Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 97, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1920 — THE ORIGIN OF THE POLITICAL PARTY EMBLEMS [ARTICLE]

THE ORIGIN OF THE POLITICAL PARTY EMBLEMS

Someone with a penchant for research undertook to discover the origin of the r practice of cartoonists in using the elephant and the donkey in caricaturing the two leading political parties, with the following result: The elephant arid the donkey were created by the great cartoonist, Thomas Nast, in Harper’s. The genesis of the idea, however, was with the - New York Herald. One Sunday morning in November, 1874, the New York Herald published a “fake” story describing the escape of animals from the zoo, which was accompanied by pictures of all kinds of animals —elephants, donkeys, lions, and in fact a regular Noah’s ark collection. On November 7, Mr. Nast published a cartoon in Harper’s, portraying an elephant, and calling it the Republican party. The idea was that the elephant, on account of its great strength and burden bearing capacity, simulated the Republican party 'which had to carry the'burden of the cry of nepotism them being raised against General Grant. Later Mr. Nast published another cartoon depicting the donkey as the emblem of the Democratic party, because of the way the democrats had handled things. A cartoon appearing in Harper’s in January, 1870, was based on the fable of the ass kicking the dead lion. The ass was marked, “The Copperhead Press,” while the lion bore the features of Jadwin H. Stanton, who had recently died. The cartoon was supposed to have reference to the villification of the memory of Stanton by the “copperhead” section of the democratic press. Mr. Nast’s first use of the elephant was in depicting that animal marked “The Republican Voters,” crossing a bridge of planks from the republican platform, which were breaking under the burdens he had to carry. Mr. Nast continued to use the two animals for characterization of the respective parties, and other cartoonists took up the idea, until today they are. in universal use.