34 Star U.S. Flag "OUR POLICY THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE", Sovereignty slogan.
The motto on this flag, 'Our Policy - The will of the People', was a slogan associated with the Popular Sovereignty movement in the United States. Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the state is created by the will or consent of its people, who are the ultimate source of all political power. The concept was widely aired in the late 1840s and widely popularized by Stephen A. Douglas in 1854. Douglas, who coined the term, thought the settlers should vote on their status early in territorial development.
Popular sovereignty was invoked in the Compromise of 1850 and later in the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). The tragic events in Bleeding Kansas exposed the doctrine's shortcomings. Popular sovereignty was often termed 'squatter sovereignty' by its critics, which included pro-slavery Southerners and many New Englanders.
This enormous flag bearing the inscription, Our Policy: The Will of the People, is an early and striking example of the flag being linked with partisan political discourse. While they are not altogether certain about it, researchers suggest that the inscription may have been a political slogan related to the Kansas Free Staters or Jayhawkers in the struggle over slavery in new states before the Civil War.
This 34-star flag's exact history is unknown; but it was formerly part of the acclaimed collection of noted antique dealer Mr. Boleslaw Mastai and his wife Marie-Louise d'Otrange Mastai, formerly of New York City, and later Amagansett, Long Island. Their collection was the result of fifty years of collecting, research and study by the late husband-wife team. Mastai, started collecting in the early 20th century and amassed the greatest private flag collection in the United States; which he detailed in his landmark book 'The Stars and The Stripes; The American Flag from Birth of the Republic to the Present' which was published by Alfred Knopf, New York 1973, and hailed as a revolutionary redefinition of the American Flag as both folk art and social history.
This is a large flag. For comparison the Star Spangled Banner at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. is 360" X 408" (30 by 34 feet or [9.1 by 10 m]). It was originally 30 by 42 feet (9.1 by 13 m).
The sizes of two United States flags, used at Fort Sumter in 1861 were 420" X 432" for the garrison flag, and 96" X 168" for the storm flag.
Exhibition History:
Mastai Exhibition
The Evolution of the American Flag
Amon Carter Museum
Fort Worth, Texas
October November 1972
Exhibit # 104
Flag Day Reception
Flown at The Presidio of San Francisco, during the exhibition "The American Flag: Two Centuries of Concord and Conflict" at the Officers Club.
San Francisco, California
June 14, 2003
Presidential Debate
Washington University at St. Louis
October, 2004
Publication history:
Depicted in Mastai (1973), p. 205
Depicted in American Flags, p. 43
ZFC Significant Flag
Provenance:
• 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: