Thomas Nast (1840 - 1902)
Thomas Nast was born in Germany on September 27, 1840 [1]. His family immigrated to the United States in 1846 and settled in New York City [2]. Nast struggled in grade school but demonstrated his interest and talent in the arts, and drawing in particular, at a young age [3]. In 1856, still just a teenager, Nast began drawing cartoons for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, and by 1862 he was working for Harper's Weekly. Nast gained notoriety during the Civil War with his ardently pro-Union cartoons. After the war, Nast developed an interest in politics and reoriented his career towards political commentary. Nast hated President Andrew Johnson for his Reconstruction policies and his attitude towards radical Republicans. During Johnson's presidency, Nast honed his incredible wit and deft political attacks [4]. Nast played a pivotal role in promoting Ulysses S. Grant, his idol, in Grant's two presidential runs. Grant remarked, "Two things elected me, the sword of Sheridan and the pencil of Thomas Nast" [5]. The two men developed a friendship that lasted for the rest of their lives. During Grant's presidency, Nast was influential in bringing down the notoriously corrupt William "Boss" Tweed. Nast's cartoons of Tweed, which made him look hideous yet easily recognizable, led to his identification and arrest in Europe while running from the law. Tweed once fumed about Nast's work saying, "I don't care so much what the papers write about me - my constituents can't read; but, d - n it, they can see pictures”[6]. Though his hero Ulysses S. Grant decided not to run in 1876, Nast loyally promoted the Republican nominee for president, Rutherford B. Hayes. His series of cartoons on the disputed election, which depicted Democrats as corrupt Tammany Hall insiders, helped turn public opinion against Democrats as both parties participated in massive voter fraud. Throughout the campaign and election dispute, Nast repeatedly “waved the bloody flag”, meaning he associated Democratic nominee Samuel J. Tilden and other Democrats with the Confederate cause of slavery. It was a tactic he had learned early in his career illustrating during the Civil War and had perfected during Grant’s presidency. It was ruthless but remarkably effective. Hayes once remarked about Nast, "He was the most powerful single-handed aid we had”[7]. Nast’s loyalty to Grant was too profound, as he lost his entire savings in one of Grant’s railroad ventures in 1884. In 1887, Nast left Harper’s Weekly. Without each other, neither the man nor the paper could regain the influence they once had [8]. In March 1902, during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency, Nast received a letter from his friend John Hay, then Secretary of State, offering him a consular post in the State Department [9]. He accepted the position and was stationed in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where he died of yellow fever on December 7, 1902 [10]. |
[1] Wendy Wick Reaves, “Thomas Nast and the President,” The American Art Journal, 19:1 (Winter 1987) p. 5 [JSTOR]
[2] Ibid, 8.
[3] Ibid, 15.
[4] Ibid, 61
[5] Ibid, 62.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Albert Bigelow Paine, Th. Nast: His Period and His Pictures (New York: The MacMillan Company, 1904), 349. [Internet Archive]
[8] Wendy Wick Reaves, “Thomas Nast and the President," 71.
[9] Albert Bigelow Paine, Th. Nast: His Period and His Pictures, 556.
[10] Ibid, 574].
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[11] “Thomas Nast,” Biography, June 24, 2020, https://www.biography.com/media-figure/thomas-nast.
[12] Thomas Nast. “Two Great Questions.” Illustration. Harper’s Weekly, August 19, 1871, https://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Month=August&Date=19.
[13] Thomas Nast. “No Rest for the Wicked.” Illustration. Harper’s Weekly, December 2, 1876, https://elections.harpweek.com/09Ver2Controversy/Cartoon-Large.asp?UniqueID=1&Year=1876.