The late 19th century, also known as the Gilded Age, was notorious for the immense amount of corruption within the American government, which led to the publishment of many political cartoons that portrayed this corruption. Some believe that these cartoons had little to no impact on exposing the corruption; however, due to the their coherence, political cartoons played a huge role in exposing the problems with government officials and with capitalism. Therefore, the publishment of political cartoons made a huge impact on how Americans became conscious of this corruption.
During this era, political cartoonists, such as Thomas Nast, depicted political figures, such as Boss Tweed, as imperialistic. Tweed had qualities that resembled more of a tyrant rather than a leader in a republic. Document B (“The Tammany Tiger”) shows how Tweed makes no effort to save what’s left of the idea of a republic, for he is corrupt and abuses his powers as a government official. Another document that depicts this is Document E (“Under the Thumb”), which is another one of Nast’s works.
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Also, the people in power possessed gluttonous qualities. Tweed serves as an example of someone who was greedy when it came to money, and did whatever it took to obtain it. Document A (“Boss Tweed as Moneybag”) depicts Tweed with a bag of money as a head, which shows how he let money control his actions as a person with power. This is also shown in Document G (“New York City’s Courthouse”); it shows how Tweed gained his wealth through stealing the public’s money. Once these cartoons were published, citizens became well-informed about the corruption of their government. As a whole, political cartoons can heavily influence society in multiple ways. The press has always expressed their views/opinions about politics in clever ways, and these cartoons are only one of
The Gilded Age was the period through 1868 to 1896 that came to be during Ulysses S. Grant’s presidency. This period introduced many highlights for instance, high voter turnouts and growth in entrepreneurship with names like Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt dominating the business world. However, it was disgusted with many faults, for example, unethical political strategies like patronage and inhumane working conditions. Many would argue that the industrial developments during the Gilded Age brought many negative effects onto american society the growth of unethical business practices like monopolies. However, due to the increase of national wealth through the emergence of entrepreneurship in steel and shipping industries along with
The political cartoon of Boss Tweed by Thomas Nast is the one I picked. The cartoon, titled "Boss Tweed Caricature," was created largely to draw attention to Boss Tweed's unlawful meddling in the political system. With the authority he was given, Boss Tweed broke several rules, stole a lot of money from the public, gave people jobs they didn't deserve, and hired people with the intention of gaining him more support. Boss Tweed was the subject of several cartoons by Thomas Nast, but this one in particular was meant to draw attention to how much control he had over the political system and how he was abusing it to manipulate the elections. I think Thomas Nast had a valid point when he said that he was acting selfishly and not for the proper reasons
He received the nickname William “Boss” Tweed for his role in the organization. At this point, they had been stealing money from the courthouse budget for over twelve years and it was becoming harder and harder to disguise their crimes. All of this was going on at the peak of the Civil War when men were needed and Lincoln created a draft for new soldiers. All men in government positions were excluded and the rich could pay their way out of it with $300. This left only the poor immigrants who could not afford the $300 payment.
The Tweed Ring’s existence came into light between 1866 and 1871, and it begins when William ‘The Boss’ Tweed and his company made it so that all bills to the city would be at least fifty percent fraudulent, later raised to eighty five percent. The affluence went to William ‘The Boss’ Tweed, the city financial officer, the county treasurer, and the mayor. Furthermore, twenty percent of the share would go into bribing officials and businessmen, which led to a diverse following; William ‘The Boss’ Tweed loved to keep them around, and in order to maintain this regime, he ‘provided for all’. Unfortunately, Tweed was very sufficient in keeping up this scam, by fooling even the ‘best’ people by using his silver tongue and having a controllable idiosyncrasy. Being the amazing nineteenth-century
When Mark Twain first spoke about the early 19th century era, he gave it the name the “Gilded Age.” Twain’s explanation for this name was; that the period was “glittering on the surface but corrupt underneath.” In explanation, the economy was increased by over 400% by new business practices, but below the surface there was corruption and fraud, between business owners and government officials. Big businesses impacted the economy by, creating new business practices, but the government was affected by bribery, fraud, and political machines, America responded by having labor strikes.
