Heteroy has issued a correction as of 05:28 on Feb 9, 2016

karmicknight has issued a correction as of 13:18 on Feb 13, 2016

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Notable Positions: President of the United States, Vice President of the United States, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, United States Secretary of State, Governor of New York, United States Senator from New York
  
• Biography: A member of America’s insular Dutch community, Van Buren gained fame for his ability to interact with people from multiple, ethnic, income, and societal groups. An accomplished lawyer, political organizer, and multi-linguist, Van Buren first came to public attention at the age of 18, when he was selected as a delegate for the Democratic-Republican Party convention in Troy, New York. Afterward, Van Buren made a name for himself by leading the “Bucktails,” a faction dedicated to thwarting the corrupt Governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, and his Erie Canal Project. In 1821, Van Buren joined the United States Senate, where he supported Andrew Jackson and avoided involving himself in the Corrupt Bargain. As a result, Jackson considers Van Buren a close friend. Calhoun’s attempts to destroy Van Buren’s career has only strengthened their partnership. Many partymen have only grudgingly accepted Van Buren as Jackson's successor.
  
• Platform: Van Buren has been saddled with the legacy of Andrew Jackson. Once a coveted inheritance, Van Buren’s ties have quickly proven problematic. With the economy collapsing and the blame going to Jackson’s anti-Bank policies, Van Buren has been dubbed “Martin Van Ruin” by his opponents and is taunted on the streets by crowds who sing, “Van, Van, is a used up man.” Though urged by many to go back on his views of the American System, which would encourage economic growth, Van Buren has adhered steadfastly to the Jacksonian ideals of strict adherence to the Constitution, protection of states’ rights, and a limited federal government. To help address the crisis, however, Van Buren has advocated for an Independent Treasury System, a compromise between the Hamiltonian-style controlled economy and the Jacksonian-endorsed free economy. As proposed, this institution would circulate hard currency but remain completely independent of the wider private banking and financial system. Van Buren has been thwarted by his own party in his attempts to establish this institution. He has opposed any attempts to address unemployment, however, and refused to increase spending on public infrastructure or welfare. Also in opposition of Jackson, Van Buren has tried to stop American expansion and ensure a balance between free and slave states. He has denied Texas’s request to join the Union and is negotiating terms to purchase the territory instead of seizing it by force. He has also expanded America’s ties with Europe in an attempt to keep peace. He averted a near-war with the British over the Maine-Canadian border. Van Buren is sympathetic toward the Indians, who he has forcibly removed under the Indian Removal Act, and the Mormons, who have been chased out by mobs, but believes he can do nothing to help these groups without endangering his re-election. Though many fear that Van Buren is a crypto-abolitionist, Van Buren has sworn to do nothing that might threaten slavery. Though he considers it immoral, he believes that it is constitutionally sanctioned and dares not to threaten national unity over it..

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Notable Positions: Vice President of the United States, United States Representative from Kentucky, United States Senator from Kentucky
  
• Biography: Born as the son of Kentucky’s wealthiest landowner, Richard Johnson and his family are an active part of the Democratic Party. A defender of the poor, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a fellow Kentuckian, Johnson has earned the admiration of Jackson despite the former’s controversial thirty-year long legislative career, which has seen him undertake crusades against powerful political interests. Much like his professional career, Johnson’s personal life has earned him intense ire. Since his father’s death, Johnson has openly cavorted with one of his slaves, treating her as his common law wife despite Kentucky’s laws against interracial relationships. Worse, he has raised two children of the relationship as his own, giving them his surname and demanding that they receive equal treatment within the community. For this breach of etiquette, the Democratic Party’s Southern faction has unsuccessfully tried to remove Johnson from the party and many have threatened to stop supporting the Democrats if Johnson is elected. Johnson is also known for his unusual interests and beliefs. Johnson believes the earth is hollow and has spent the last few years of his congressional career trying to secure funding for an expedition of the Earth’s core. He has dreams of opening a small tavern in his hometown.
  
