History of the New York, Essay Example

The above piece on the “game of fox and geese” was created by Thomas Nast on 29^th March 1873. While creating this piece of cartoon work, Thomas Nash had the corrupt justice system in mind. His main objective was to point out the major irregularities found within the system and how the minorities suffered under the corrupt New York’s legal system. In the image, the fox lawyer seems to dominate the courtroom through the manner in which he handles the case at hand. The image depicts the lawyer doing a number of things to intimidate the geese who are on the opposing side of the case. The surrounding environment seems to favor the Fox and the others since the court has provided them with the various tools to be used against the opponents in their favor.

In the picture, the fox lawyer seems to throw dust from a box within the courtroom marked “Dust” into the eyes of the geese jurors. The dust seems to have completely blinded the geese jurors. The fox also rests the left hand on a document named, “the art of mystifying by Petti- Fogger.” Just right in front of the Fox lawyer is a waste paper basket. The waste paper basket contains two documents, namely justice and right. Behind the fox is a large dog named the court clerk. At the upper left corner, there is a small dog who is a judge. The small dog looks timidly. Just behind the judge is a shield with the scale of justice with certain words inscribed on it. The words are, “Justice gone to the dogs”. After that there is a sign on the wall reading, “Murder is committed accidentally on purpose” and “Bribery and corruption practiced by those of the purest motives.” The above caption seems to draw directly from the Langbein, Lerner, and Smith, on the history of common law 521.  It all points out the manner in which justice is taken to the dogs.

The immediate context for this drawing by Thomas was during the Ring’s fall.  During this time, the states and the municipal elections were drawing close.  The New York City Attorney General mandated an elite lawyer, Charles O’Connor, to raise legal actions against the Ring. O’Connor and the team proceeded with the case and within a week had arrested Tweed, who was charged with the crime of defrauding the New York City $6.3 million. The Erie Railway president J. Gould, however, placed a $1million bond to prevent Tweed from going to prison.

Despite the fact that Tweed retained his Senate seat, the states and assemblymen, aldermen, and the senators worked hard to remove the Ring supporters from the office. Tweet, therefore, had to resign his position as the Public Works commissioner, director of the Erie Railways Corporation and the Grand Sachem of the Tammany Hall. After which he settled to wait for legal actions that were to be obtained through the court system.

The legal proceedings that took place seemed to be frustrating and drawn out to fiery reformers such as Thomas Nast. The grand juries relatively approved various indictments against Tweed. Nearly a year after his political downfall, Tweed came back on trial with a 220 counts of failing to audit as well as the abuse of public position. This trial engaged elite lawyers and went on for several days. The prosecution had two key witnesses, Samuel Tilden, who managed to trace the money right from the city taxes to Tweed bank accounts.  The other witness was Andrew Garvey, who disclosed Rings methods of graft.

The defense ensured that only a few witnesses appeared in the case, and Field expertly argued that no evidence points towards the fact that Tweed had deliberately stolen the money. There were a deliberation and the next day jurors declared their inability to reach a verdict. Prosecutors contemplated that most of the jurors seemed to have been bribed. Tweed then confidently declared that a jury would never convict him.  The game of Fox and Geese was Nast’s way of depicting the unjust manner with which the trials were conducted and a denigration of the adversarial legal system. Nast highly condemned the ability of lawyer’s rhetoric to lead the juries easily astray.

Nast seemed to perceive the sitting jury as the geese that needed protection from the Fox, who were the lawyers. This was a protection that the weak trial judges in the American courts could not provide. The legal system, thus seemed impotent in punishing the Ring members. Despite the various indictments levied against them, Connoly and Sweeny seemed to have placed themselves higher above the New York law in Europe. The historical events that one needs to know are the fall of the Ring where the directors were subjected to a number of trials for allegedly stealing $6.3 million from the treasury.

From the piece, a number of things can be deduced from the New York City history. One such is the ability of the legal system to bring justice to the citizens. It depicts the manner in which lawyers, can easily manipulate the jury and unjustly get away. Tweed’s declaration that a Jury can never convict him is a sign that the seemingly favored the people within the political class. The weak and feeble judges seem to be helpless in ensuring that justice took its course. The elite class in New York City, therefore, seems to earn a lot of protection from the legal system. This is a depiction of the various historical events that have been studied in class. Interpretation seems right and does not imply any new meaning to the cartoon work.

The point of view of the piece source depicts criticism against the legal system, and its inability to handle sufficiently graft cases. Thomas Nast laid sharp criticism on the legal system, especially the jury who seemed to have been bribed at the Tweed case. Due to the jury’s inability to reach deliberation, the judges found themselves releasing Tweed, whom various major evidence pointed out his involvement in the graft. Moreover, the under presentation of witnesses was also seen as a key obstacle to the provision of justice. After defrauding the city of $6.3 million, the members of the Ring like Tweed still managed to engage competent lawyers who manipulated the evidence and presented the corrupt leaders as innocent persons. Nonetheless, activists such as Thomas Nast seemed optimistic that the legal system would transform, and get better resources to tackle such cases.

Thomas Nast’s seems to have achieved his major objective of depicting the legal system of unjust and incapable of bringing justice to the people of the elite political class. The fox lawyer represented Field, who through the petite-Fogger tactics managed to manipulate the court into believing that Tweed was innocent. Each element in the picture seemed to have perfectly achieved the intended objective. The dust poured at the jury seems to depict bribes that the jury members were offered. Such bribes prevented them from fair deliberation of the case facts. The fox also rests the left hand on a document named, “the art of mystifying by Petti- Fogger.” This refers to the tactics that the lawyer used in manipulating the jury into believing that Tweet was innocent and was not directly involved in the stealing of the money, despite the tracing of the money from the treasury to his personal bank account.

The dog judges, also seem to represent the legal system that works with the other individuals within the legal system. Dogs and Fox are closely related, thus, can conspire against other weak parties who are the geese. The dogs represent the judges and the fox the lawyers. The Geese represent the weak, helpless, and inexperienced jury, which can be easily manipulated to win the case. Moreover, the shield with the scale of justice seems to represent the integrity of the legal system. However,  a close look at the writings on it reveal a different message. This means that the legal system, though looking from a distance is highly corrupted and incapable of bringing justice. The combination of the picture elements seems to have perfectly achieved the objective of the writing. The message Thomas intended to communicate seem to have been seamlessly passed across.

Work Cited

Nast, Thomas, and Hill T. N. Saint. Cartoons and Illustrations. New York, NY: Dover, 1974. Print.