Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest

"A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion,"Harper’s Weekly, January 15, 1870, p.48. Wood engraving The donkey first appeared as a symbol for the Democratic Party in the 1830s when the Democrat Andrew Jackson was President. The donkey continued in American political commentary as a symbol for the Democratic Party thereafter. Thomas Nast built upon this legacy and used his extraordinary skill to amplify it. For a time, the rooster also served as the symbol of the Democratic Party, but gradually the donkey replaced it in popular usage after the 1880s. Nast first used the donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party in "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" published January 15, 1870, in Harper's Weekly to comment on Northern Democrats (nicknamed Copperheads) dealings with Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War.

"The Off Year," Harper's Weekly, November17, 1877, cover. Wood engraving The elephant has been a symbol of strength since Roman times. Its first use by the Republican Party is believed to date from a printer’s cut (pre-made pictures kept ready to use as illustrations when needed) of an elephant used by an Illinois newspaper during Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign. Thomas Nast was a staunch Republican, and he deliberately chose the elephant as a symbol for his own Party because of the animal’s great size, intelligence, strength, and dignity. It first appeared in his November 7, 1874 cartoon, “The Third Term Panic,” which was a comment on fears that Grant would run for a third term as President that led some Republicans to vote with the Democrats. Nast continued using the elephant thereafter, and gradually it became the Republican icon as it was adopted by other cartoonists.

Party Symbols