Clay & Frelinghuysen campaign flag, 1844

This flag contains 26 stars circling an image of 1844 Whig party presidential candidate, Henry Clay. Presidential campaign flags were popular in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century and were often designed to look like the American flag. Clay and the candidate for vice president, New Jersey native Theodore Frelinghuysen, lost to Democratic candidates James K. Polk and George M. Dallas. The Whig party ran on a platform of national finance and internal improvements (ie. infrastructure) with Clay being a Southern slaveholder and Frelinghuysen being a "Christian Statesman" who advocated for the colonization movement. While Democratic party candidate Polk was also a slaveholder, the party's platform on states rights platform won in the end. You can read the nominating resolutions Whig party and Democratic party.

Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives, Framed Items Collection

1844

Tara Maharjan

Presidential campaign flag for Whig party candidates Henry Clay, candidate for United States president, and Theodore Frelinghuysen, candidate for United States Vice president, 1844.