• Platform: Johnson is a Jacksonian and was explicitly placed on the ticket by Jackson, despite objections from the Southerners within the party. As such, Johnson considers himself a crusader of the poor and downtrodden. He has personally led the effort to end imprisonment for debt, freeing countless Americans from permanent incarceration, and has tried to increase the benefits given to widows, such as Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. After the Panic of 1819, Johnson proposed debt relief for affected families, welfare for the unemployed, and bankruptcy legislation to protect future individuals from similar calamities. He has also taken on more, controversial, initiatives to improve the effectiveness of government. In 1816, he proposed that Congress move from a per diem system, which encouraged delays and tedium, with an annual salary of $1,500. Though it passed, the bill caused mass public backlash and Congress returned to a per diem system after Johnson’s supporters were voted out of office. He also earned public ire for opposing a petition to stop mail deliveries on Sunday. Though a practicing Baptist, Johnson does not believe that government should legislate the tenets of any particular denomination and that the religiously-motivated petition would set a bad legal precedent. Johnson is a slaveowner, who considers slavery to be a political and moral necessity in most circumstances. Though previously known for using brutal tactics against Indians, Johnson hopes to re-educate Indians in “European-American values” so that they might have some participation in society. He opposes the national bank and Whig tariff policies.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Notable Positions: Governor of Virginia, President pro tempore of the United States Senate, United States Senator from Virginia, United States Representative from Virginia
  
• Biography: Tazewell is a prominent Virginia politician and lawyer. Son of Henry Tazewell, a Revolutionary War captain and Virginia Senator, Littletown has enjoyed prominence within the Democratic Party since his earliest days. In 1798 he was elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates and in 1800 he replaced John Marshall as a representative in Congress. In this position, he helped negotiate the sale of Florida from Spain. In 1824, he was nominated to the Senate, where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, a position which allowed him to oversee commerce between the United States and United Kingdom. As Governor, Tazewell has served over a Whig-dominated Legislature and facilitates compromise between the Whigs and Democrats.
  
• Platform: Littleton has been nominated by Virginia’s Democratic Party as an alternative to Johnson, who they consider repugnant for his relationship with his slaves. Throughout his career, Littleton has acted as a supporter of the Democratic establishment. While Jefferson and Madison were in power, he embraced Jeffersonian Republicanism to expand state’s rights and ensure the primacy of the yeoman farmer. With Jackson’s rise, he aligned himself with the Jacksonian Democrats to expand suffrage for all men and to fight against the elitism propagated by past Presidents. Tazewell is notable for being one of the few party figures in support of the American System and, under his leadership, had Virginia’s Senators vote in favor of internal improvements, protective tariffs, and a national bank. He is otherwise a standard Jacksonian who supports slavery and expansionism.

• Party Affiliation: Whig Party
  
• Notable Positions: United States Ambassador to Colombia, United States Senator from Ohio, United States Representative from Ohio, Governor of the Indiana Territory, Secretary of the Northwest Territory
  
• Biography: William Henry Harrison has often referred to himself as a “Child of the Revolution” because he is one of the few politicians old enough to remember the American Revolutionary War. The son of an elite Virginia family, Harrison grew up around figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and witnessed first-hand much of the fighting to create a new nation during and after the Revolution. Inspired by what he saw, and knowing that he would not inherit any lands as his family’s youngest son, Harrison joined the military where he rapidly rose through the ranks for defending settlers against Indian incursions. In 1811, he became a national hero for defeating Tecumseh near the Tippecanoe River, despite being greatly outnumbered and unfamiliar with the land. For his prominence, Harrison has been given prominent positions along the frontier, such as Secretary of the Northwest Territory. From his position, he has portrayed himself as a defender of the West and tried to secure cheap land for American settlers.
  
