Democrats Unveiled as Jackasses - It Happened ToDay

Democrats Unveiled as Jackasses

January 15, 1870 - The cartoon by Thomas Nast titled
"A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion"
appeared in "Harper's Weekly."

Thomas Nast would become the most influential American political cartoonist and illustrator of his era. Nast immigrated to the United States with his parents as a young child. Even as a teenager he was a talented artist, selling his sketches to the "Illustrated Newspaper" for $4.00 a week. After the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, Nast became a staff artist for Harper'sWeekly, where he was encouraged to illustrate ideas rather than events.

The "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" cartoon used the jackass to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time. Thomas Nast first used the jackass in his January 15, 1870 Harper's Weekly cartoon to represent the "Copperhead Press" of northern Confederate sympathizers kicking a dead lion, the lion symbolizing Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin M.Stanton, who had recently died. Nast intended the jackass to represent the Democrat leaning Copperhead anti-war faction, with whom he disagreed, but the symbol caught the public's fancy and the cartoonist continued using it to indicate Democratic editors and newspapers.

Some of Nast's best known illustrations/cartoons helped bring the downfall of "Boss" Tweed and expose the corruption of the New York City political machine of Tammany Hall. Through his illustrations Nast also helped create the immortal images of "Uncle Sam", "Columbia" an early version of Lady Liberty, and the now popularized image of a jolly and rotund elf - Santa Claus.

Nast would portray the Republican party as Elephants in a 1874 Harper's Weekly illustration. Nast's depictions of the two major political parties are still prominently displayed and recognized more than a century later. Over the years, the jackass and the elephant have become the accepted symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties. Although the Democrats have never officially adopted thejackass as a party symbol, they have used various jackass designs on their publications over the years. The Republicans have actually adopted the elephantas their official symbol.

ToDay's Quote:

My occupation now, I suppose, is jail inmate.
- Unibomber Theodore Kaczynski, when asked
in court what his current profession was.