The origin of the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party occurred in 1874 after a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in the popular New York newspaper, “Harper’s Weekly.” It was during the congressional elections of that year when Nast, a renowned Republican satirist, drew a picture of the Democratic donkey dressed in a lion’s skin frightening away all the animals except one, an elephant that Nast dubbed “the Republican vote.” The cartoon was an instant hit with Republicans who quickly adopted the mighty animal as the party’s emblem.
The Democratic donkey was also popularized by Nast in his cartoons, but its genesis dated back to the presidential elections of 1828 in which the National Republican Party labeled Democrat Andrew Jackson as a jackass. “Old Hickory,” however, turned the slur against his opponents by adopting the the image of a feisty, stubborn donkey for his own campaign posters, and went on to swamp President John Quincy Adams by winning over 56 per cent of the popular vote. Both party symbols have continued to the present day, with the ebullient equine still braying its opposition to the ponderous pachyderm.
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