Saul Loeb/Getty Images. ... In 1874, Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast drew a caricature of the Republican Party as an elephant seen as the lasting link between the two.

An elephant represents the mighty Republican vote, ... In other images, Nast did portray Democrats as a donkey, picking up a symbol that had largely been forgotten after Jackson left office.

The Republican elephant was first seen in an 1874 cartoon by satirist and conservative cartoonist Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly. "The elephant was a wing of the party that was stodgy and immobile ...

The Republican elephant (“the sluggish animal”) is lying on and blocking the road to an election victory. By 1880, other cartoonists had picked up the symbols and spread them across the country.