• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Pennsylvania
  
• Notable Positions: United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, United States Secretary of State, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, United States Ambassador to Russia, United States Representative from Pennsylvania
  
• Biography: The son of wealthy Irish immigrants, James Buchanan enjoyed a happy childhood that allowed him to attend good schools, graduate with honors, and start a successful legal career. Buchanan began his political career within Pennsylvania state politics as a dedicated Federalist. From 1821 to 1831, Buchanan made a name for himself within Congress as a constitutional expert and later served on the House Judiciary Committee where he promoted Federalist causes like internal improvement projects and the National Bank. After a failed love affair with Ann Caroline Coleman, Buchanan sought refuge in political office and allowed ambition to guide his future. During the 1830s, Buchanan left the Federalists for the Democrats. He became a major figure within the northern wing of the Democratic party, serving prominent positions under Jackson and Polk, and was a potential presidential nominee in the last three elections.
  
• Platform: After the Kansas-Nebraska Act poisoned the political futures of Franklin Pierce and Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan was left as the only serious contender to the Democratic Party nomination. Hailing from Congress, with extensive diplomatic experience, Buchanan seemed to offer the Democrats a rare opportunity: A dull conservative who had not been tainted by the slavery debate, but whose actions were still predictable. Unlike Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, “Old Buck” could be controlled.
  
  Though the election remains very personality-centric, with Buchanan attacking Frémont as a bastard and defending himself against allegations about his age, bachelorhood, and history of depression, slavery dominates the campaign. Buchanan has adopted the doctrine of “popular sovereignty,” a principle which argues that every state and territory should decide on the future of slavery within its borders. He argues that popular sovereignty is the only way to bridge the growing chasm between North and South and has implied that the election of a Republican would cause a civil war. Buchanan is also the suspected author of the Ostend Manifesto, a document urging the United States to either purchase or seize Cuba from Spain. Buchanan considers himself a moderate, opposed to absolutes on both sides. He condemns both free trade and protective tariffs, moderate internal improvements, an independent Treasury, and detests both extremes on the slavery debate. He is unwilling to outlaw abolitionist societies but at the same time considers them responsible for the “postpone[ment of] emancipation in three or four states for at least half a century.” He is a strong believer in public education, but considers it a matter for the states to fund. He is an active Freemason.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Kentucky
  
• Notable Positions: United States Senator from Kentucky, United States Representative from Kentucky
  
• Biography: Breckenridge is the descendent of an old Kentucky political family and imbued with immense political and personal wealth. An attorney with ambitions for high office, Breckenridge began his political career in 1849 in state politics where he distinguished himself as a loyal and incorruptible Democrat. Using his local ties, Breckenridge then ran and won office as a Representative of Kentucky’s 8th district. As the United States hurtles towards Civil War, Breckenridge has appeared as an attractive Southerner, devoted to preserving slavery but equally committed to the Union. He is running in 1856 to balance the Democratic ticket on regional lines. If elected, he would be the youngest vice president in American history, being only 36 years old.
  
• Platform: At the Democratic National Convention in Cincinnati, Breckenridge supported Franklin Pierce for his work in supporting the South. When Pierce failed to achieve a majority of votes, Breckenridge supported Stephen Douglas for authoring the Kansas-Nebraska Act. When Douglas, too, failed, James Buchanan seemed the only logical choice. As a Northerner, however, the Southern Democrats would only need a Southerner to stand on the ticket as well. Enter, Breckenridge. A devoted Southerner, committed to the preservation and expansion of ticket, Breckenridge is the perfect candidate to address the fears of the planter class. He has actively campaigned to boost support for Buchanan and condemn the Republicans. He has told Americans that the Republicans are not to be trusted, for they are fanatically devoted to emancipation, and that they would destroy the Union to end slavery.
  
