Thomas
Nast was born in Landau, Germany, on
27th September, 1840. His father, a musician, had radical political
views and found the conservative Bavarian government oppressive. He
therefore decided to take his family to the United States. Nast was
raised in New York and at the age of 15 had his first drawing published
by a national magazine. Inspired by the cartoons of John
Leech and John Tenniel, in 1855 Nast
started working for Leslie's Illustrated
Newspaper.
As soon as Harper's Weekly was
launched in 1857, Nast became determined to join the magazine. He
had some drawings in the magazine but he did not obtain a full-time
post until 1862.
Nast was a staunch opponent of slavery and throughout the Civil
War Nast produced patriotic drawings urging people to help crush
the rebels. Abraham Lincoln is reported
to have said: "Thomas Nast has been our best recruiting sergeant.
His emblematic cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and
patriotism."
After the war Nast remained a strong supporter of black civil rights
and some of his cartoons attacked Andrew
Johnson for undermining Lincoln's policies. During this period
Nast began to distort and exaggerate the physical traits of his subjects
and therefore played an important role in the development of political
caricature.
Nast also originated the idea in America of using animals to represent
political parties. In his cartoons the Democratic
Party was a donkey and the Republican
Party, an elephant. He also helped to develop the character, Uncle
Sam, to represent the United States.
In September 1869, Nast began his campaign in Harper's
Weekly against William Tweed, the
corrupt political leader of New York City.
Pressure was put on Harper Brothers, the company that produced the
magazine, and when it refused to sack Nast, the company lost the contract
to provide New York schools with books. Nast himself was offered a
bribe of $500,000 to end his campaign. This was hundred times the
salary of $5,000 that the magazine paid him but Nast still refused
and eventually Tweed was arrested and imprisoned for corruption. Nast's
campaign against Tweed was later described as "the finest and
most effective political cartooning ever done in the United States."
A strong
Republican Party supporter, Nast supported
Ulysses Grant in 1868 against his rivals,
Horace Greeley and Horatio
Seymour. Grant's next opponent, Samuel
Tilden, had helped Nast remove William
Tweed from office. However, Nast continued to use his skill as
an artist to undermine Tilden and helped Grant achieve another victory.
Nast also played an important role in securing victory for Rutherhood
Hayes in 1876. Afterwards Hayes commented that Nast was "the
most powerful single-handed aid we had."
In 1884 Nast changed sides and supported the Democratic
candidate, Grover Cleveland for president.
In doing so, he helped Cleveland become the first Democrat president
since 1856. After this, Nast was known as the "presidential maker".
In the 1880s Nast's cartoons began to attack trade
unions and the Catholic Church. This
was less popular with his readers and after a disagreement with the
owners of Harper's Weekly, left
the journal in 1886. He started his own journal, Nast's Weekly,
but it failed and he was left with heavy debts.
Other investments Nast made were also unsuccessful and he got into
severe financial difficulties. Nast's cartoon work began to dry up
and in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt
helped his old friend by appointing him U.S. consul in Ecuador. This
provided him with a steady source of income until his death from yellow
fever on 7th December, 1902.
Thomas
Nast, Who Stole the People's Money? Cartoon showing
William Tweed, Peter Sweeney,
Richard Connolly and Oakley
Hall that appeared in Harper's Weekly
(19th August, 1871)
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