Article: ASK THE GLOBE

Q. Why did the Republicans choose the elephant and the Democrats the donkey as their national party symbols? A.D., Lincoln, N.H. A. Neither party had anything to do with selecting its symbol. Both were born in 1874 in the imagination of Thomas Nast, the Bavarian-born illustrator often described as America's first political cartoonist. According to William Safire's New Language of Politics, "The donkey gained acceptance as the Democratic symbol in 1874 as a result of Thomas Nast's cartoons, supported by Ignatius Donnelly's remark in the ...

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