Blessed with their various gifts and talents, many Americans have influenced the future course or our nation's history. Among those who have done so, Thomas Nast has proved to be one of them by the use of his influences as a political cartoonist. Throughout the course of his career, he is thought to have become far more than a successful political cartoonist- he had become a presence, an institution. His cartoons chronicled the American scene from the Civil War period to the turn of the century. They highlighted every major national event and issue, the political process, elections, and scandal in the government. The American scene was perfect in subject matter for Nast. The country was fast becoming an industrial nation; railroads were spreading, factories were being built, and cities were fast becoming crowded with immigrants that supplied cheap labor. Scandal was everywhere. Elections were being rigged and Thomas Nast was there to catch and display all of it.
             Thomas Nast was born on September 27, 1840 in Landau, Germany. Following the tradition of thousands that immigrated to America, young Nast, his sister, and his mother came to the United States in 1846 while his father followed four years later.1 It was difficult enough for a 15-year-old to get a job but it was more difficult since Thomas could not read or write. The only skill he had to offer was his ability to draw what he saw. His first job that he got through continuous persistence was working as an illustrator for Leslie's Weekly. It was during his first three years of employment there that Thomas Nast drew his first cartoon attacking civic corruption, a theme that was to bring him fame in later years.2 In the spring of 1862; Thomas joined the staff of Harper's Weekly Magazine as a war correspondent. However, it was his drawings that attracted the most attention and aroused Northern Patriotic fervor to such a note that by the wars end Thomas Nast w...