  Breckenridge is considered a moderate within his party. Instead of justifying slavery as a moral good, he considers it a constitutional issue. Slaves, as articulated within the Constitution, are property and the federal government is not empowered to interfere with property rights. He opposed the Wilmot Proviso, which would have forbidden slavery in any United States territory, and declares slavery a “wholly local and domestic” matter. Breckenridge opposes protective tariffs but supports federal funding of internal improvements so long as they are not applied in a discriminatory manner and instead lead to improvements “of a national character.” He favors westward expansion but is uniquely isolationist, declaring that America should not interfere with the internal politics of other countries. He is an active Freemason.

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: California
  
• Notable Positions: United States Senator from California, United States Military Governor of California (disputed)
  
• Biography: John C. Frémont is a military officer, explorer, and mapmaker who was instrumental in westward expansion and the development of California. The son of a French émigré, Frémont grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, where he demonstrated an aptitutde for mathematics and attended the College of Charleston. Because of family connections, Frémont secured a position as a teacher of mathematics aboard the U.S. warship Natchez, which cruised along the South American coast for two and a half years. Upon returning, he served as a railroad engineer, an assistant to French scientist Joseph Nicolas Nicollet, an explorer of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, and a surveyor on various land projects. In 1842, he travelled to Oregon to assist with American immigration to the West Coast and, eventually, led a group of American settlers to overthrow the Mexican government in California and establish the Bear Star Republic. Though he is widely known across the country, Frémont remains a political outsider. He has served only a few small elected positions and his positions on non-slavery related issues are something of a mystery.
  
• Platform: When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, it galvanized abolitionists in the North and gave the Republican Party the political space it needed to thrive. A loose coalition of reform-minded politicians, the Republican Party formed in 1854 to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act and slavery more broadly. At their first Presidential Convention in Philadelphia, the new Republican Party adopted a platform opposing the extension of slavery into the territories and supporting John C. Fremont of California for the Presidency.
  
  Though he has had to fight off attacks from the Democrats about his illegitimate birth and rumors that he might be Catholic, Frémont has tried to refocus public attention on the issue of slavery. As articulated in the Republican Party platform, Frémont is opposed to slavery in any existing territories and supports a repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which might potentially allow slavery to expand northward. He opposes nativist restrictions on immigration and the Ostend Manifesto, which calls for the United States to annex Cuba. Frémont has urged the country to get its own house in order before it tries to annex further territory. He supports a railroad project linking the East Coast with the West Coast, so long as it travels through the North and not the South. His stances on other issues are unclear, a fact which the Democrats have exploited by inflaming rumors that Frémont supports temperance, feminism, socialism, free love, and Catholicism.

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: New Jersey
  
• Notable Positions: United States Senator from New Jersey, New Jersey Legislative Councilman
  
• Biography: William Dayton is a distant relative of former House Speaker Jonathan Dayton. Born in Somerset County, New Jersey, he graduated from college in September 1825 and was admitted to the bar in 1830. Because of his reputation as a lawyer, an opponent described Dayton by saying that he “tried his first case as well as I did my last,” Dayton was elected to the New Jersey Legislative Council and later became a judge on the New Jersey Supreme Court. His easy-going and personable reputation led to his appointment to the United States Senate in 1842, where he supported efforts to stop the expansion of slavery. Despite his radical views, Dayton is well-liked both in his native New Jersey and within the United States Senate. He is considered unusually “Christian,” and is known to “scorn all indiscretions.”
  
• Platform: Dayton is a former Whig and a true believer of the Republican Party. An adamant proponent of abolition, Dayton has spent his career trying to halt the expansion of slavery and force the South to commit to real reforms to end its peculiar institution. He supports a repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On all other affairs, Dayton is a traditional Whig. He supports strengthening the independent Treasury, enacting protective tariffs to protect American industry, and robust internal improvement projects. He does not support further expansion and sees the Ostend Manifesto as a Southern attempt to increase its power.

