 Summary: Unique Flag Designed by Emanuel Leutze, Manufactured by Tiffany and Co., and Presented to Union Major General John A. Dix, Commemorating his Famous Order
Emanuel Leutze / Tiffany & Co. Silk Flag Banner designed by Leutze. Presented to Gen. John A. Dix on the evening of April 23, 1864, at the close of the New York Sanitary Fair. According a published Dix letter, the flag was originally 6’ x 6’6.” The central design is 38” x 43.Condition: The central design, Liberty holding a flag, with Dix’s order, survives. The original supporting flag background has been lost. Previous conservation (decades ago) had the flag replaced on an incorrect Turquoise background. It has been removed by the the Textile Conservation Laboratory, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City, and a navy background (matching the original color) support is being added prior to archival framing.
Inventory# 21240 Price On Request
Historical Background:
The flag celebrates one of the most famous orders of the Civil War:
“Treasury Department, January 29,1861
Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Breshwood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order I gave you. If Captain Breshwood, after arrest, undertakes to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.
John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury”
John Dix (1798-1879) was a veteran of the War of 1812, served as a Democratic senator from New York in the 1840s, and ran for governor of New York in 1848. He was appointed Treasury Secretary by James Buchanan in early 1861, and was appointed by Lincoln to command the Department of Maryland and the Department of Pennsylvania in the summer of that same year.
Dix was friendly with Democratic political leaders in New York (though not with Governor Horatio Seymour), and was also respected by financial interests, thanks to his actions as Treasury Secretary in 1861, when he secured $5 million in loans to the federal government from Eastern bankers. Lincoln showed great political savvy in appointing Dix, “a conservative War Democrat with a national reputation for integrity, nonpartisan leadership, and toughness as a military commander” (Schecter). “It was General Dix’s wartime reputation as a relentless opponent of treason...that won him the job of preserving order in post-riot New York” (Bernstein). Dix came to New York on July 18, 1863, with the wide-ranging powers given him by Lincoln, including a the power to suspend habeas corpus and impose martial law (the presidential proclamation authorizing those actions was unknown until sold by Dix’s descendants, and acquired by us in 2007).
Despite having the authority, Dix never went so far as to suspend habeas corpus or impose martial law. Rather, he negotiated with city and state political authorities to ensure that they would provide the support necessary for a peaceful resumption of the draft. Implicit in the agreement was the understanding that the constitutionality of the conscription act would be better tested in court than in the streets. When the draft resumed in mid-August and Governor Seymour balked at using militia troops to enforce order and help carry out the draft in New York City, Dix appealed for federal troops to help keep the peace. On August 17 Dix issued a lengthy proclamation to the citizens of New York giving a well-reasoned argument in support of the morality, necessity, and legality of the draft. He concluded the proclamation by stating that should “renewed attempts be made to disturb the public peace, to break down the barriers which have been set up for the security of property and life, and to defeat the execution of a law which it is my duty to enforce, I warn all such persons that ample preparation has been made to vindicate the authority of the Government, and that the first exhibitions of disorder or violence will be met by the most prompt and vigorous measures for their repression” (quoted in Dix, Memoirs, vol. 2, p.91).
Privately, Dix had already informed Secretary of War Edward Stanton that, in the event of interference with the draft by state authorities he was prepared to “promptly declare the martial law and suspend the civil authority.” His actions in preventing new violence in the wake of the draft riots was the reason this special flag was made and presented to him.
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