• Platform: Though an elite, Harrison is known as a leader of the frontier concerned for the public welfare of settlers across the former Northwest Territory. Throughout his career, Harrison has lobbied Congress to lower land prices and spearhead improvement projects over the Western states so that they might compete with the rest of the nation. He has also worked closely with local Indian tribes, negotiating the sale of tens of thousands of acres of land and has advocated on the behalf of slaveowners, claiming that slavery and indentured servitude in the Midwest would make it a more attractive location for settlement. A slaveowner himself, Harrison has tried to balance the interests of the North and South by supporting each state’s right to make a decision on the matter. The only issues that he believes should be nationalized is the prohibition on Freemasonry. Harrison believes the institution to be a “moral and political evil,” with its members serving dark and unknown purposes. Despite a long career, Harrison’s position on other issues is not well-known. He has spoken broadly on the need to resist imperialism by the executive branch, a common swipe at Jackson, and claimed that the veto power should only be used to stop unconstitutional laws. He has also made vague references to limiting presidential interference into the military and ensuring its independence. He is assumed to support re-establishing the Bank of the United States and the American System. Harrison is close to Clay and it can be assumed that Clay would have substantial influence on Harrison’s presidency.

• Party Affiliation: Whig Party
  
• Notable Positions: United States Senator from Virginia, President pro tempore of the United States Senate, 23rd Governor of Virginia, United States Representative from Virginia
  
• Biography: John Tyler is American gentry and a member of the First Families of Virginia. Wealthy and well-known, Tyler carries himself like a European aristocrat. He owns a tobacco plantation that is over one thousand acres large and controls dozens of slaves. His allies control prominent positions in local and state government, giving Tyler first pick of whatever position he or his family wants. From his power base in Virginia, Tyler has worked to thwart Clay and his efforts on the American System, believing it to be a direct threat to Virginia’s social structure. He is known as a defender of states’ liberties against federal tyranny and has only joined the Whig Party to better oppose the nationalists. He has been placed on the ticket as a “Southern aristocrat” meant to complement Harrison’s image as a rustic frontiersman and up Harrison’s support with the American gentry.
  
• Platform: Tyler began his career with the Democratic Party as an uneasy ally to Andrew Jackson and now stands firmly opposed to his administration. During the Adams presidency, Tyler worked with Jackson to prevent the expansion of federal power. He voted and filibustered against bills related to internal improvements, feeling these bills were the responsibility of the individual states. He also worked to censure any politician who supported the Bank of the United States. With the help of Jackson, Tyler also made the fight for states’ rights go national, turning much of the country against what Tyler saw as illegitimate exercises of authority. After Jackson was elected, however, the two drifted apart. Tyler loathes Jackson’s support of the spoils system and the President’s use of recess appointments. More importantly, he vocally opposed Jackson’s use of military force against South Carolina as a way of ending the Nullification Crisis. Tyler sympathizes with the Southern nullifiers and hopes for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. While Tyler also opposes the national bank, he opposes Jackson’s use of executive orders to close the institution, considering it an unlawful use of authority. It is unlikely that he would allow any bill to pass his desk resurrecting the institution, however. In sum, Tyler is a strict constitutionalist, opposed to mob rule and the Jacksonians who would let uneducated men elect the President. He has almost nothing in common with the Whig Party and many suspect that he is using it as a vehicle to further his political career. In foreign affairs, Taylor is a believer in free trade and expansionism. He has ambitions about expanding the United States into Mexico.

• Party Affiliation: Liberty Party
  
• Notable Positions: Abolitionist, Publisher of The Philanthropist newspaper, Representative to the Alabama Legislature
  
• Biography: James Gillespie Birney grew up witnessing slavery from a variety of perspectives. As the son of Irish Episcopalian, he saw his father fight to prevent Kentucky from joining as a slave state. When the effort proved unsuccessful, Birney’s father reluctantly bought several slaves, claiming that Kentucky’s economy had made it unavoidable. He then spent the next few years pushing for humane treatment of blacks and took his son to see slaveowner cruelty. For his part, Birney accepted the lessons of his father and eventually moved to Alabama, where he became one of the state’s wealthiest lawyers and plantation owners, known for advocating gradual emancipation and better working conditions for slaves. In Danville, he used a public letters campaign to get the city’s slaveowners to agree to emancipate their current slaves. He briefly worked for Henry Clay was a member of the South’s social elite until Birney had a sudden spiritual awakening. Citing religious obligations, he cut off all ties with the slaveowning aristocracy, sold his plantation, and moved to Illinois, because he did not want his children growing up in a slave state. He resigned from his position on the American Colonization Society, citing its cooperation with slaveowners, and has since been a prominent activist and writer within the abolitionist community.
  
