Boss Tweed Under The Thumb

The caption says.

Boss tweed under the thumb. Nast depicts new york corruption with new york under tweed s thumb. This cartoon depicts new york under the thumb of tweed who is the boss there. Under the thumb the boss well what are you going to do about it by the boss i assume he means boss tweed but if could explain the picture it would be much appreciated. Caricatures cartoonist giant thumb harper s weekly kthomasnast new york corruption political cartoons thomas nast tweed.

Boss tweed is chiefly remembered for the cronyism of his tammany hall political machine through which he bilked the city of new york of massive sums of money. Oysters tenderloin and duck. He didn t smoke and barely drank but he always had fine cigars and whiskey for his friends. Adding well what are you going to do about it supposedly a quote from tweed himself shows that he knows what he is doing and knows that he can remove any threats he sees fit.

Boss tweed was living the good life at the expense of the city and those he placed under his thumb. William magear tweed 3 april 1823 12 april 1878 known as boss tweed and often erroneously referred to as william marcy tweed was an american politician and political boss of tammany hall who became an icon of urban political machines. In the cartoon we see the tweed has the city under his thumb meaning he is in complete control.