THOMAS NAST Political Cartoonist THOMAS NAST THOMAS NAST Political Cartoonist By J. CHAL VINSON U N I V E R S I TY OF G E O R G IA P R E SS A TH E NS To Almira Friends Fund publication Publication of this work was made possible, in part, by a generous gift from the University of Georgia Press Friends Fund. Paperback edition, 2014 © 1967 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia 30602 www. ugapress. org All rights reserved Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e-book vendors. Printed in the United States of America 14 15 16 17 18 P 5 4 3 2 1 Cloth edition LCCN 66-27605 Paperback edition ISBN 978-0-8203-4618-2 ISBN for digital edition: 978-0-8203-4707-3 CONTENTS PREFACE — ix I. YOUNG THOMAS NAST 1 II. CHAMPION OF THE UNION 5 III. THE END OF APPRENTICESHIP — 9 IV. TRIUMPH OVER TWEED 15 V. PRESIDENT MAKER . 23 VI. LAST YEARS 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY 42 INDEX -—43 ILLUSTRATIONS Following the Index 1. The Presentation of the Chinese Ambassador 31. King Andy! How He Will Look and What He (Punch) Will Do (Nov. 3, 1866) 2. Reflections (Ibid.) 32. Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum—Massacre of the 3. Lincoln's Two Difficulties (Ibid.) Innocents at New Orleans (July 30, 1866) 4. Beecher's American Soothing Syrup (Ibid.) 33. "This is a White Man's Government" (Sept. 5, 5. Mad Tom in a Rage (Roger Butterfield, The 1868) American Past) 34. Wilkes Booth the Second (Nov. 7, 1868) 6. The Gerrymander (Ibid.) 35. The Tyrannical Military Despotism of Our Re­ 7. The Doctors Puzzled (Ibid.) public (May 25, 1867) 8. Political Quixotism (Ibid.) 36. "Who Goes There ?" — "A Friend" (Aug. 27, 9. A Gallant Color-Bearer (Harper's Weekly, Sept. 1870) 20, 1862) 37. That's What's the Matter (Oct. 7, 1871) (Except where indicated, all the remaining 38. Under the Thumb (June 10, 1871) drawings are from Harper's Weekly) 39. The "Brains" (Oct. 21, 1871) 10. Christmas Eve, 1862 (Jan. 3, 1863) 40. "Gross Irregularity Not 'Fraudulent'" (March 4, 11. The War in the Border States (Jan. 17, 1863) 1871) 12. The Result of War—Virginia in 1863 (July 18, 41. Shadows of Forthcoming Events (Jan. 22, 1870) 1863) 42. Senator Tweed in a New Role (April 16, 1870) 13. The Battle of Fredericksburg (Dec. 27, 1862) 43. Three Blind Mice! See How They Run! (July 22, 14. Thanksgiving-Day, November 26, 1863 (Nov. 26, 1871) 1863) 44. Tweedledee and Sweedledum (Jan. 14, 1871) 15. Compromise with the South (Sept. 3, 1864) 45. The New Board of Education (May 13, 1871) 16. Election-Day, 8th November (Nov. 12, 1864) 46. Not a Bailable Case (Aug. 12, 1871) 17. How the Copperheads Obtain Their Votes (Nov. 47. Who Stole the People's Money? (Aug. 19, 1871) 12, 1864) 48. The American River Ganges (Sept. 30, 1871) 18. Which is the More Illegal (Sept. 8, 1866) 49. A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to 19. Slavery is Dead (?) (Jan. 12, 1867) "Blow Over" (Sept. 23, 1871) 20. Grand Masquerade Ball Given by Mr. Maretzek 50. Next! (Nov. 11, 1871) at the Academy of Music (April 14, 1866) 51. Going Through the Form of Universal Suffrage 21. Stranger Things Have Happened (Dec. 27, 1879) (Nov. 11, 1871) 22. The Third-Term Panic (Nov. 7, 1874) 52. The Tammany Tiger Loose—"What are you going 23. The Haunted House (April 18, 1876) to do about it?" (Nov. 11, 1871) 24. Give the Natives a Chance, Mr. Carl (March 13, 53. "What are you Laughing at? To the Victor Be­ 1880) long the Spoils." (Nov. 25, 1871) 25. Pocketing the Missing Plank (Oct. 16, 1875) 54. Something That Did Blow Over (Nov. 25, 1871) 25a. Slippery Sam (Aug. 12, 1876) 55. The Arrest of "Boss" Tweed—Another Good 25b. A One Man Power (Oct. 9, 1875) Joke (Nov. 18, 1871) 26. The Cradle of Liberty in Danger (April 11, 1874) 56. "Our Mare Still Lives" (Oct. 28, 1871) 27. A Hard Fish to Catch (Jan. 24, 1874) 57. "Stone Walls do not a Prison Make" (Dec. 18, 28. Borrowed Plumes—Mr. Jackdaw Conkling (Dec. 1875) 20, 1879) 58. "Et Tu, Brute?—Then Fall, Caesar." (Jan. 27, 29. Can the Law Reach Him? (Jan. 6, 1872) 1872) 30. Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction and How It 59. The Finger of Scorn (Jan. 4, 1873) Works (Sept. 1, 1866) 60. January 1, 1873 (Jan. 4, 1873) vi ILLUSTRATIONS Vll 61. Blindman's-Buff (April 12, 1873) 94. A General Blow Up (May 16, 1874) 62. The Cat's-Paw.