Editing Thomas Nast (section)

===Style and themes===
[[File:Schurz Defeat of Liberal Republicans.jpg|thumb|[[Carl Schurz|Schurz]], Belmont, [[Reuben Fenton|Fenton]], [[Lyman Trumbull|Trumbull]], [[Thomas W. Tipton|Tipton]], and others lie before a vengeful Columbia (representing the U.S.) while Uncle Sam (also representing the U.S.) waves his hat beside the victorious [[Ulysses S. Grant]], 1872.]]

Nast's cartoons frequently had numerous sidebars and panels with intricate subplots to the main cartoon. A Sunday feature could provide hours of entertainment and highlight social causes. After 1870, Nast favored simpler compositions featuring a strong central image.<ref name="Oxford"/> He based his likenesses on photographs.<ref name="Oxford"/>

In the early part of his career, Nast used a brush and [[ink wash]] technique to draw tonal renderings onto the wood blocks that would be carved into printing blocks by staff engravers.<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 102; Paine 1974, p. 135.</ref> The bold [[cross-hatching]] that characterized Nast's mature style resulted from a change in his method that began with a cartoon of June 26, 1869, which Nast drew onto the wood block using a pencil, so that the engraver was guided by Nast's linework. This change of style was influenced by the work of the English illustrator [[John Tenniel]].<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 135–136.</ref> A recurring theme in Nast's cartoons is anti-Catholicism.<ref>Worth, Richard (1998). ''Thomas Nast: Honesty in the Pursuit of Corruption''. Las Cruces, NM: Sofwest Press. p. 40.</ref><ref>Halloran 2012, p. 197.</ref> Nast was baptized a Catholic at the Saint Maria Catholic Church in Landau,<ref>"Family Search.org" [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NRMT-5BP Link text]</ref> and for a time received Catholic education in New York City.<ref>Paine 1974, p. 14.</ref> 

When Nast converted to Protestantism remains unclear, but his conversion was likely formalized upon his marriage in 1861. (The family were practicing Episcopalians at St. Peter's in Morristown.) Nast considered the Catholic Church to be a threat to American [[Republicanism in the United States|values]]. According to his biographer, Fiona Deans Halloran, Nast was "intensely opposed to the encroachment of Catholic ideas into public education".<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 33.</ref> When Tammany Hall proposed a new tax to support parochial Catholic schools, he was outraged. 

[[File:The American River Ganges (Thomas Nast cartoon).jpg|thumb|right|''The American River Ganges'', a cartoon by Thomas Nast showing bishops attacking public schools, with connivance of [[William M. Tweed|"Boss" Tweed]]. ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', September 30, 1871]]
His 1871 cartoon ''The American River Ganges'', depicts Catholic bishops, guided by Rome, as crocodiles moving in to attack American school children as Irish politicians prevent their escape. He portrayed public support for religious education as a threat to democratic government. The authoritarian papacy in Rome, ignorant Irish Americans, and corrupt politicians at Tammany Hall figured prominently in his work. Nast favored nonsectarian public education that mitigated differences of religion and ethnicity. However, in 1871 Nast and ''Harper's Weekly'' supported the Republican-dominated board of education in Long Island in requiring students to hear passages from the [[King James Bible]], and his educational cartoons sought to raise anti-Catholic and anti-Irish fervor among Republicans and independents.<ref>Benjamin Justice, "Thomas Nast and the Public School of the 1870s". ''History of Education Quarterly''  45#2 (2005): 171–206 [www.jstor.org/stable/20461949 in JSTOR].</ref>

Nast expressed [[anti-Irish sentiment]] by depicting them as violent drunks. He used Irish people as a symbol of mob violence, machine politics, and the exploitation of immigrants by political bosses.<ref>Halloran 2012, pp. 32–35.</ref> Nast's emphasis on Irish violence may have originated in scenes he witnessed in his youth. Nast was physically small and had experienced bullying as a child.<ref name="Halloran_35">Halloran 2012, p. 35.</ref> In the neighborhood in which he grew up, acts of violence by the Irish against black Americans were commonplace.<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 34.</ref>

