Washington insiders considered Andrew Jackson
as intemperate, vulgar, and stupid. Opponents called him a
jackass. During the 1828 presidential campaign, he embraced the
label and began including a jackass on his campaign posters. He
became the first Democrat president.
Incidentally, donkeys
are in the same family as horses. A male donkey is called a
jackass.
During the 1870s,
influential political cartoonist Thomas Nast helped popularize
the donkey as a symbol for the entire Democrat Party. It first
appeared in a cartoon in Harper's Weekly in 1870, and was
supposed to represent an anti-Civil War faction. Nast drew a
donkey clothed in lion's skin, scaring away all the animals at
the zoo. By 1880 it had already become the unofficial symbol of
the party.
Thomas Nast, in an 1874
Harper’s Weekly cartoon portrayed various interest groups as
animals, including an elephant labeled “The Republican Vote,”
which was shown standing at the edge of a pit. He employed the
elephant to represent Republicans in additional cartoons during
the 1870s, and by 1880 other cartoonists were using the creature
to symbolize the party.
Democrats say the donkey is smart and brave and Republicans
say the elephant is strong and dignified.