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  TAPERED, SWALLOWTAIL BANNER, 1876 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF HAYES & WHEELER

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 28" x 38"
Flag Size (H x L): 17" x 27.25"
Description....:
TAPERED, SWALLOWTAIL BANNER, MADE FOR THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF HAYES & WHEELER IN 1876, ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING ELECTIONS IN U.S. HISTORY:

This tapered, swallowtail pennant was made for the presidential campaign of Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler in 1876. There is a red-orange border with 38 stars to represent the 38 states in the Union. Colorado became the 38th state in August of that same year, which also represented our nation's 100-year anniversary of independence. In the center is large blue text that reads:

FOR PRESIDENT
R.B. HAYES
FOR VICE PRESIDENT
W.A. WHEELER

The banner was either made by Annin & Co. or by the American Flag Company, both of which were located in New York City. This type of banner came in a variety of styles, some political, some patriotic and made for the centennial celebration. Another Hayes & Wheeler variation in similar form is documented in "Threads of History: Americana Recorded on Cloth, 1775 to the Present", by Herbert Ridgeway Collins, Smithsonian Press, 1979 (item 453, pg. 212). This is the best text on American political textiles. Collins formerly served as Curator of Political History at the Smithsonian Institution.

The 1876 Election:

Since Republicans held the presidency from the beginning of the Civil war until 1876 (and after), the southern states were subject to a great deal of northern Republican control during reconstruction. Though Republicans were generally despised by southerners, who ultimately blamed by them for causing the war, they remained well-connected to the southern political machine. And it is just this connection that some say won them the election by questionable means.

Hayes won 47.9% of the popular vote and Tilden 51%. With four states left in which to count electoral votes, Tilden had received 184 with 185 needed to win. But there were problems in four states. In Oregon, an electorate was dismissed on a technicality and replaced with a man who cast his vote in Hayes favor. But in three Southern States, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, each party reported a win and the count was disputed. Never having encountered this problem before, Congress formed a 15-member Electoral Commission with five members each from the House, Senate, and the Supreme Court. The House and Senate membership totaled five Republicans (R) and five Democrats (D). Two members of each party were chosen from the Supreme Court, and these four were to collectively name a fifth member. There was only one Judge who was a political independent, and he was chosen, but immediate resigned and left the court to pursue a political career. So it was that only Republicans remained. A moderate Republican was chosen, but this tilted the scale in Republican favor to give Hayes the needed 185 electoral votes. It remained the closest election in U.S. history until the year 2000, when Florida was again involved in a disputed vote count.

Republican opponents claimed that the disputed count of votes in the three southern states was the direct result of foul play. It was said that a compromise had been struck between Hayes and certain southern leaders to remove federal troops in exchange for a win. Hayes followed through on this in 1877 after his election, removing the troops and effectively ending Reconstruction.

Brief Biography of Hayes & His Opponent, Tilden

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born on October 4th, 1822 in Delaware, Ohio to parents who had emigrated there from Vermont. He was the youngest of four children and his father passed before he was born. Raised by his mother and uncle, Hayes graduated from Kenyon College in 1842 and Harvard Law School in 1845 and entered into a career as an attorney. This he pursued until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, when, despite his age of 40 years, he was enlisted as an officer with the rank of major for a three year term. He had no previous military experience, but stayed in for the full five years, participated in numerous engagements, was severely wounded but survived, and was regularly promoted. He reached the rank of Brigadier General and was Brevetted Major General near the war's end. A Republican, Hayes was nominated to Congress in 1864 while the war was still on. He rejected the nomination, stating that "an officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped". But he was elected anyway and took his seat in March of 1865 when the war was more clearly over. He served as Governor of Ohio from 1868 until he attained the White House. Hayes made a vow not to run again in 1880 and kept to his word. He died in Ohio following a heart attack and was interred in Oakwood Cemetery in 1883. His body was later re-interred in Ohio.

His Democrat opponent, Samuel Jones Tilden, was a New York-born, NYU Law School graduate who got rich in his successful career defending railroads during their initial boom. A friend of Martin Van Buren, Tilden was one of the few Free-Soilers who did not join the Republican Party when it formed in 1856. After the Civil War, Tilden became head of the NY State Democratic Committee and fought political corruption as a district attorney, overturning robber-baron and politician William Tweed, among others, which gained him the Governorship of New Y

ork, an office he served from 1875-76. Born in New York in 1819, Vice President William A. Wheeler received a law degree from the University of Vermont and practiced in New York State. He was elected to the state senate, serving from 1858-1860, then to the U.S. Congress during the Civil War, serving from 1861-63. He left Congress, but won again and served from 1869 until he took the office of Vice President in 1877. Upon leaving the Whitehouse he retired from public life.

Mounting: The banner has been hand-stitched to its background of 100% cotton, black in color, which has been washed to reduce excess dye. An acid free agent was added to the wash to further set the dye and the fabric was heat-treated for the same purpose. The mount was then placed in a black-painted, hand-gilded and distressed Italian molding. Spacers keep the textile away from the glass, which is u.v. protective.

Condition: There is some foxing throughout, but there are no other significant condition issues.
Collector Level: Advanced Collectors and the Person with Everything
Flag Type: Parade flag
Star Count: 38
Earliest Date of Origin: 1876
Latest Date of Origin: 1876
State/Affiliation:
War Association: 1866-1889 Indian Wars
Price: Sold
 

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