Northrop Sandy - American political cartoons: from 1754-2010

American
Political Cartoons

The evolution of a National Identity, 1754-2010

The evolution of a National Identity, 1754-2010

Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop

with a new chapter by the authors

Originally published in 1996 by Elliot & Clark Publishing

Published 2011 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 2011 by Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2010025038

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hess, Stephen.

American political cartoons : from 1754-2010 / Stephen Hess and Sandy Northrop.

p. cm.

Originally published: Montgomery, Ala. : Elliott & Clark Pub., 1996.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4128-1119-4 (alk. paper)

1. Political cartoons--United States--History--19th century. 2. Political cartoons--United States--History--20th century. 3. United States--Politics and government--Caricatures and cartoons. 4. American wit and humor, Pictorial. I. Northrop, Sandy, 1947-II. Hess, Stephen. Drawn & quartered. III. Title.

NC1425.H47 2010

320.9730207--dc22

2010025038

ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-1119-4 (pbk)

Jeff Danziger, Christian Science Monitor, circa 1990.

The Birth of a National Identity:
1754 1865

The Rise of the American Cartoon:
1865 1896

The Cartoon Comes of Age:
1896 1918

The Art of Uncertainty:
1918 1947

The Cartoonist Versus the Television:
1947 1974

Coming Full Circle:
1975 1996

Cartooning at a Crossroads:
1997 2010

STOP THEM DAMN PICTURES, demanded William M. Tweed of his cohorts. I dont care so much what the papers write about me. My constituents cant read. But, damn it, they can see pictures.

Boss Tweed was head of Tammany Hall, the political machine that had run the city of New York since 1789. His outburst was inspired by a cartoon in the August 19, 1871, issue of Harpers Weekly, in which he and his three chief croniesPeter B. Brains Sweeny, Richard B. Slippery Dick Connolly, and New York Mayor A. Oakey O.K. Hallare shown pointing to one another in response to the question Who stole the peoples money? Their theft from the citys treasury was estimated at $200 million.

Thomas Nast (1840-1902), Harpers Weekly, August 19, 1871.

Tweed wanted to stop the cartoons of Thomas Nast, who for four months had been drawing a scathing series attacking him. A Tammany henchman was sent to Nasts home with an offer of $100,000 to study art in Europe.

Do you think I could get two hundred thousand? asked the $5,000-a-year artist.

Well, possibly....You have a great talent.

Curious to see how high a price his talent could command, Nast told biographer Albert Bigelow Paine he bid up Tweeds emissary to a half-million dollars. Then, he cut off the negotiations. I dont think Ill go to Europe, he said. Nasts subsequent campaign against the Tweed Ring, the most incisive in the history of American political cartooning, receives greater attention later in our story. But the result sets the stage for a look at the political cartoons role in the American democratic dialogue.

On July 1, 1876, after five years of Nasts cartoons had brought Tammany Hall corruption to the attention of the city, he pictured Tweed in a prison-stripe suit holding two street urchins by their collars. The cartoon suggested that Tammany Halls attempt to reform its scandal-riddled administration had consisted of nothing more than arresting the most humble culprits, while the major criminals remained at large. It contained the familiar likeness of Tweed, who had escaped from jail and fled to Spain.

Thomas Nast, Harpers Weekly, July 1, 1876.

Soon after, a cable from Vigo, Spain, stated that Twid had been apprehended for kidnapping two American children. A Spanish official who did not read English had spotted Tweed from the Harpers Weekly cartoon, and, while he assumed the wrong crime, his identification was flawless. Legend has it that Tweeds baggage contained a complete set of the Nast cartoons. Boss Tweed was returned to New York Citys Ludlow Street Jail, where he occupied the wardens parlor at $75 a week. He died there on April 12, 1878.

Nasts crusade against the Tweed Ring remains the tale most often told to reinforce the power of the cartoon. But like many legends, the story is largely apocryphal. Despite the cartoon series enormous popularityHarpers Weekly circulation tripled in 1871it did not bring down New Yorks Democratic Party machine. Tweed actually won reelection and before long Tammany Hall was back doing business as usual. Boss Tweed was no more responsible for the pillage of city funds than his cohorts, but Thomas Nast singled him out because of his physical attributes, stretching Tweeds nose and inflating his belly until the politician took on sinister proportions and thus became a living symbol of corruption.

The mythic power of cartoons has continued to grow since Thomas Nast took on William Tweed, placing the cartoonists role in an exalted position as a standard-bearer for integrity and truth in journalism, as the voice of common sensethe boy revealing that the emperor has no clothes. The cartoonists influence may be illusory but their popularity is not. The way in which they are able to reduce a complex issue to a simple cartoon presented in a tiny boxoften no bigger than three by five incheshas delighted and mystified American readers for nearly two centuries. It has also involved them, if only vicariously, in the political process. Although todays cartoons take many different stylistic forms, they stand out amidst the information glut in newspapers, magazines, television, silently but humorously commanding us to peruse their point of view. Good cartoons are like visual rock and roll, wrote Newsday cartoonist Doug Marlette. They hit you primitively and emotionally. There is something wild and untamed about the best of them, raw and vaguely threatening like Little Richard or Jerry Lee LewisA cartoon cannot say, On the other hand, and it cannot defend itself. It is a frontal assault, a slam dunk, a cluster bomb.

Put todays cartoonists together in a room and you will find a sea of 200 casually clad white males, their ranks interrupted with only an occasional flash of skirt or alternate skin tone. Most cheerfully admit to being social misfits in their early days: a stutterer, nerd, or general adolescent neer-do-well who used his or her quick-draw humor to win friends and gain notoriety. As a child, recalls cartoonist Jules Feiffer, the only thing I wanted to be was grown up. Because I was a terrible flop as a child. You cannot be a successful boy in America if you cannot throw or catch a ball. Many never grew up. Mike Peters of the