The Tweed Ring

The Tweed Ring was composed of William Marcy Tweed and his fellow goons. They conned New York City taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars in the mid to late 19th century. Little did they know, they would be exposed by a series of political cartoons. First in Harper's by Thomas Nast, then in The New York Times through print. The joint bashing by two of America's most respected journals led to the eventual downfall of The Tweed Ring. Thomas Nast conveyed a serious amount of courage when he made the following:

Thomas Nast [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons


William Marcy Tweed was born in New York City in 1823. During his forties, he ascended the political ladder by joining Tammany Hall, an influential political group. Soon he held many major positions in public office and maintained his status by paying people off, amassing cronies, and providing massive kickbacks from taxpayer dollars. Tweed himself was known to spend a plethora of money. In addition, he held sway over the media by hiring reporters to spread good news about him and his gang. In fact, the gang was doing the opposite and nobody had the courage to stand up to them. Even if somebody had stood up to him, this would have upset other New Yorkers who recognized that Tweed was also very generous with his stolen money and helped push New York to great heights of business and industrial prominence, as shown in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YildL_ilQFY

This video is a clip from the Ric Burns documentary about New York.

Thomas Nast was born in Germany in 1840. His family came to America in 1846 and he soon developed an aptitude for artwork. In his early twenties, Nast joined Harper's as a political cartoonist. His drawings and social commentary appealed especially with with the common working folks who read the magazine. Nast's work is incredibly famous, even today. Take, for example, the portrayal of Democrats and Republicans as a donkey and an elephant, respectively, or, for the more sentimental... check out this depiction of Santa Clause:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A1881_0101_tnast_santa_200.jpg

Ulysses S. Grant credited Nast's work with ending the Civil War and even Araham Lincoln acknowledged his talent for arousing enthusiasm around political topics. Nast helped to create a caricature of William Marcy Tweed as Boss Tweed, a fat,  greedy and overly rich tyrant.

Up until the 1870s, the New York Times had been in the pocket of Tweed, receiving money through the connection of one of it Board Directors to the Tweed Ring. Not long after this Board Director died did The Times start running anti-Tweed material. Together, The Times and Harper's lambasted Tweed for his behavior. Tweed offered Nast a bribe to relocate to Europe to study art, but Nast refused. Then, Tweed tried to intimidate Nast into stopping his art, but that didn't work either. Tweed finally found an outlet for his anger by punishing Harper's publishing company, making sure that all of their textbooks were destroyed and that no school in the entire district used them. However, Tweed was never able to crush the behemoth New York Times and they, along with Thomas Nast, continued the assault on him.

The Times received insider information and exposed, in great detail, the corruption of Tweed and his cronies. They were relentless in their attacks on him, calling him slanderous names and launching accusations at him left and right. Soon, the Times story was picked up by other news outlets. Those who received lavish funds from the Tweed crew were critical, but the majority of respected journals nationwide supported the crusade of the Times. And public opinion showed growing support for the position the newspaper held. At the same time, approval of Tweed plummeted.

(That looks like Paul Karlich. Way to go, to the library, buddy, with a gun!!! ) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABooks_Wanted_logo_from_Harper's_Magazine_December_1898_issue.jpg

The Times went very far in their effort to reach the masses and communicate the great evil done by the Tweed Ring. That said, Thomas Nast's work was far more effective at reaching this population and his images, which became increasingly poignant and even violent, had an ever greater effect on his audience. Nast's work, along with a pointed editorial in the Times were largely influential in the defeat of Nast and his political allies in the city election of 1871.

Nast continued to haunt Tweed, even years after he was arrested. When Tweed escaped to Spain, it was a drawing by Nast that helped local police capture him. Tweed was deported to New York where he died in jail in 1878 at the age of 55. Harper's and the Times in general, and Nast in particular, were credited long after with wresting control of all three branches of government in New York City from the hands of one William Marcy Tweed.

This is a journey into sound!!!!!!!!!