| Democratic Donkey | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Democrats |
|
First Appearance |
"A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" (January 19, 1870) |
|
Original Publisher |
Harper's Weekly |
|
Created by |
Thomas Nast |
Origin[]
The Democratic Donkey or jackass is the most common mascot symbol for the Democratic Party.
The origins of the Democratic donkey can be traced to the 1828 presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson. During that race, opponents of Jackson called him a jackass as a term of ridicule regarding a stupid and stubborn animal.
However, rather than rejecting the label, Jackson, a hero of the War of 1812 who later served in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, was amused by it and included an image of the animal in his campaign posters. Jackson went on to defeat incumbent John Quincy Adams and serve as America’s first Democratic president. The Democrats liked the common-man implications and picked it up too, therefore the image persisted and evolved.
Its most lasting impression came from the cartoons of Thomas Nast from 1870 in Harper's Weekly. Cartoonists followed Nast and used the donkey to represent the Democrats and the elephant to represent the Republicans.
The donkey party logo remains a well-known symbol for the Democratic Party despite not being the official logo of the party.
Public Domain Appearances[]
All published appearances of the Democratic Donkey from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.
Public Domain Cartoon Appearances[]
- "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" (January 19, 1870)