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Out of the Ruins
It was President Ulysses S Grant's bad fortune to have been at the seat of power during the Panic of 1873, a worldwide event that triggered one of this country's worst economic downturns -- a five-year depression. Fortunately, however, Thomas Nast, the era's most satirical caricaturist, was Grant's close friend. Nast supported the administration in times of crisis, as revealed in this cartoon, which appeared on the cover of the October 18, 1873, issue of Harper's Weekly. Grant is depicted as a gallant chief of police helping the maiden Columbia out of the fallen rubble that is labeled Wall Street. Although the worst of the depression was still to come, Nast targeted the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange, which closed its doors the last ten days of September. The Grant administration took the immediate stopgap measure of releasing fifty million dollars into the stricken economy.
Thomas Nast, 1873 |