Cities see political corruption from "Bosses"

William Marcy "Boss" Tweed was the most notorious city boss. As the cities continued to grow, there was a need to create public facilities and services for the city. Tweed was incharge of New York's Democratic political party. He used bribery and graft to hold power in the city. His abuse of power lead to demands for reform, and Tweed fell from power in 1871. The text tells us that Thomas Nast was a cartoonist who depicted Tweed for the crook he was in the pages of Harper's Weekly. These cartoons spread messages to Americans both literate and illiterate. I've posted some below to give a visual of the political messages being sent across to the rest of American workers during the nineteenth century.