A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to "Blow Over" — "Let Us Prey"

Thomas Nast draws Boss Tweed's Tammany ring as literal vultures hunched on a rocky ledge while lightning splits the sky above them. The four figures — William Tweed (enormous, dominating the center), Peter Sweeny, Richard Connolly, and Mayor A. Oakey Hall (wearing his trademark pince-nez) — are rendered as hybrid human-bird creatures with men's faces on vultures' bodies. Beneath their talons lie the picked-over carcasses labeled with the spoils of New York City: taxpayer funds, justice, the city itself. The double caption — "Blow Over" and "Let Us Prey" — frames the ring as patient predators banking on public amnesia. The cartoon appeared as the New York Times was publishing the Tweed ring's stolen ledgers, and Nast's sustained campaign helped drive Tweed's arrest within months.