Editing Thomas Nast (section)

===Party politics===
Nast was the first journalist who did not own his newspaper to play a major role in shaping public opinion. His cartoons were influential in deciding five presidential elections: [[Abraham Lincoln]] (1864); [[Ulysses S. Grant]] (1868 and 1872); [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] (1876)—all Republicans—and Democrat [[Grover Cleveland]] (1884). His biting cartoons ridiculed the losers: [[George B. McClellan]] (1864); [[Horatio Seymour]] (1868); [[Horace Greeley]] (1872); [[Samuel J. Tilden]] (1876); and [[James G. Blaine]] (1884). Nast effectively sat out the 1880 election because he distrusted Republican [[James A. Garfield]] (who won) and admired Democrat [[Winfield Scott Hancock]], a Civil War hero and Nast's personal friend. 

In addition to his talent, creativity and the repetitive impact of his cartoons, Nast benefited from his lack of meaningful competition before ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' arrived in 1877, and from the financial strength, editorial consistency and reach of ''[[Harper's Weekly]]''. America's leading illustrated newspaper's circulation was about 120,000 during the Civil War, 200,000 during subsequent presidential elections, and almost 300,000 during the height of the Tweed campaign. With passalong readership, Nast's audience reached 500,000 to more than a million viewers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=John |title=America's Most Influential Journalist: The Life, Times and Legacy of Thomas Nast |publisher=Harpweek Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0578294544 |pages=iii}}</ref>

The single most important and influential cartoon that Nast ever drew appeared in ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' on August 24, 1864 (post-dated September 3) as the [[Democratic National Committee]] was assembling in Chicago to nominate McClellan (whom Lincoln had fired as his top Union general two years earlier) for president. ''Compromise with the South—Dedicated to the Chicago Convention'' captured the very crux of the existential emotional and political stake at issue in the forthcoming election.

Nast's scathing caricature featured an arrogant, exultant [[Jefferson Davis]] shaking hands with a crippled Union soldier who—with his head bowed and his only leg shackled to a ball and chain—humbly accepted it. Columbia, representing the Union and modeled by Nast's wife Sallie, wept at the gravestone marked "In Memory of Our Union Heroes Who Fell in a Useless War." As Davis's boot stomped on a Union grave and broke the sword of Northern Power, the cat-o'-nine-tails in his left hand was ready to flog his vanquished enemies. A Black family in chains despaired behind Davis. The Union flag, upside down in distress, recited its successes, including emancipation, on its stripes; the Confederate flag detailed a list of atrocities.

On October 16—almost eight weeks after Nast's cartoon appeared—the ''Richmond Enquirer'' published some more extreme demands which were not in the Democratic platform. Lincoln's reelection managers took Nast's cartoon, added "The Rebel Terms of Peace," and made more than a million copies as campaign posters. In combination with General [[William Tecumseh Sherman|William T. Sherman]]'s capture of Atlanta on September 1 and General [[Philip Sheridan|Phil Sheridan]]'s victory in the Shenandoah Valley on October 19, "A Traitor's Peace" probably was the single most effective visual campaign advertisement in any American presidential election before or since.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=John |title=America's Most Influential Journalist: The Life, Times and Legacy of Thomas Nast |publisher=Harpweek Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-578-29454-4 |pages=xi}}</ref>

Nast played an important role during the [[1868 United States presidential election|presidential election in 1868]], and Ulysses S. Grant attributed his victory to "the sword of Sheridan and the pencil of Thomas Nast."<ref>Vinson, John C. [http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/thomas_nast ''Thomas Nast, Political Cartoonist''.] Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1967.</ref> In the 1872 presidential campaign, Nast's ridicule of [[Horace Greeley]]'s candidacy was especially merciless.<ref>Gerry, Margarita S. (2004) ''Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook Body Guard to President Lincoln''. Kessinger Publishing. p. 192. {{ISBN|1417960795}}.</ref> 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."<ref>Paine 1974, p. 263.</ref> Nast became a close friend of President Grant and the two families shared regular dinners until Grant's death in 1885.

Nast and his wife moved to [[Morristown, New Jersey]] in 1872<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 190.</ref> and there they raised a family that eventually numbered five children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Nast {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-art-biographies/thomas-nast#:~:text=Personal,Attended%20National%20Academy%20of%20Design. |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> In 1873, Nast toured the United States as a lecturer and a sketch-artist.<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 283–285.</ref> His activity on the lecture circuit made him wealthy.<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 188.</ref> Nast was for many years a staunch Republican.<ref>United States, Diane K. Skvarla, and Donald A. Ritchie (2006). ''United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art''. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 329. {{ISBN|0160728533}}.</ref> Nast opposed [[inflation]] of the [[currency]], notably with his famous rag-baby cartoons, and he played an important part in securing [[Rutherford B. Hayes]]' ultimate victory in the [[1876 United States presidential election|presidential election in 1876]].<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 334–335, 349.</ref> Hayes later remarked that Nast was "the most powerful, single-handed aid [he] had",<ref>Paine 1974, p. 349.</ref> but Nast quickly became disillusioned with President Hayes, whose lenient policy towards the South in removing federal troops he opposed.<ref>Paine 1974, p. 352.</ref>

