What Are You Going to Do About It?

Thomas Nast's editorial cartoon deploys animal symbolism as political argument: a snarling tiger labeled "Tammany" is being whitewashed by Democratic candidate Horace Greeley, while a figure representing "Old Honesty" stands above with a sign declaring reform. The composition—figures arranged across the page with integrated text and caricature—exemplifies the visual rhetoric that shaped American political cartooning. Nast's savage beast, barely concealed by cosmetic brushwork, makes a direct visual argument: corruption cannot be hidden, only temporarily painted over. This work established the recurring animal-as-political-actor vocabulary that would dominate newspaper commentary for generations.