Columbia between thieves and scandal (Nast cartoon, 1872)

A classical Columbia—white-gowned, arms crossed protectively—stands between two hostile arches. At left, beneath SCHOOL FOR THIEVES, Boss Tweed and three confederates paw a bulging money-bag; at right, beneath SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL, identifiable Liberal Republicans including Carl Schurz and Horace Greeley gesture and whisper in a conspiratorial knot. A central pillar bears the damning equation: 1864—Anything to beat A. Lincoln / 1872—Anything to beat U.S. Grant, yoking the Liberal Republican bolt to Copperhead disloyalty. The caption quotes Othello on reputation—"the immediate jewel" of the soul—framing both factions as thieves of national good name. Nast's argument is blunt: opportunism, not principle, unites Tammany corruptionists and respectable reformers alike, and Columbia—the Republic's honor—stands endangered by both.