The death of the ''Weekly''{{'}}s publisher, [[Fletcher Harper]], in 1877 resulted in a changed relationship between Nast and his editor [[George William Curtis]]. His cartoons appeared less frequently, and he was not given free rein to criticize Hayes or his policies.<ref>Halloran 2012, pp. 228–229.</ref> Beginning in the late 1860s, Nast and Curtis had frequently differed on political matters and particularly on the role of cartoons in political discourse.<ref name="Halloran_228">Halloran 2012, p. 228.</ref> Curtis believed that the powerful weapon of caricature should be reserved for "the Ku-Klux Democracy" of the opposition party, and did not approve of Nast's cartoons assailing Republicans such as [[Carl Schurz]] and [[Charles Sumner]] who opposed policies of the Grant administration.<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 216–218.</ref> Nast said of Curtis: "When he attacks a man with his pen it seems as if he were apologizing for the act. I try to hit the enemy between the eyes and knock him down."<ref name="Keller"/> Fletcher Harper consistently supported Nast in his disputes with Curtis.<ref name="Halloran_228"/> After his death, his nephews, Joseph W. Harper Jr. and John Henry Harper, assumed control of the magazine and were more sympathetic to Curtis's arguments for rejecting cartoons that contradicted his editorial positions.<ref>Halloran 2012, pp. 228–230.</ref>

Between 1877 and 1884, Nast's work appeared only sporadically in ''Harper's'', which began publishing the milder political cartoons of [[William Allen Rogers]]. Although his sphere of influence was diminishing, from this period date dozens of his pro-Chinese immigration drawings, often implicating the Irish as instigators. Nast blamed U.S. Senator [[James G. Blaine]] (R-Maine) for his support of the Chinese Exclusion Act and depicted Blaine with the same zeal used against Tweed. Nast was one of the few editorial artists who took up for the cause of the Chinese in America.<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 412–413</ref>

During the presidential election of 1880, Nast felt that he could not support the Republican candidate, [[James A. Garfield]], because of Garfield's involvement in the [[Crédit Mobilier of America scandal|Crédit Mobilier scandal]]; and did not wish to attack the Democratic candidate, [[Winfield Scott Hancock]], his personal friend and a Union general whose integrity commanded respect. As a result, "Nast's commentary on the 1880 campaign lacked passion", according to Halloran.<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 248.</ref> He submitted no cartoons to ''Harper's'' between the end of March 1883 and March 1, 1884, partly because of illness.<ref>Halloran 2012, pp. 250–252.</ref>

In 1884, Curtis and Nast agreed that they could not support the Republican candidate [[James G. Blaine]], a proponent of high tariffs and the [[spoils system]] whom they perceived as personally corrupt.<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 255; Paine 1974, p. 480.</ref> Instead, they became [[Mugwumps]] by supporting the Democratic candidate, [[Grover Cleveland]], whose platform of [[United States federal civil service|civil service]] reform appealed to them. Nast's cartoons helped Cleveland become the first Democrat to be elected president since 1856. In the words of the artist's grandson, Thomas Nast St Hill, "it was generally conceded that Nast's support won Cleveland the small margin by which he was elected. In this his last national political campaign, Nast had, in fact, 'made a president'."<ref>Nast & St. Hill 1974, p. 33.</ref>

Nast's tenure at ''Harper's Weekly'' ended with his Christmas illustration of December 1886. It was said by the journalist [[Henry Watterson]] that "in quitting ''Harper's Weekly'', Nast lost his forum: in losing him, ''Harper's Weekly'' lost its political importance."<ref>Paine 1974, p. 528</ref> Fiona Deans Halloran says "the former is true to a certain extent, the latter unlikely."<ref>Halloran 2012, p. 270.</ref>

Nast lost most of his fortune in 1884 after investing in a banking and brokerage firm operated by the swindler [[Ferdinand Ward]]. In need of income, Nast returned to the lecture circuit in 1884 and 1887.<ref>Paine 1974, pp. 510, 530.</ref> Although these tours were successful, they were less remunerative than the lecture series of 1873.<ref>Halloran 2012, pp. 266, 271.</ref>

{{Gallery
| align             = center
| height             = 200
| File:Compromise with the South - Dedicated to the Chicago Convention - Th. Nast. LCCN2002723256.jpg|''Compromise with the South—Dedicated to the Chicago Convention'' (1864) by Thomas Nast
| File:Traitor's Peace.jpg|1864 Lincoln Campaign Poster ''The Rebel Terms of Peace''
| File:Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner (November 1869), by Thomas Nast.jpg|An 1869 Nast cartoon supporting the Fifteenth Amendment<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/1122.html |title=Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner, Artist: Thomas Nast |work=On This Day: HarpWeek |publisher=The New York Times Company |date=November 2001 |first=Robert C. |last=Kennedy |access-date=November 23, 2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011123201735/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/1122.html |archive-date=November 23, 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://thomasnastcartoons.com/selected-cartoons/uncle-sams-thanksgiving-dinner-two-coasts-two-perspectives/ |title=Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner: Two Coasts, Two Perspectives |first=Michele |last=Walfred |work=Thomas Nast Cartoons |date=July 2014 |access-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305182430/http://thomasnastcartoons.com/selected-cartoons/uncle-sams-thanksgiving-dinner-two-coasts-two-perspectives/ |archive-date=March 5, 2016 }}</ref> optimistically envisions a multicultural comity that interprets the national motto ''E pluribus unum'' as a heartening holiday family gathering; "In the words of [[J. Henry Harper]], 'Nast was one of the great statesmen of his time. I have never known a man with a surer political insight. He seemed to see approaching events before most men dreamed of them as possible.'"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Faust |first=Albert Bernhardt |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000336567 |title=The German element in the United States: with special reference to its political, moral, social, and educational influence |date=1909 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-7905-6587-3 |location=Boston |page=363 |language=en-us}}</ref>
|File:Schurz Corruption.jpg|[[Carl Schurz|Interior Secretary Schurz]] cleaning house, ''Harper's Weekly'', January 26, 1878
|File:Senatorial Round House by Thomas Nast 1886.jpg|''Senatorial Round House'', from ''Harper's Weekly'', July 10, 1886
|File:Thomas Nast from Harpers Weekly.png|Portrait of Thomas Nast from ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'', 1867
}}