ABSTRACT
The election of 1876 raised basic American issues of human rights and governmental power. It revived the issues of slavery and states' rights and led to the end of military-enforced Reconstruction in the South. At the end of election day in 1876, the polls closed but an electoral tie created an impasse, forcing the final count into Congress. By the time of the election in 1876, the Democratic House, with its power of the purse, had cut military appropriations—an issue that Nast often criticized—so that enforcement of civil rights was probably token at best. The protracted events surrounding the 1876 election gave cartoonists an extended season for attacking the partisans. During the long 1876 presidential election campaign and the extended negotiations that followed it, Thomas Nast perfected his political symbols—particularly the donkey and elephant—and his own persona in American politics.
