Republican facts & stats

Question 1

In what year did Abraham Lincoln take office as the first Republican president?

Accepted Answer

1861. Lincoln was the 16th U.S. president and the first from the newly formed Republican Party.

Question 2

In what year did cartoonist Thomas Nast first use an elephant to represent the Republican Party?

Accepted Answer

1874. Nast's Harper's Weekly cartoon 'The Third-Term Panic' introduced the elephant, which stuck as the party's lasting symbol.

Question 3

By what year had other political cartoonists widely picked up Nast's elephant to symbolize the Republican Party?

Accepted Answer

by 1880. Nast used the elephant repeatedly through the 1870s, and rival cartoonists soon followed his lead.

Question 4

Before Nast's cartoon, Civil War-era U.S. soldiers already used an elephant phrase to mean what?

Accepted Answer

experiencing combat ('seeing the elephant'). The phrase 'seeing the elephant' was slang for a soldier's first taste of battle, predating its political use.

Republican facts & stats

The basics

In what year did Abraham Lincoln take office as the first Republican president?

Going deeper

In what year did cartoonist Thomas Nast first use an elephant to represent the Republican Party?

By what year had other political cartoonists widely picked up Nast's elephant to symbolize the Republican Party?

Expert level

Before Nast's cartoon, Civil War-era U.S. soldiers already used an elephant phrase to mean what?