During the history of New York, there is the history of Tammany Hall founded in 1789 in opposition to the Federalist Party, and the main goal of this organization was to fight against the Federalist Party as Antifederalists. The Federalist Party’s main goal was to ratify the constitution and divide the power between the national government and the state government, so, the Tammany Hall was created to fight against the goal of the Federalist Party. Also, from 1890s to 1934, Tammany Hall became famous due charges of corruption against the leader William M. Boss Tweed, better known as “Boss”. Although this organization was guilty of some corruption cases, it succeeded because it helped poor people and because it never lost touch with its people;
A changing culture from the late 1870’s through 1900 became known as the Gilded Age. The Gilded Age was first used by Mark Twain in his book known as “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today”. The Gilded Age is known as a time where corruption and bad living conditions occurred on the inside of the area, but on the outside everything seemed strong and powerful, especially to other immigrants. A lot of people migrated from other countries to become part of what they thought was a perfect society, but when they arrived they realized how terrible everyone was treated and how bad the government ran.
During the Gilded Age, very few politicians were responsible for the changes happening across the country. The Presidency had no power on influence over society, and congress was drowning in corruption. Economics:
Corporate greedy and corrupt politicians were specific problems and injustices that were present in American life during the late 1800s and early 1900s however these were addressed during the progressive era with laws and regulations. Throughout the gilded era corrupt politicians and corporate greedy allowed the upper class and businessmen to take advantage of the working class. This means that a majority of the population were hurt during the gilded age whereas a small percentage benefitted. As seen in document 1, living conditions were crowded, dirty, and unsafe.
During the 1860’s, there was tremendous tension between immigrants and Americans in the United States. To portray this “tension”, a political cartoon that was drawn by an unknown cartoonist to depict that America’s culture was in danger. This political cartoon is called “The Great Fear of the Period That Uncle Sam May be Swallowed by Foreigners: The Problem Solved” and was published in San Francisco, California by White & Bauer. The central goal for publishing this cartoon was to bring fear among the Americans, and therefore blame the immigrants.
While in "Gilded Age", all levels of government had corruption, graft public money for their own. One of the most notorious New York City Boss Tweed William M. Tweed, his wealth has more than $25 million in 1871, all was dirty money. During the period he served as mayor of New York, the city requires all public officials to report false, false ratio as high as 85%. He presided over the construction of the New York county government office buildings, 40 chairs and 3 tables then discount about $179000, but a thermometer was quoted $7500. According to statistics, in 1860 ~ 1900, American municipal debt by $200 million soared to $1.4 billion, most of them are the City boss and partisans pocketed.
During the time of the Gilded Age the governemnt (politicians) was very corrupt. Everything they did was for their own gain. " At the national level, many lawmakers supported bills aiding companies in which they had invested money or from which they received stock or salaries," (pg. 617). This quote shows that the governments lawmakers did things for their own gain intead of the good of the people.
The decade between 1890 and 1900 expressed a crucial time in the United States of America’s history. Many people experienced struggles throughout this time while others prospered. Mark Twain suggested that despite the significant achievements of the United States, Americans experienced poverty. This statement is an accurate description of the lively hood people experienced in their daily lives during the Gilded Age whether it was positive or negative. Many people during this time period focused on the positive outcomes that resulted from the Gilded Age such as new inventions, the gospel of wealth, additions of land to the country, urbanization, and middle-class improvements.
The political event being discussed in this cartoon is the aftermath of the attack of the Twin Towers in New York City on the morning of September 9th 2001 carried out by the terrorist group Al-Qaeda. During this day two planes were hijacked and flown into the towers, a third plane attacked the Pentagon and the fourth landed on empty ground in Pennsylvania. The attacks cost the lives of over three thousand American lives including first responders. This unforgettable day changed the way the United States of America became as a country; more security protocols were taken into action, and the former President Bush decided to start The War on Terrorism a month later on the day of October 7th. President Bush 's main goal was to take out Al-Qaeda and also it be known on a televised address to a joint session of congress that the War on Terror ' 'will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated."
This cartoon provokes sectarianism in the Arab world and make fun of it; This will make Sectarian individuals feel for their sectarianism in a way that is not so obvious. Sectarianism has not always been in the Arab world but it come in the 19th century with western colonization that used the logic divide and rule to conquer the people. Usually sectarianism and bigotry are strategies used to divide the nation and to wake any ethnics and religious differences and make them conscious about it. In some Arab countries there is racism and hate among some religious sets such as Christians, Muslim groups like Sunnis, Shiites, Alawites and Druze and others. In this cartoon, the cartoonist remarks on sectarianism.