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  HAND-PAINTED SILK BANNER, MADE FOR THE PHILADELPHIA CHAPTER OF A TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATION IN 1851, REPAINTED FOR THE 1860 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF JOHN BELL OF TENNESSEE AND EDWARD EVERETTE OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO RAN AGAINST ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON THE INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTIONAL UNION TICKET

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): Approx. 63" x 57.5"
Flag Size (H x L): 50" x 45"
Description....:
Hand-painted banner, made of blue and white silk (white on the reverse), with a bronze-colored, twisted, silk fringe and red silk ties. One the blue side, painted in gold gilt on sculpted, red-painted registers, is the following test:

“THE UNION, THE CONSTITUTION, AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAWS”

This was the slogan of 1860 presidential candidate John Bell of Tennessee, and vice-presidential running mate Edward Everett of Massachusetts.

The 1850-1865 era marked a pivotal time in American party politics. It bore witness to the birth of the Republican Party in 1854, and the end of both the Whigs and the American Party (Know-Nothings), which had basically disappeared by 1860. Lincoln was the Republican candidate, running on the anti-slavery platform. He was hardly the favorite in the beginning of the campaign, winning the party’s nomination from the third ticket.

When the Democrats convened in Charleston in 1860 to nominate a presidential candidate, Douglas succeeded in adding his moderate planks to the party platform. Several Southerners stormed out of the convention, breaking off to form their own party with John Breckinridge and Joseph Lane as their candidates. Northern Democrats met again in Baltimore a few weeks later and unanimously nominated Douglas for president.

The Democratic Party orchestrated their own demise when they split into two factions. John Bell’s Constitutional Union Party, supported by remnants of hard line Whigs and members of the Know-Nothing Party, split the ballot even further. The fractured field resulted in a win for Lincoln, despite the fact that he didn't even appear on the ballot in several Southern States.

Bell garnered more than 12.5% of the 1860 vote, which constituted one of the highest amounts ever received by an independent party candidate. This effectively remained a record until 1912, when Teddy Roosevelt beat that figure on the Bull Moose ticket, receiving 27.4% to actually edge out former fellow Republican William Howard Taft.

The reverse side of the banner contains a large allegorical landscape within an oval window, featuring a woman and child before a fountain, with a large dog at their feet. The well-being of women and children was one of the primary thrusts behind the emergence of the temperance movement in the 1830s and '40s. The fountain illustrates water instead of booz, one of the fundamentals of the “Cold Water Army.” The dog is the protector. Careful examination and research revealed that this particular banner was made in 1851 for a Philadelphia chapter of the Templars of Honor and Temperance, a fraternal order, founded in 1845, that had rituals based upon the medieval Knights Templar, with a focus on the Old Testament story of Jonathan and David, as well as Damon and Pythias in Greek mythology, and degrees (levels of mastery) similar to the Masons and Odd Fellows.

I have found that silk banners of this period were frequently re-purposed, probably because they were so expensive to produce. Most likely the Templars carried this in parades after its initial manufacture, then had one side repainted in 1860 to support the Bell & Everett ticket. The red-painted areas were painted over top of the original text, so that the gilded lettering could be added. The original text read: “Mount Olive Temple of Honour; No. 14; Instituted Apr’l 24th 1851.”

  Bell’s campaign regalia is certainly interesting because he ran against Lincoln, just before the outbreak of war, but they are even more so because “The Union and the Constitution” is such a great slogan. The words are as meaningful to patriotic Americans today as they were 160 years ago. Lincoln liked the slogan so much, in fact, that he borrowed it for the 1864 election. Hoping to pick up some of the independent and Southern vote, the Republican Party actually changed its name on the 1864 ticket to the “National Union Party.” [This was for the national ticket. State divisions of the Republican Party, for the most part, did not change their names.]

Biographical Information on John Bell & Edward Everett:
John Bell was born near Nashville, Tennessee in 1797. A 1814 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Bell passed the bar in 1816 and set up a law practice in Franklin. He was elected to the Tennessee State Senate just one year later, in 1817, then declined re-election. He became a U.S. Congressman in 1827, serving 7 terms. During this time he served as Speaker of the House, chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, and chairman of the Committee on Judiciary. He served a very brief term as Secretary of War in 1841. In 1847 he was elected to the Tennessee State Congress, and in the same year became a U.S. senator (Whig Party), serving nine years before his run for the presidency. The Constitutional Union ticket carried just three states, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia. Bell died at his home in 1869, near Chattanooga, and is buried near Nashville.

Born in Boston in 1794, Edward Everett studied abroad in Germany and returned to the U.S. as the first American to ever receive a Ph.D. He was Governor of Massachusetts (1836-40), President of Harvard (1846-49), and Secretary of State (1852-56) under Millard Fillmore, following the death of his friend Daniel Webster. Everett was considered the greatest orator of the time, which is why he was selected to give a speech at Gettysburg in 1863, to dedicate the memorial to fallen soldiers. He spoke for two hours, but Americans will forever remember the day, not for Everett, but for Abraham Lincoln, who was asked to follow with a “few appropriate remarks." These became the Gettysburg Address. Everett died in Boston in 1865 and was interred in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.

Election Results:
Abraham Lincoln, Illinois (R) - 39.8% (PV), 180 (EV)
Stephen Douglas, Illinois (Northern D) - 21.5% (PV), 12 (EV)
John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky (Southern D) - 14.3% (PV), 72 (EV)
John Bell, Tennessee (Constitutional Union) - 12.6% (PV), 39 (EV)
Mounting: The banner was mounted and framed within our own conservation department, which is led by expert staff. We take great care in the mounting and preservation of flags and have framed thousands of examples.

The banner has been hand-stitched to a background of 100% hemp fabric. The mount was then placed in a substantial, black-painted, hand-gilded and distressed Italian molding. The glazing is U.V. protective acrylic.

Condition: There are losses and craquelure throughout the painted elements on both this side. Losses in the gilt lettering were painstakingly restored, with care not to cover the original gilding. Splits in the silk fabric were stabilized with archival adhesive to an underlayment or the inner lining, as necessary. Only one of the red silk ties is present and a fragment of another, and some of the inner threads from two others. There is some soiling, more significant on the white side. The colors are exceptional and the overall condition is quite remarkable for a 160-year-old silk banner of this nature.
Collector Level: Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings
Flag Type: Sewn flag
Star Count:
Earliest Date of Origin: 1851
Latest Date of Origin: 1860
State/Affiliation: Pennsylvania
War Association: 1777-1860 Pre-Civil War
Price: SOLD
 

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