:00] He was willing to make the sacrifice,

[00:32:02] but they were too sacred.

[00:32:04] Nast hung a photograph of his family

[00:32:06] that Sally had sent him,

[00:32:07] and he wrote her back to say,

[00:32:09] as I look at it and see all the laughing,

[00:32:11] I laugh too,

[00:32:13] but my greatest happiness is that you are not here.

[00:32:16] His concerns were valid.

[00:32:18] On September 15th, 1902,

[00:32:20] Nast wrote Sally,

[00:32:22] think I am too old to catch the fever,

[00:32:24] but by November 30th,

[00:32:26] his tone had changed.

[00:32:28] He was the storyteller of the mounting death toll

[00:32:30] and how close the fever was getting to those he knew.

[00:32:33] First our club, then our floor.

[00:32:35] It is coming very near, he said.

[00:32:38] The very next day,

[00:32:39] Nast developed a sore throat

[00:32:41] and felt nauseous.

[00:32:42] His condition was first diagnosed as something else,

[00:32:45] and he himself felt much better,

[00:32:47] but it didn't last.

[00:32:49] His condition worsened

[00:32:50] and the doctors confirmed it was yellow fever.

[00:32:54] The doctors cabled Sally each day

[00:32:56] and tried to provide updates,

[00:32:58] but none were encouraging.

[00:33:00] On December 7th,

[00:33:02] Nast died at the age of 61.

[00:33:04] He was first buried in Ecuador,

[00:33:06] but later brought home

[00:33:07] and buried in New York City,

[00:33:09] to the country and city he loved

[00:33:11] and had done so much to make better.

[00:33:14] Thomas Nast wasn't just the father

[00:33:16] of American political cartoons,

[00:33:18] but the most important and consequential of them,

[00:33:21] then and now.

[00:33:23] Years after Nast's death,

[00:33:25] the father would write to one of Nast's children to say,

[00:33:28] your father used up almost all of the ideas

[00:33:30] and we later cartoonists are only rehashing them.

[00:33:33] Nast produced more than 2200 cartoons

[00:33:36] for Harper's alone

[00:33:38] in a career that covered 1850s New York,

[00:33:40] the Civil War, reconstruction,

[00:33:42] and the Gilded Age.

[00:33:44] His inventions of the Republican elephant,

[00:33:46] Democratic donkey,

[00:33:47] modern images of Santa Claus

[00:33:49] and Uncle Sam all live on

[00:33:51] and are in use today.

[00:33:52] But it was his ability

[00:33:53] to make millions of Americans

[00:33:55] see what was unfolding in politics and society

[00:33:58] and to help change those hearts and minds

[00:34:00] through the power of his pictures

[00:34:02] that he imagined and then created,

[00:34:04] which make his contributions unsurpassed.

[00:34:07] Despite the seriousness of his topics,

[00:34:09] the threats he received

[00:34:10] and the pressure he was under,

[00:34:12] Thomas Nast always kept his sense of humor,

[00:34:14] focused on his family,

[00:34:16] and love of his adopted country.

[00:34:18] He never took himself too seriously

[00:34:20] and even in his or his country's darkest moments,

[00:34:22] he never failed to spread joy to millions,

[00:34:24] especially around the holidays

[00:34:26] with iconic images of Christmas.

[00:34:28] While it was not the country of his birth,

[00:34:30] no one loved America more than Thomas Nast.

[00:34:33] And through his imagery of elevating heroes

[00:34:36] and dismantling villains,

[00:34:38] he did as much as any native or foreign born

[00:34:41] to advance the vision of what America was

[00:34:43] and what it could and should be.

[00:34:45] People don't like to be preached at

[00:34:47] and criticized in the self-indulgent age,

[00:34:49] said Nast.

[00:34:50] But that doesn't say it isn't good for them.