Donkey & Elephant Cuff Links
Donkey & Elephant Cuff Links
Donkey & Elephant Cuff Links

Donkey & Elephant Cuff Links

  • Made in Chicago, U.S.A.
  • Silk
  • Republicans and Democrats both agree that these elephant and donkey 100% silk cuff links are a perfect way to elegantly share your party pride.

    Political Cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with popularizing the donkey and elephant as symbols for the Democratic and Republican Parties in cartoons he ran between 1870 and 1872 in Harpers Weekly, but both symbols had been used previously.

  • The Democratic Party's first association with the donkey came about during the 1828 campaign of Democrat Andrew Jackson, who ran on a populist platform (by the people, for the people) and use the slogan "Let the People Rule." Jackson's opponents referred to him as a jackass (donkey). Jackson incorporated the jackass into his campaign posters.

    The earliest connection of the elephant to the Republican Party was an illustration in an 1864 Abraham Lincoln presidential campaign newspaper, Father Abraham. It showed an elephant holding a banner and celebrating Union victories. During the Civil War, "seeing the elephant" was slang for engaging in combat, so the elephant was a logical choice to represent successful battles.