37 Star U.S. Flag "EQUAL TAXATION", Democratic Party plank in Election of 1868.
A 37-Star "Equal Taxation" American National Flag, Circa 1868. Acquired from Sotheby's Auction in New York City on October 10, 2002. Mastai Lot No. 94. This flag features thirty-seven hand-sewn single-applique cotton-muslin stars configured in a Double Ring (two concentric circles) surrounding an equal-sized central star on a seven-piece wool bunting canton. The wool bunting stripes are all hand-sewn and the sleeve is also hand-sewn. Towards the top of the flag is a double-sided cotton band, which runs the width of the flag, and has painted decorations, the motto, and 9 brass grommets.

Though a very large flag (not nearly as large as the original Star-Spangled Banner) this flag was evidently intended to be hung vertically from an arch or from an atrium or the wall of a building. Written on the canvas heading of the flag in large letters is the motto EQUAL TAXATION. This motto, reflecting one of the platform points of the Democratic Party in the 1868 presidential election, had also been utilized two decades earlier by residents in western Virginia to complain against inequitable property taxes in the commonwealth.

1868 Election
Democrat Convention, Tammany Hall, 4 to 9 July 1868
Platform points:

1. Immediate restoration of States to Union,
2. Amnesty for all past political offenses,
3. Payment of the public debt as rapidly as possible,
4. Equal Taxation of every species of property,
5. One currency for the government and the people,
6. Economy in the administration of government,
7. Reform abuses in the administration,
8. Equal rights and protection for naturalized and native-born citizens .

Exhibition History:

(ZFC0619) MORAGA ROOM FLAG - 2003
Special Memorial Day Display
Suspended from ceiling of Moraga Room.
Presidio of San Franciscos Officers Club
Memorial Day 2003

Presidential Debate
Washington University at St. Louis
October, 2004
(ZFC0619)

Publication History:
Depicted in Mastai (1973), p. 213.
Depicted in American Flags, p. 59

ZFC Significant Flag

Provenance:

• Democrat Convention, Tammany Hall, 4 to 9 July 1868
• Acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Boleslaw & Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai, New York City, and Amagansett, NY, The Mastai Collection, until 2002.
• Sold via Sotheby's Auction in New York City to the Zaricor Flag Collection, 2002.


Souces:


Druckman, Nancy, American Flags: Designs for a Young Nation, New York, Harry Abrams, Inc. 2003.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.

Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, Our Unknown Flag: Almost 250 Flags and Artifacts from the famous Mastai Collection, New York, , Amagansett, Exhibited 14 June -28 July 1978, US Customhouse, Plaza Lever, 6 World Trade Center, Boleslaw Mastai, 1978.

1868 Democratic National Convention, Wikipedia, 8 November 2011, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Democratic_National_Convention

The Democratic Demand for Equal Taxation, 12 September 1968, New York Times, 8 November 2011, from: http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archivefree/pdf?res=F10811FB38541B7493C0A81782D85F4C8684F9

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection