This cartoon uses the elephant and the donkey to represent the two major political parites. In the picture, the elephant (Repbulican party) is either dead or sleeping, while the donkey (Democratic party) is jumping off a cliff. The White House is visible in the background (when this cartoon was drawn, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was in office). The man holding the donkey's tail is Thomas Francis Bayard, a senator from Delaware who was considered a possible candidate for the 1880 presidential election, but was not nominated.
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