The impact of the political cartoonist Thomas Nast has had a positive impact on the American political process. Thomas Nast has been called the “Father of the American cartoon”. President Abraham Lincoln called him “our best recruiting sergeant” because Nast drew pictures of battlefields in border and southern states. He helped bring down William Marcy “Boss” Tweed who was leading a corrupt corporation. He played an important role in Ulysses Grants election, Grover Cleveland and Ruthford B. Hayes election. He helped promote some recognizable symbols today like, the modern Santa Claus, the republican elephant, democrat donkey, Tammany hall tiger, Columbia, and uncle Sam., (Thomas Nast did not create all of the figures listed but he did promote them). He was able to help stop the corruption of some corporations through pictures. Anyone can look at a picture with a message and can, either agree or disagree with others. An artist can rally lots of people to their cause and create a lasting impact. Thomas Nast had a very positive impact that inspired others to also create political cartoons.
An article written by Michael Gonchar on the Learning Network from the New York Times talks about the importance of political cartoons in America. It talks about how political cartoons can change the course of history. This ties in with Thomas Nast because he is called the “Father of the American cartoon” and has greatly influenced how cartoonists today do their work. Another article written by Morton Keller called “The World of Thomas Nast” talks about all of his notable accomplishments and how some of them are seen today. Now none are obvious since political cartoons are not something that people deeply analyze or talk about. It mentions how he helped bring down the “Tweed Ring”. The final article I found was written by Robert Duvall and it talks about Nast’s life and achievements and importance at the time. The importance can be traced to today’s society in some ways, and shows even more how important Nast was at the time and now. Nast had a truly positive impact on our society by inspiring other cartoonists to invoke change through their cartoons. That is something truly positive that all started with the help of Nast.
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