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CHAPTER NINE: Access and Authority
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197 C H A P T E R N I N E Access and Authority If the Morristown house cemented Nast’s status as a mature cartoonist— secure in his annual contract, lauded by his political party, and happy in his family life—it also served as a dividing line of sorts. From 1873 forward, Nast enjoyed a position of access and authority from which he could comment on practically any topic he liked. So in the years following Grant’s reelection , Nast addressed a variety of topics. Unsurprisingly, given the financial crisis of 1873, fiscal policy and the economic status of the nation caught his eye. Anti-Catholic, sometimes antipapal, cartoons appeared often. Nast’s Christmas drawings, popularized during the war, became a staple. Still intensely partisan, he often worked on many projects at once. Illustration , Nast’s Almanac, and lecturing had all contributed to Nast’s prosperity. They also made his working life more complicated. But the mid-1870s were the halcyon days of Nast’s career, and his work shows that his curious mind sought ideas everywhere. Because no single crusade occupied Nast’s pencil, the period between the fall of 1873 and the presidential election of 1876 offers a chance to examine Nast’s work on a thematic basis. He worked on a variety of concepts, and his work featured many of his most common artistic techniques. Fiscal policy, anti-Catholicism, Santa Claus, and the defense of Grant against charges of “Caesarism” all moved Nast to draw. An examination of each of these topics shows how widely Nast observed American culture and politics. It also helps to demonstrate the extent to which his influence had grown since his first successes in the 1860s. The economic crisis in 1873 began with the failure of the bank Jay Cooke and Company in September. A major financing source for railroads, and a backer of the new Northern Pacific Railroad, Cooke’s firm was, in modern parlance, “too big to fail.” But fail it did. And that failure triggered a cascade of economic distress, including a massive increase in unemployment, the failure of railroad companies, and trouble on Wall Street.1 President Grant, whatever his strengths as a leader of men, seemed unable to manage the crisis. For Nast, the initial question was who to blame. On October 11, 198Access and Authority Nast drew Uncle Sam warning bankers about their use of Treasury dollars. In another cartoon that week, he portrayed the Wall Street panic as a “general ‘bust up’ in the ‘street,’” with various industries colliding catastrophically . The following week Grant had to pull Columbia from the rubble of Wall Street.2 Fiscal policy, one aspect of the federal response to the crisis, attracted Nast’s commentary. An effort to expand the money supply in response to the panic led Congress to pass the inflation bill in 1874. President Grant, who believed the nation’s currency should be backed by gold, vetoed the bill. Republicans were divided between those who favored the bill for its potential to enhance economic activity among farmers, especially in the West, and those who worried about its effect on the United States’ ability to do business overseas. Nast, as always, supported the president. He celebrated Grant’s veto of the bill, then likened inflation to lying.3 Republican advocates of the greenback objected to Nast’s work. According to Paine, John Logan of Illinois complained that Nast lacked the knowledge and influence to critique the government. N. P. Chipman replied in terms calculated to soothe and amuse. “It is a distinction to be caricatured by Nast,” Chipman pointed out, and “just think what it would be to be indicated by a tag.” Chipman referred to Nast’s dismissive treatment of B. Gratz Brown, whose run for the vice presidency Nast reduced to a joke by portraying Brown as a tag on Horace Greeley’s characteristic long overcoat. In other words, Chipman told Logan, it was better to be Nast’s target than to be so insignificant as to be ignored.4 The inflation cartoons generated so much heat that Harper’s felt obliged to defend its cartoonist. Harper’s argued that cartooning was an entirely legitimate avenue for political criticism. “Its object,” the paper insisted, “is not merely to raise a laugh, but to tell a serious truth humorously.” The objections of certain men to Nast’s caricatures of them only demonstrated their ignorance of the medium. If Nast believed that inflation “would...