Grave Regrets

Description

The ghost of a jailed Boss Tweed looks at James G. Blaine, the Republican opponent of the Democratic Grover Cleveland, and wishes he was as big of a “Boss” as Blaine. Perhaps if he had the support and endorsements, Tweed could have run for president. Nast implies that Blaine is as politically corrupt as Tweed, who Nast relentlessly worked to bring down in the 1870s. Linking these two men was an attack by Nast on Blaine. Blaine sits, looking at Tweed as if staring into a mirror. Blaine continues Tweed's dishonest ways and was endorsed by lawyer, Robert Ingersoll. Ingersoll was infamous in Nast’s eyes for defending corrupt politicians and businesspeople. Nast would attack James Blaine in many of the campaign’s political cartoons because of Blaine’s connections to railroad company scandals.

Object Information

Date Created:

September 27, 1884

Local ID:

TN2010.868

Collection:

Collection of Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Citation:

Thomas Nast (1840-1902), "Grave Regrets", Harper's Weekly, September 27, 1884, TN2010.868

Creator(s):

Thomas Nast

Classification:

Engraving

Rights:

Public Domain

Appears In

Resource Kit

The 22nd and 24th President: Thomas Nast Illustrates Grover Cleveland

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He was the only President to serve non-consecutive terms (1885–1889 and 1893–1897), up until this year when President Donald Trump won the office for a second time. In 1884 Nast, along with Harper’s Weekly editor George Curtis, broke with the Republican Party to support the Democratic Candidate Grover Cleveland. This Resource Kit explores Nast's illustrations in support of the first two-term President serving non-consecutive terms, his switch from a Republican to a Democrat, and Nast's waning influence as a political cartoonist.

Created by: Macculloch Hall Historical Museum