ANTIQUE 1872 Thomas Nast Plate Signed Full Page Image Harper's Weekly Cartoon Lampooning The Dissension In The Tweed Ring As It Begins To Fail In 1872.

It is suitable for framing. Signed in image. Thomas Nast Large Woodblock Full Page Political Cartoon From January 27, 1872 Issue of Harper's Weekly. Interior full page woodblock cartoon, of that Harper's Weekly issue.

TITLED: "ET TU, BRUTE?—THEN FALL CAESAR."

Nast was a vehement opponent of political corruption & made a crusade out of trying to bring down the "Boss" Tweed ring of Tammany Hall Democrats In NYC. In this cartoon he is shown being "Caesared" by New York governor John Hoffman, himself a ring insider, as he delivers a "message" in the form of a sword thrust. Hoffman is trying to tell Tweed the jig is up. The Tweed Ring were estimated to have looted 200 MILLION dollars from NYC between 1868 & 1873.

The Image measures approximately 16 inches high X 11 inches wide including margins. Edges show general edge wear/handling wear from age/right edge rough from removal from the Harper's volume/short closed tear. All of the faults will be covered by the mat when framed. Paper is age toned but not brittle. Overall the item is in Very Good Condition. Signed in image: "TH. NAST."

WILLIAM MAGEAR TWEED (1823-1878), often erroneously referred to as "William Marcy Tweed", and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century NYC and State. At the height of his influence, Tweed was the third-largest landowner in NYC, a director of the Erie Railroad, a director of the Tenth National Bank, a director of the New-York Printing Company, the proprietor of the Metropolitan Hotel, a significant stockholder in iron mines and gas companies, a board member of the Harlem Gas Light Company, a board member of the Third Avenue Railway Company, a board member of the Brooklyn Bridge Company, and the president of the Guardian Savings Bank. Tweed was elected to the New York County Board of Supervisors in 1858, the year that he became the head of the Tammany Hall political machine. He was also elected to the New York State Senate in 1867, but Tweed's greatest influence came from being an appointed member of a number of boards and commissions, his control over political patronage in New York City through Tammany, and his ability to ensure the loyalty of voters through jobs he could create and dispense on city-related projects. Tweed had for months been under attack from "The New York Times" and Thomas Nast, the cartoonist from Harper's Weekly. Regarding Nast's cartoons, Tweed reportedly said, "Stop them damned pictures. I don't care so much what the papers say about me. My constituents don't know how to read, but they can't help seeing them damned pictures! Tweed was finally convicted for stealing an amount estimated by an aldermen's committee in 1877 at between $25 million and $45 million from NYC taxpayers from political corruption, but later estimates ranged as high as $200 million. Unable to make bail, he escaped from jail once but was returned to custody. He died in the Ludlow Street Jail."

THOMAS NAST (1840-1902) was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of Democratic Representative "Boss" Tweed and the Tammany Hall Democratic party political machine & of the Democratic Party in general whom he considered pro-South traitors. He was also strongly anti-Irish & anti-Catholic Church, since in the 19th century the Irish strongly supported the Democratic Party & were predominately Catholic. Nast considered the Catholic Church as a threat to American values. According to his biographer, Fiona Deans Halloran, Nast was "intensely opposed to the encroachment of Catholic ideas into public education". Among his notable works were the creation of the modern version of Santa Claus----based on the traditional German figures of Sankt Nikolaus and Weihnachtsmann----and the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party. Contrary to popular belief, Nast did not create Uncle Sam----the male personification of the American people----or Columbia----the female personification of American values----or the Democratic donkey, though he did popularize these symbols through his artwork. Nast was associated with the magazine Harper's Weekly from 1859 to 1860 and from 1862 until 1886. It has been argued by eminent historians that as a political cartoonist, Thomas Nast wielded more influence than any other artist of the 19th century. He not only enthralled a vast audience with boldness and wit, but swayed it time and again to his personal position on the strength of his visual imagination. President Lincoln called Nast "our best recruiting sergeant" for one of his most celebrated cartoons "Compromise with the South", which was directed against those in the North who opposed the prosecution of the American Civil War, as well as, for drawing battlefields in border and southern states. President Grant attributed his victory in 1868 to "the sword of Sheridan and the pencil of Thomas Nast." In the 1872 presidential campaign, Nast's ridicule of Horace Greeley's candidacy was especially merciless. After Grant's victory in 1872, Mark Twain wrote the artist a letter saying: "Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigious victory for Grant----I mean, rather, for Civilization and Progress." As a crusading civil reformer he helped destroy the corrupt "Boss" Tweed Ring that swindled NYC of millions of dollars. His impact on American public life was formidable enough to profoundly affect the outcome of every presidential election during the period 1864 to 1884.

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