—Any Thing to Get Chestnuts 95. "Holy Murder!!!" (Oct. 9, 1875) (Aug. 10, 1872) 96. A Legitimate Question About Home Rule (March 63. "Save Me From My Tobacco Partner!" (Nov. 13, 1875) 2, 1872) 97. Our Modern Canute at Long Branch (Oct. 11, 64. "In My Mind's Eye" (Jan. 8, 1876) 1873) 65. Grant's Strategy (Matt Morgan in Leslie s Illus­ 98. A Box Stew; Or, An Enviable Position (Sept. 9, trated Weekly, Sept. 21, 1872) 1876) 66. "Satan, Don't Get Thee Behind Me!" (Aug. 17, 99. "Why We Laugh" (July 8, 1876) 1872) 100. Struck—At Sea (Oct. 21, 1876) 67. The Last Shot of the Honorable Senator From 101. Tilden's "Wolf At The Door, Gaunt and Hungry" Massachusetts (June 22, 1872) (Sept. 16, 1876) 68. What H— G— Knows About Bailing (April 27, 102. "The Republic in Danger" (May 1, 1875) 1872) 103. Don't! (Nov. 4, 1876) 69. Diogenes Has Found the Honest Man (Aug 3, 104. "Amnesty;" Or, The End of the Peaceful (Demo­ 1872) cratic) Tiger (Feb. 5, 1876) 70. What H. G. Knows About Threshing (July 13, 105. Waiting (Nov. 25, 1876) 1872) 106. They Both Lie Together in the Washington Arena 71. Bringing the Thing Home (July 13, 1872) (Jan. 22, 1876) 72. Baltimore 1861-1872 (Aug. 3, 1872) 107. By Repealing They Resume—By Resuming They 73. "Old Honesty" Among the Ruins of Tammany Repeal (Aug..26, 1876) (Oct. 5, 1872) 108. The Elastic Democratic (Deformed) Tiger (Aug. 74. The New Organ (June 8, 1872) 5, 1876) 75. "Shylock, We Would Have Moneys and Votes" 109. "The Elephant Walks Around" (Oct. 28, 1876) (July 6, 1872) 110. No Rest for the Wicked (Dec. 2, 1876) 76. The Whited Sepulchre (Sept. 7, 1872) 111. "The Best of Friends Must Part" (Feb. 10, 1877) 77. "Let Us Clasp Hands Over the Bloody Chasm" 112. In Memoriam—Our Civil Service As it Was (April (Sept. 21, 1872) 28, 1877) 78. "We Are on the Home Stretch" (Nov. 2, 1872) 113. "Nay, Patience, Or We Break the Sinews" (May 79. The Meeting of Nast and Watterson in Central 5, 1877) Jersey (March 29, 1873) 114. The First Step Toward National Bankruptcy (Feb. 80. "Shoo, Fly!" (Nov. 22, 1873) 16, 1878) 81. Notice—No Cartoon This Week (Jan. 31, 1874) 115. The Two Georges (March 23, 1878) 82. Our Artist's Occupation Gone (Nov. 23, 1872) 116. Taking a Rest (?)—Die Wacht Am—Bismarck 83. The Whirligig of Time (Feb. 21, 1875) (May 12, 1877) 84. The Peculiar position of some Members when 117. Social Science Solved (April 10, 1880) asked to refund the Back-Pay Grab (Dec. 27, 118. A Matter of Taste (March 15, 1879) 1873) 119. Cipher Mumm(er)y (Nov. 2, 1878) 85. It Struck (In Blowing Over) (March 25, 1876) 120. The Millennium (Nov. 3, 1877) 86. Keeping the Money Where It Will Do Most Good 121. Our Patient Artist (Nov. 30, 1878) (Oct. 11, 1873) 122. The Lightning Speed of Honesty (Nov. 24, 1877) 87. Every Public Question With An Eye Only to the 123. Our Republic is Always "Going to the Dogs" Public Good (March 15, 1873) (May 15, 1880) 88. This Tub Has No Bottom to Stand On (June 5, 124. General Hancock Gulliver, How Do You Like 1875) It As Far As You've Got? (July 31, 1880) 89. The Crowning Insult to Him Who Occupies the 125. As Solid and Defiant As Ever (Oct. 2, 1880) Presidential Chair (May 13, 1876) 126. He Will Be Gulliver in the Hand of the Brobding- 90. The Good and Bad Spirits at War (March 7, nagians (Sept. 18, 1880) 1874) 127. Hard (Up) Money Campaign (Aug. 21, 1880) 91. Republican "Simplicity" (Feb. 26, 1876) 128. The Widow's Wants (Sept. 11, 1880) 92. "Halt!" (Oct. 17, 1874) 93. The Same Old Pirate Afloat Again (Sept. 19, 129. A Financial Mistake (Oct. 9, 1880) 1874) 130. The Real Connecting Link (March 26, 1881) vm THOMAS NAST 131. Women Will Never Be Statesmen (Oct. 16, 1880) 143. Anarchists' Drill, New Tactics (May 29, 1886) 132. Now Then, Butt Away! (Nov. 22, 1879) 144. Liberty or Death (June 5, 1886) 133. Let Him A-lone, Now He's Come Home . . . 