The Elephant: The Republican Party Symbol
The elephant has represented the Republican Party for more than 125 years. The Republican Party is a political party found in the United States.
During the late 1800s, a man named Thomas Nast drew cartoons for newspapers and magazines. He was a very popular cartoonist. In 1874 Nast drew the elephant to represent the Republican Party.
Two things gave Nast the idea to use the elephant to symbolize the Republican Party. The first was an election. In 1874 Ulysses S. Grant was running for president of the United States. He had already been president for eight years. Grant also had been a general in the Civil War (1861-65). Many people thought that Grant should not be president again. They believed he would become a dictator if he stayed in office for so many years. This idea is called Caesarism and scared a lot of people in the Republican Party.
Elephant Becomes Republican Symbol
At the same time, a New York newspaper called the Herald printed a funny story. The story said that wild animals had escaped from the Central Park Zoo in New York City. The story was not true. However, it fooled many people.
Thomas Nast thought about the election and the story about the zoo animals. Then he drew a cartoon. The cartoon was printed in a popular magazine called Harper's Bazaar. It appeared on November 7, 1874. The cartoon showed a donkey wearing a lion's skin. The donkey was a symbol of Caesarism. The donkey was scaring away the other animals. One of these frightened animals was an elephant. The elephant symbolized the Republican Party. Nast wanted to show that the idea of Caesarism scared the Republicans, but that the threat was not real. It was just like the pretend story of the escaped zoo animals that had scared the people of New York.
Republicans Lose Election
A few weeks later, the Republicans lost the election. Nast drew another cartoon. It showed an elephant in a trap. The cartoon was meant to symbolize Republicans being caught in a trap because they worried too much about Caesarism. That worry made the Republicans weaker and was why they had lost the election.
Nast kept using the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party in other cartoons. Other cartoonists liked the idea. They started using the elephant in their cartoons too. Soon the elephant became a popular way to show Republicans in political cartoons.
In time, the Republican Party started using the symbol too. The elephant is still the party's symbol today. Many Republicans say the elephant is strong and smart. That is why it makes a good symbol for the Republican Party.