Images that Changed the World: Thomas Nast and Boss Tweed

One image that changed the world were the political cartoons penned by Thomas Nast in the late nineteenth century. 

These political cartoons concerned themselves primarily with the rampant political corruption of the 1860's and 70's. These cartoons protested the unofficial political machine system in place at the time and the inappropriate amount of power that party bosses, like Boss Tweed, commanded. 

Under the political machine system, there is "behind-the-scenes" control and often, a party "boss" who has a great amount of power.  Party bosses were very common in American politics from the late nineteenth century up until the mid-twentieth century.  

Boss Tweed was the most prolific of these party bosses, and this is primarily because of the courage of Thomas Nast.  Tweed was the head of Tammany Hall, which was the Democratic party political machine in New York.  The way that a Boss maintained his power was through awarding the constituency with certain favors in return for voting a certain way.  Bosses also needed to have a tight knit army of cronies, in cahoots with the Boss and often given appointed positions in return for support during an election.  

Boss Tweed was even worse than most, defrauding the city of New York by having contractors charge three or four times what the going rate for the project actually was.  Tweed would then collect the extra money and share it among himself and his cronies.  The most blatant example that was exposed as a result of Thomas Nast's cartoons, was the amount of money charged for what is now known as the "Tweed Courthouse"-- more than $13 million, when the project itself only cost the contractor $3 million.

By the time public dissatisfaction was strong enough to put the powerful man behind bars, Tweed had more than quadrupled the debt of New York City, stealing more than $100 million dollars (and this was in the late 1800's).  

Considering fearsomely power of Tweed and the level of corruption at the time, Thomas Nast was incredibly courageous to continue to publish these cartoons even after repeated attempts on Tweed's part to bribe him or blackmail him into silence.  The strong and cutting messages of the cartoons were enough to put Tweed behind bars-- and keep him there.

After a year in prison, Tweed was put on trial again on separate charges and he was able to post $3 million in bail.  From there he fled to Cuba, and once he was discovered there, boarded a ship to Spain.  However, he was detained once he reached the Spanish coast because, as the Spanish officals claimed, of their recognition of the man from Thomas Nast's cartoons.

If not for Thomas Nast's refusal to be swayed or intimidated, his cartoons were published and the public became aware of the corruption of the political machines, and this sparked the movement that pushed for the slow and grueling elimination of the spoils system and political machines in American government.  Without these images, we might still be battling party bosses today, as the political machine system is linked to representative democracy.