145. The President Was Elected Upon That Platform (June 4, 1881) (Sept. 26, 1885) 134. The Sacred Elephant (March 8, 1884) 146. A Popular Game: Tweed in the Corner (April 10, 135. The Civilization of Blaine (March 8, 1879) & 1886) (July 26, 1884) 147. Merry Christmas (Nast, Christmas for the Human 136. Is This "The True American Policy"? (July 26, 1884) Race) 137. Glorying in Their Shame (Oct. 11, 1884) 148. Merry Christmas {Ibid.) 138. Trying to Bully and Browbeat Each Other (May 149. A Christmas Box (Ibid.) 13, 1882) & (July 26, 1884) 150. "Another Stocking to Fill" (Ibid.) 139. The "Great American" Game of Public Office 151. Christmas in Camp (Ibid.) for Private Gain (Aug. 9, 1884) 152. Merry Old Santa Claus (Ibid.) 140. The Self-Convicted Knight (Oct. 18, 1884) 153. The Trip of Santa Clause [sic] Around the World 141. "Tammany Hall is Going to the Inauguration" (Dec. 1900. Cyril Nast to author) (February 21, 1885) 142. Keep Her Head Straight For Civil-Service Reform 154. Unpublished New Year's Card (Jan., 1885. In (October 24, 1885) author's possession) PREFACE THOMAS NAST, widely acclaimed in his own day To recreate for the modern reader Nast's life and still recognized as one of America's greatest and the pattern of his artistic development, I political cartoonists, has been relatively neglected have selected and arranged chronologically draw­ by biographers since 1904 when his personal ings from each period of his work. I have sought friend, Albert Bigelow Paine, wrote Th. Nast: His to give enough of the artist's life and the political Period and His Pictures. This book unfortunately problems of his time to put the individual draw­ has been out of print for many years. Such an ings into an understandable setting. To a marked excellent reference service as the Photographs and degree these drawings are Nast's autobiography. Prints Division of the Library of Congress has Great effort has been made in the reproduction only a dozen or so prints of his cartoons. The main of the cartoons both as to size and quality to body of his work is in Harper's Weekly, but remain true to the original. Some reduction in complete runs of those volumes are fairly rare size has been unavoidable because Nast's favorite and their unwieldly size makes them difficult format was the oversized single page drawing in to use. Harper's which was eleven by fourteen inches In this book it is my purpose, therefore, to in size, and some were double paged—fourteen make available to students of American history, by twenty-two inches. In any event the drastic politics, journalism, art, and humor in convenient and distorting reduction that is necessary in most and manageable form a representative selection textbook reproductions has been avoided. of Thomas Nast cartoons from the several thousand I should like to give special thanks to Cyril matchless ones he drew. All contemporary politi­ Nast for his help in the preparation of this book. cal cartoons, particularly those of Bill Mauldin, The final section on Santa Claus drawings is Herblock, Oliphant, and "Baldy," interest me. I largely made up of his own favorites from his have been fascinated by Nast ever since I first dis­ father's drawings. Included among them is Cyril's covered him while completing a Master of Fine portrait (No. 150) as an infant being admired Arts degree under the direction of Lamar Dodd by the good saint. at the University of Georgia. For several years Especially useful in this work were the biog­ thereafter I collected material to write a biography. raphies of Nast by Paine, already cited, of Oakey It became apparent at length that this would be Hall by Croswell Bowen, and the Tweed Ring impossible, for Nast was not a man of letters by Alexander Callow. The photographs used for and no collected correspondence remains. Cyril comparison with Nast's portraits were supplied by Nast, his son who was living at the time my the Photographs and Prints Division of the Library research began, confirmed my findings on this of Congress. All of the Nast cartoons with the matter. I then turned to my present project which exception of his self-portrait at an easel were taken has always presented a unique challenge to me from the files of Harper's Weekly. personally, both as a trained artist (my present I should also like to acknowledge the aid of hobby), and as a teacher of history of some the late Dr. George H. Boyd, former Dean of years standing. the Graduate School at the University of Georgia, IX