• Party Affiliation: Whig Party
  
• Home State: New York
  
• Notable Positions: President of the United States, Vice President of the United States, Comptroller of New York, Chancellor of the University of Buffalo, United States Representative from New York
  
• Biography: Millard Fillmore was born the second of eight children to two deeply impoverished farmers. Unable to support his children, Fillmore’s father apprenticed Millard to a clothmaker where he effectively worked as a slave until he was able to steal enough money to buy his freedom. Deeply fascinated by books and education, Fillmore fell in love with his former teacher, Abigail Powers, and was able to self-teach himself law. In 1828, Fillmore gained his first experience with politics by joining the Anti-Masonic Party, where he distinguished himself as a rising star within the movement and a fervent Anti-Jacksonian. Following the death of Zachary Taylor, Fillmore served as an important but unpopular broker between Northern and Southern forces.
  
• Platform: It is not really clear why Millard Fillmore has been selected as the nominee of the American Party, an organization that seeks to halt Catholic immigration and promote American values. Though Fillmore gave lip-service to nativist ideas during the Election of 1848 and his Presidency, he has neither sought the American Party nomination, nor does he identify with it politically. In fact, his daughter attended a Catholic boarding school and he helped fund the construction of a Catholic cathedral in New York. It is unclear whether Fillmore is fully cognizant of the significance of his nomination, as he has been outside the country for the last several months. Fillmore’s isolated letters claim that he is interested in forming a “truly national party, which shall ignore this constant and distracting agitation of slavery.”
  
  A Northerner but formerly an ally of Henry Clay, Fillmore has ensured the passage of palatable compromises on the slavery issue. He believes that abolitionism is a well-intentioned but radical movement that would tear apart the Union and that the Wilmot Proviso would lead to Civil War. Fillmore opposes the much more anti-slavery William Seward and was put on the ticket partially to block Taylor should he try to appoint him to the Cabinet. He personally opposes the Fugitive Slave Law but believes that it must be protected to appease the South. He has been indecisive on the annexation of Cuba. In other foreign affairs, Fillmore is known to be deeply interested in Asia and the Pacific. He personally hopes to open trade with China and Japan. Fillmore has adopted the same jingoistic pro-revolutionary stance as many of his predecessors and believes that the United States should support democratic revolutions abroad. Fillmore supports the independent Treasury system and Clay’s American System. He believes in the need to support internal improvements and protective tariffs. He deeply opposes Freemasonry and believes that all secret societies should be outlawed.

• Party Affiliation: American Party
  
• Home State: Tennessee
  
• Notable Positions: United States Ambassador to Prussia, United States Ambassador to Texas
  
• Biography: Andrew Jackson Donelson has had a long career thanks to his namesake and uncle, Andrew Jackson. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Donelson attended Cumberland College and graduated from the United States Military Academy before spending two years as Andrew Jackson’s aide-de-camp. From this position, Donelson learned the trade of politics and was eventually selected to serve as Jackson’s private secretary in Washington. Following Jackson’s departure from office, Donelson found himself thrust into various positions as elites tried to appease his famous relative. In 1844, John Tyler appointed him Ambassador to Texas, where he was responsible for negotiating the terms of annexation. Following his mission’s success, he became a respected elder within the Democratic Party. Under Pierce, Donelson was appointed to serve as the Ambassador to Prussia, a position which he served competently, before retiring. Donelson has joined the American Party because he sees it as the next big political movement and hopes that it will fill the void left by the Whigs.
  
• Platform: Donelson is a Unionist above all else; a man who fears that the country will be torn apart if it cannot find an issue other than slavery to focus upon. Though it is unclear whether he supports the American Party’s nativist platform, which includes stringent limitations on Catholic immigration, strengthening naturalization laws, and enforcing Protestantism, he does feel that the American Party is the only organization that can claim to be a truly national party, being appealing to both Northerners and Southerners instead of just one part of the nation. Despite this rhetoric, Donelson is a Democrat at heart. He believes in free trade, minimal internal improvements, and a weak Treasury. He supports slavery but is willing to sacrifice the institution if it means upholding the Union.

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 22:47 on Mar 13, 2016