When the Democratic Party gathered for its 2008 convening in Denver , Colorado , alive donkey named Mordecaiwas there to serve as the first prescribed hot mascot in the history of the Democratic Party . The " official ' asscot , " as his owner Curtis Imrie name him , did n’t fork out a memorable computer address to the company likeBarack Obamadid . But his presence supply a swooning - hearted minute at theDemocratic National Convention(DNC ) .
The Republican Party , however , has never had a hot elephant at one of its conventions . But a Equus asinus being at the 2008 DNC raises a question . Where did these two symbol hail from ? Why do the Democrats prefer to assort themselves with an frequently - make fun member of the horse kinsfolk ? And how did the Republicans come to be map by an ivory - tusked pachyderm ?
The origins of these two iconic political symbol were created by mark German - born political cartoonist Thomas Nast , whose lottery also help create modernistic effigy ofUncle Samand Santa Claus . Nast moved to New York City when he was 6 years one-time and displayed artistic power at an other age .
Nast join the faculty of Harper ’s Weekly in 1862 . By the time he left in 1886 , he had not only pigeonhole the elephant and donkey as political party symbolisation , he ’d also become one of the most influential cartoonist in American history . By the meter he used the donkey as a Democratic Party symbolic representation , Nast was already a household name . He had ascend to fame with cartoons that confronted the Civil War , Reconstruction , in-migration and the Tammany Hall political motorcar , eventually helping convey down the Boss Tweed ring .
The Democratic Donkey
To understand the origin of the domestic ass as a symbol for the Democratic Party , you need to know a fiddling about the political science of Thomas Nast ’s metre . First , Republican and Democrat mean very different affair in the nineteenth century than they do today ( see sidebar ) . Nast despised a group of Northern Democrats known as " Copperheads . " copperhead defend the Civil War from the start , and Nast think of them as anti - Federal racist who had become far too prominent and influential in the North .
In his first cartoon feature the Equus asinus , which was published Jan. 15 , 1870 , Nast drew a domestic ass recoil a dead lion . He branded the domestic ass as the Copperhead Press and the lion as Edwin M. Stanton , Abraham Lincoln ’s secretary of war , who had just pass away . The toon was an uncomplimentary take on a popular press whose lingering anti - war impression outrage Stanton in Nast ’s mind . He articulated with this simple draw his opinion that the Copperheads were dishonoring the legacy of Lincoln ’s administration . Using a domestic ass — or fathead — was an obvious way to belittle the Democrats .
Nast proceed to apply the donkey as a symbol for Democratic organisation . He next used its image in an 1874 cartoon reacting to popular watchword of Caesarism against Republican PresidentUlysses S. Grant . Grant was thought to be seeking a third term in office , and Democrats compared him to Julius Caesar , painting him as a greedy dictator trying to handle imperial superpower . Nast take issue with these accusal .
In his Nov. 7 , 1874 cartoon , style " Third Term Panic , " he illustrate the Democratic press , specifically the New York Herald , as a donkey dressed in lion ’s peel . The domestic ass , label Caesarism , was dash other animals off into chaos . The cartoon represented what Nast felt were fear huckster popular media ; they appeared as a ferocious predator but were really dopy and harmless in their scare . include among the beast is a vast , bumbling elephant labeled " the Republican Vote . "
The cartoonist ’s continued employment of the symbol included an 1879 cartoon in which a leading Democratic presidential nominee was grab a donkey judge " Democratic Party " by the tail . The candidate was trying to prevent the donkey from hurtle into a quarry mark " financial bedlam . " This was a comment on the gilded criterion and inflation on the eve of the 1880 election . By the 1880s , Nast ’s use of the domestic ass had made it a national symbol for Democrats , although the Democratic Party never adopt the animal as its symbol .
In the cartoon in which a pol had the popular donkey by the tail , Nast ’s other famous political symbolization , the Republican elephant , lies wounded and sluggish in the background . While the Democratic Equus asinus was generally the symbolization of a party of braying fools in Nast ’s eyes , the Republican elephant was another story . It symbolized a party that had departed from its roots in social liberalism , which Nast favored .
The Republican Elephant
Just like the donkey , the elephant became a popular symbolisation through the political cartoons of Thomas Nast . But Nast had dissimilar belief toward the elephant — it interpret the company he ’d idolized since his egression on the New York political scene . Behind his interpretation lie solid , Republican sentence . But Nast became frustrated with Republicans in the 1870s , when he palpate the party had roll from societal liberalism . That foiling , in part , would spawn the Republican elephant persona .
The elephant had been used twice before as a political symbol , once in a spell of 1864 Lincoln campaign lit and again in 1872 by Harper ’s . Nast ’s first use appeared in the same 1874 " Third Term Panic " cartoon that featured a disguised donkey chasing panicked creature . An elephant deliver the title of " Republican Vote " bounded clumsily toward a pit labeled " pretentiousness " and " topsy-turvyness . " The elephant represented the core of Copperhead Democrat scare maneuver , as well as the confused behemoth that Nast felt many Republican voters and publications had become .
After the " Third Term Panic " cartoon , Nast continued using the elephant to represent Republicans . An April 1876 toon entitled " The Political Situation " showed a disordered Uncle Sam , label " The Vote of the People , " atop a two - headed elephant forced to decide between the " Democratic Road " and the " Republican Road . " Another sketch discharge before long before the 1876 presidential election showed a hulky Republican elephant stomping on a popular tiger .
Nast ’s first cartoon that used the elephant to exemplify the Republican Party as a whole came in March 1877 . On the heel of the exceedingly controversial presidential election , he depict a bruised and battered elephant crouched at a Democratic Party tombstone . The ail elephant indicated Nast ’s belief that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ' victory despite fall behind the democratic vote was a bitter , damaging one . In an 1884 cartoon , Nast even deem it " The Sacred Elephant , " the nostalgic symbol of the party he had once be intimate . Unlike the Democratic Party , the Republican Party eventually adopted the elephant as its official symbol .
Nast introduced the domestic ass and the elephant as home political symbol , but there is no definitive reply as to why they remain so democratic so many 10 later . Perhaps the best explanation is the influence of Nast himself . He was a rare political cartoonist whose study influenced the government of his geological era . substantiation of this lies in the words of famous men of the times . Lincolncalled Nasthis " secure recruiting sergeant " for the 1864 reelection hunting expedition . Grant had like feelings on his 1868 election , heaping praise on " the pencil of Nast . “Mark Twain saidthat Nast had " succeed a surpassing victory for Grant — I mean , for civilization and progression . "