In 1863, he witnessed the [[New York City draft riots]] in which a mob composed mainly of Irish immigrants burned the [[Colored Orphan Asylum]] to the ground. His experiences may explain his sympathy for black Americans and his "antipathy to what he perceived as the brutish, uncontrollable Irish thug".<ref name="Halloran_35" /> An 1876 Nast cartoon combined a caricature of [[Charles Francis Adams Sr]] with anti-Irish sentiment and anti-[[Fenian]]ship.<ref>''American Heritage'' August 1958 Volume IX Number 5 p. 90. The Nast cartoon of Charles Adams' 1876 campaign for governor is seen [https://www.masshist.org/database/5892 here].</ref>

In general, his political cartoons supported [[American Indians in the United States|American Indians]] and [[Chinese American]]s.<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 148, 412.</ref> He advocated the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]], opposed [[racial segregation]], and deplored the violence of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. In one of his more famous cartoons, the phrase "Worse than Slavery" is printed on a [[coat of arms]] depicting a despondent black family holding their dead child; in the background is a [[lynching]] and a schoolhouse destroyed by arson. Two members of the Ku Klux Klan and [[White League]], [[paramilitary]] insurgent groups in the [[Reconstruction era (United States)|Reconstruction-era]] South, shake hands in their mutually destructive work against black Americans.<ref>{{cite news |last=Nast |first=Thomas |date=September 24, 1874 |title=Worse Than Slavery |volume=18 |page=878 |work=Harper's Weekly |issue=930 |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c28619/ |access-date=June 26, 2022}}</ref>

<gallery widths="184" heights="160">
File:"This is a White Man's Government!" (September 1868), by Thomas Nast.jpg|September 1868 Nast cartoon "This is a White Man's Government!"{{Efn|''Depicted left to right'': a stereotyped Irishman (representing a Northern Democratic party member), an ex-[[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] soldier ([[Nathan B. Forrest]], representing a Southern Democratic party member), and Democratic party chairman [[August Belmont]] "triumphing" over a prostrate [[United States Colored Troops|USCT]] soldier}}
File:TheUsualIrishWayofDoingThings.jpg|''The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things'', a Nast cartoon depicting a drunken Irishman lighting a powder keg. Published in ''Harper's Weekly'', September 2, 1871
File:"Move on!" Has the Native American no rights that the naturalized American is bound to respect? - - Th. Nast. LCCN2001696066.tif|1871 Nast cartoon: "Move on! Has the Native American no rights that the naturalized American is bound to respect?"{{Efn|While naturalized foreigners had the vote, [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] had no vote, as they were not considered United States citizens, which was not remedied until 1924.}}
File:"Every Dog" (No Distinction of Color) "Has His Day", by Thomas Nast.jpg|alt=Political cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting a Chinese immigrant, American Indian, and African American, published in the periodical Harper's Weekly on February 8, 1879. The Chinese man and American Indian man stand together looking at a wall plastered with xenophobic headlines. To the left, an African American reclines in the background. The image is captioned as follows: "EVERY DOG" (NO DISTINCTION OF COLOR) "HAS HIS DAY" [line break] Red Gentleman to Yellow Gentleman. "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me."|1879 Nast cartoon: "&nbsp;'Every dog' (no distinction of color) 'has his day'&nbsp;"{{Efn|Shows an American Indian and a Chinese immigrant looking at a wall plastered with xenophobic headlines, the former saying to the latter, "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me." In the left background an African American remarks, "My day is coming".}}
File:NastRepublicanElephant.jpg|Nast's cartoon "Third Term Panic".{{Efn|Inspired by the tale of [[The Ass in the Lion's Skin]] and a rumor of President Grant seeking a third term, the Democratic donkey (labeled "Caesarism") panics the other political animals, including a Republican Party elephant.}}
File:Colored rule.jpg|"Colored Rule in a Reconstructed(?) State (The members call each other thieves, liars, rascals, and cowards)", ''Harper's Weekly'', March 14, 1874.{{Efn|Cartoon showing members of the South Carolina Legislature in argument in the House, with [[Columbia (personification)|Columbia]] rebuking them, saying "You are aping the lowest whites. If you disgrace your race in this way you had better take back seats."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c02256/|title=Colored rule in a reconstructed(?) state (The members call each other thieves, liars, rascals, and cowards) / Th. Nast.|website=[[Library of Congress]] |date=January 1874 }}</ref> By this point, it is estimated that Nast had given up on idealism on racial issues, and perceived black legislators as incompetent buffoons.}}
</gallery>

