Stranger Things Have Happened

In "Stranger Things Can Happen," a determined Senator Thomas Bayard, right foot braced on a tree stump and left on a rock, pulls the Democratic Donkey by its tail away from a chasm of "financial chaos." In the background, Treasury Secretary John Sherman stands forlornly by the fallen Republican elephant, who is lying next to a boulder reading "Let Well Enough Alone." In the background is the White House, an 1880 flag flying overhead. This engraving Nast’s belief that the Deomcractic party could win the presidency in the 1880 run, a possible first since 1856. With Bayard’s Legal-Tender Resolution, the Democratic party could lead the U.S. onto the “Safe and Sound Financial Road.”

Stranger Things Have Happened
Thomas Nast
Harper’s Weekly, December 27, 1879
Engraving