During the mid-term elections in 1874, Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, depicted a Democratic jackass trying to scare a Republican elephant and both symbols stuck. For a long time Republicans have been referred to by the media as the "G.O.P.", which most party faithful consider to mean Grand Old Party. But the original meaning came from an 1875 reference in the Congressional Record to "this gallant old party."