Despite Nast's championing of minorities, Morton Keller writes that later in his career "racist stereotypy of blacks began to appear: comparable to those of the Irish—though in contrast with the presumably more highly civilized Chinese."<ref name="Keller">Keller, Morton, [https://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/thomasnast/keller.pdf "The World of Thomas Nast"]. Retrieved February 24, 2018.</ref>

During Nast's era, [[William Shakespeare]]'s plays were an inherent part of the school curriculum. He introduced into American cartoons the practice of modernizing scenes from Shakespeare for a political purpose, referencing 23 of his 37 plays in more than 100 cartoons—sometimes with just a recognizable line or two, but generally with pictorial content.<ref name="nast">{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=John |title=Cartoons {{!}} Shakespeare {{!}} Political Cartoonist {{!}} Thomas Nast |url=https://thomasnast.com/cartoon-categories/shakespeare/}}</ref>

<gallery widths="184" heights="160">
File:Shakespeare's Voyage of Life.jpg|Nast referenced 23 of Shakespeare's 37 plays in more than 100 cartoons—sometimes with just a recognizable line or two, but generally with pictorial content.{{Efn|This quarter page illustration was published in Harper's Weekly, October 7, 1871 (Pg 948)<ref name="nast" />}}
File:The “Liberal” Conspirators (Who, You All Know, Are Honorable Men).jpg|Nast quoted from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, comparing Ulysses S. Grant to Caesar.{{Efn|[[Horace Greeley]], clad in a toga, was cast as Cicero, the Roman senator and enemy of Caesar, whom the other conspirators left out of the plot in Shakespeare's play. Ringleader [[Carl Schurz]], playing Brutus, disdained Greeley's potential candidacy. Published in Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1872 (Pg 208)<ref name="nast" />}}
File:A Few Washington Sketches — In the Senate.jpg|Nast ridiculed Senator [[Lyman Trumbull]] (IL), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, via Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''. Published in Harper's Weekly, March 23, 1872 (p. 232)<ref name="nast" />
File:United States Senate Theatre.jpg|Nast detested Carl Schurz and attacked him about 60 times during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency.{{Efn|Here he cast Schurz as Iago, the evil villain from Shakespeare's ''Othello''. Published on the cover of Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872 (Pg 241)<ref name="nast" />}}
File:Not So Easily Played Upon.jpg|Carl Schurz's long legs were his primary exaggerated feature for the caricaturist, Nast.{{Efn|Another attribute that Nast frequently "played to" was his musical talent, usually on the piano. Both used here, via Shakespeare's ''Hamlet''. Published on the cover of Harper's Weekly, April 27, 1872 (Pg 321)<ref name="nast" />}}
File:A Step in the Right Direction.jpg|Nast dramatized Ulysses S. Grant as a victorious knight stamping out corruption and fraud.{{Efn|Nast used a quotation from the opening scene of ''Romeo and Juliet'' to praise him, substituting "President" for "Prince" at the end. Published in Harper's Weekly, June 6, 1874 (Pg 473)<ref name="nast" />}}
File:“Where There Is an Evil” (Caesarism Scare) “There Is a Remedy” — (Ridicule).jpg|Nast's target in this cartoon was [[James Gordon Bennett, Jr.]], the wealthy, conceited, autocratic editor of the Herald.{{Efn|Nast went after Bennett with a vengeance, using Shakespeare to fight Shakespeare, portraying him 30 times before the end of Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, usually as an ass (Bottom, the weaver) from ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. Here, Nast tormented Bennett with his own "Sweet Music" played on a harp (Harper's Weekly), with his sheet music containing an ass-headed Caesarism scarecrow. Published in Harper's Weekly, November 8, 1873 (Pg 992)<ref name="nast" />}}
</gallery>

Nast also brought his approach to bear on the usually prosaic almanac business, publishing an annual ''Nast's Illustrated Almanac'' from 1871 to 1875. <ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Davies | first1 = Ross E. | title = Thomas Nast's Illustrated Almanacs, 1871-1875 | journal = Greenbag Almanac Reader| volume = 11 | issue = 4 | pages = 212–220 | publisher = Antonin Scalia Law School, Law & Economics Research Paper Series | location = Arlington | date = January 10, 2011 | url = https://ssrn.com/abstract=1744130}}</ref> ''[[The Green Bag (1997)|The Green Bag]]'' republished all five of Nast's almanacs in the 2011 edition of its ''Almanac & Reader''.<ref>Nast's Illustrated Almanac (1871–1875) (reprinted in the 2011 Green Bag Almanac & Reader, pages 106-746).</ref>