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