• Platform: Though he once advocated for gradual emancipation, Birney has changed his position and declared that immediate emancipation is a Christian necessity. Birney hopes to emancipate all slaves and grant them equal rights under the law. He then hopes to deport most of them to Africa, believing them to be impossible to integrate. He does not support the Fugitive Slave Act and, in 1837, hired Salmon P. Chase to defend one of his servants, who turned out to be a fugitive slave. Birney is also an unrepentant supporter of John Quincy Adams who believes that Adams’s conservative values are needed to preserve the Union and make it stronger. However, he refused to support Adams after he joined the Whig Party because he considered Henry Clay and his unapologetic support of slavery to be too repugnant. Birney supports an independent Treasury over a National Bank and free trade over tariffs. He also supports extensive internal improvements to the United States’s infrastructure. He supports temperance and improved access to public education.Though he was once a Freemason, he now considers the organization evil. Internationally, Birney has expanded his beliefs in emancipation to foreign policy and hopes to use American might to free all those suffering under foreign rule. During the Greek Revolution, he wrote passionately on the America’s need to support the effort. He does not, however, support the annexation of Texas and has written to the Mexican legislature urging them to put down the slaveowner revolt. Birney and Earle had made no attempt to set up local organizations to support their candidacy and have not actually met one another in person. Because he does not believe he will win, Birney has left the country to attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London.

• Party Affiliation: Liberty Party
  
• Notable Positions: Manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Delegate at the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention
  
• Biography: A Philadelphia abolitionist and Jacksonian democrat, Thomas Earle is a strong but pragmatic supporter of abolitionism. Though affiliated with the Democratic Party since the beginning of his political career in 1817, Earle has joined the Liberty Party to build national support for abolitionism. Earle is a devoute Hicksite Quaker and owns a law firm in Philadelphia. Though he was, at one time, the manager of the American Anti-Slavery Society, he has recently been forced out of the organization for his failure to toe the party line. He is a semi-successful journalist and edits for several local newspapers including the "Columbian Observer," "Standard," "Pennsylvanian," and "Mechanics' Free Press and Reform Advocate."
  
• Platform: Unlike many of his colleagues, Thomas Earle considers himself a reformer but is not a professional politician or activist. Instead, he presents himself as a “common-sense” candidate. A man who is committed to abolition and black suffrage but is not beholden to the any particular abolitionist organization. HeAs a result, Earle has received significant scorn from other abolitionist and many local papers have called for a boycott against the Liberty Party until it nominates a true and committed abolitionist, not a turncoat Democrat. Despite this, Earle was one of the strongest defenders for black voting rights during Pennsylvania’s constitutional convention in 1837 and is a friend of Thaddeus Stevens. On all other issues, Earle is a Jacksonian. He believes that all men have a right to vote and believes the wealthy have excessive sway in American society. He opposes the national bank, believing it to be nothing more than a vehicle for wealthy Southern interests. His stances on other issues are unknown because he usually only writes on slavery related issues. Birney and Earle had made no attempt to set up local organizations to support their candidacy and have not actually met one another in person.

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 16:25 on Feb 14, 2016

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 16:23 on Feb 14, 2016

karmicknight has issued a correction as of 16:27 on Feb 14, 2016

Ibogaine has issued a correction as of 17:02 on Feb 14, 2016

Lycus has issued a correction as of 20:09 on Feb 14, 2016

Ibogaine has issued a correction as of 08:57 on Feb 15, 2016