Thomas Nast has been called the greatest political cartoonist of all time. He was much more than that. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant attributed his presidential victory in the 1868 campaign "to the sword of (Indian-fighting Gen. Phil) Sheridan and the pencil of Nast." Nast could smite the most powerful titans with a single stroke of that pencil. New York's "Boss" Tweed would attest to this. He went to prison and died there because of Nast. So would Horace Greeley who saw his efforts to ascend the presidency flustered by Nast and his vituperative cartoons. But above his political tour de force, Nast gave us four memorable and immortal images: the Democratic donkey, the Republican elephant, Santa Claus and Uncle Sam. [1,366-word Titans of Fortune article with illustrations]
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