and he wanted to stop it, but george william curtis, his editor, took the position, which was taken byany members of the intellectual elite and social elite of the northeast at that time, that they had basically tried to intervene, and it had been a failure and that it was time to turn their attention to something else. and nast didn't want to do it, and they forced him to shut up. the reason they were able to do it is because the person who had been the protective hand for nast was gone. and so it's kind of tragic because that was the moment of all the moments that the united states really needed him. i mean, he's famous for bringing down the tweed ring. but the tweed ring was just new york city. this was a national electoral crisis. and in that moment one of the most powerful voices in american politics was basically silenced because an internal dispute at his newspaper over whether or not he should be able to say what he thought, didn't go his way. >> okay. so tweed drew for harper's but he drew for other outlets as well. >> nast, yes, he drew for harper's. he had a contract with "h

question was litigated in a bunch of letters back and forth between nast and nests editor george william curtis, who was the sort of person who had a lot of coffee dates with senators. um nests actual boss fletcher harper the man who was the owner and operator a publisher of harper's weekly his position was we're not in the business of making senators happy. we're in the business seeing on american politics and if senator schertz is unhappy, i guess that's his problem. and so nast was vindicated in this moment, but he said openly in conversations he had for a while. he engaged in a really popular form of lecture not unlike what we're doing tonight the lyceum circuit in which people who were prominent would tour the country giving talks and given that there wasn't a ton to do in the evening in the 19th century, especially in the winter time, which was the season for these kinds of talks. and if those of you who are familiar with the chautauqua series, that's the same thing folks like thomas nest would show up in your town and they would give a lecture and everyone would go and pay a couple of do