The reason for this card is that Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren founded what would become the Democratic Party of the United States of America, on January the 8th, 1828, in Baltimore, Maryland. And since 1853 every president has either been a Democrat or a Republican.
Each of these parties are represented with a symbol, of an animal, the Republican one being an elephant, and the Democrat one being a donkey. The elephant began during Abraham Lincoln`s presidential electioneering campaign in 1860, when it was used in a newspaper. And the donkey was used even earlier, by our man Andrew Jackson, who was called a donkey by his opponents and had the symbol of one printed on his campaign posters.
As far as the card, well that is going to be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle because nobody seems to know who Eureka Tobacco is. Some even connect it with Lorillard, who did indeed sell "Eureka Plug", for five cents a chew. However Durham, North Carolina, was a huge tobacco making area, not just the headquarters of W. Duke and Sons, but of W. T. Blackwell & Co., plus many smaller operations.
As to why we have called it "American Presidents", well that is because the same set was issued by J. S. Larkin & Co., with "Sweet Home Soap", in 1885 - and their set of twenty-two cards shows the following, all of whom were American Presidents :
- John Adams
- John Quincy Adams
- Chester A. Arthur
- James Buchanan
- Grover Cleveland
- Millard Fillmore
- James A. Garfield
- Ulysses S. Grant
- William H. Harrison
- Rutherford B. Hayes
- Andrew Jackson
- Thomas Jefferson
- Andrew Johnson
- Abraham Lincoln
- James Madison
- James Monroe
- Franklin Pierce
- James K. Polk
- Zachary Taylor
- John Tyler
- Martin Van Buren
- George Washington
These twenty-two names run up to Grover Cleveland, who was elected in 1885, and it is possibly the reason the set was issued. He was succeeded by Benjamin Harrison, in 1889, who lost his seat in 1893 to Grover Cleveland again.