One hundred forty years ago, Harperâ??s Weeklyâ??s cartoonist of genius, Thomas Nast, sired the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant into ridicule. In an environment of flourishing editorial cartoons, Nastâ??s ready vocabulary of political symbols caught on. Within a decade the donkey and elephant had evolved from the focal points of partisan mockery into the popular mascots they are today.
Nastâ??s donkey (or â??jackassâ? as it was known then) first appeared in Harperâ??s Weekly on January 15, 1870, kicking a dead lion. Published barely a month after the sudden death of Lincolnâ??s former Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the cartoon was a scathing invective against the Democratic, â??Copperheadâ? press (named for its snakeish insidiousness), which was abusing Stantonâ??s memory. Nastâ??s cartoon, entitled, â??A live jackass kicking a dead lion,â? suggested the reverse of the old proverb, â??A live ass is better than a dead lion.â?
The Republican elephant debuted on November 7, 1874â??three days after the Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives for the first time after the Civil War. A staunch Republican, Nast derided his fellows, depicting them as the panicked elephant stampeding towards a pit in its flight from a jackass dressed in a lionskin. The implication was that the New York Herald (the jackass) had flustered Republican voters with its allegation that President Ulysses S. Grant was a modern Caesar, scheming for a third term.
Nast was not the first to use either the Democratic jackass or the Republican elephantâ??the former had appeared as a popular symbol during Andrew Jacksonâ??s 1828 campaign; the latter on a few campaign posters, but probably never to Nastâ??s knowledge. Earlier representations lacked a regular, national readership to recognize recurring symbols. Neither had they evinced Nastâ??s celebrated artistry or editorial bite.
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