Nckdictator has issued a correction as of 04:47 on Mar 29, 2016

Mantis42 has issued a correction as of 07:01 on Mar 29, 2016

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 03:43 on Apr 3, 2016

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: Illinois
  
• Notable Positions: President of the United States of America, United States Representative from Illinois, Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
  
• Biography: Born in a log cabin in Kentucky in 1809, Lincoln grew up along the Indiana and Kentucky frontier where he helped his father tend to the family farm. Dirt-poor and largely self-educated, young Lincoln developed a strong sense of justice after seeing his father struggle to achieve security through the financial court system or compete with the large, wealthy slaveowners who controlled the state. Self-dependent, Lincoln volunteered for the Illinois militia, taught himself law, and eventually attained several political positions in his hometown. He distinguished himself in the Illinois Legislature as a Whig politician, who helped campaign for Scott in 1852, but left the party shortly before its disintegration to join the newly-formed Republican Party. A spectacular orator and fiercely opposed to slavery, Lincoln was chosen as the Republican Party’s standardbearer against the Democratic Party and their powerful nominee, Stephen Douglas. Recently, Lincoln has had to fend off attacks within his own party to secure renomination.
  
• Platform: Lincoln’s moderate reputation and “slang-whanging stump speaker” country style has taken a backseat in this election to warnings about separatism and disunion. Warning the electorate not to “swap horses in the middle of the stream,” the Republicans have equated opposition to Lincoln and the Republicans with disloyalty to the Union and surrender to slave-owning elites. Soldiers have been brought back from the field to show popular support for the war in the military despite high casualties. Pamphlets have been distributed alleging of a secret conspiracy between the Democrats and the Confederates, both of whom hope to carve up the Union to progress some nefarious plot. Under Lincoln, the party promises, the United States will never seek a negotiated settlement. It will prosecute the war until it achieves an unconditional surrender and he will not reintegrate the South until he receives loyalty pledges from the rebellion’s organizers. Lincoln will further do all he can to ensure the abolition of slavery (a likely olive branch to Fremont) by passing an amendment to the Constitution that outlaws the practice.
  
  In other affairs, Lincoln remains a pragmaticist. He supports the Homestead Act under the assumption that it will help the North and South. He also supports moderate tariffs and internal improvements. Given that the survival of the Union is at stake, Lincoln has not emphasized these views.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Tennessee
  
• Notable Positions: Military Governor of Tennessee, Governor of Tennessee, United States Senator from Tennessee, United States Representative from Tennessee, Member of the Tennessee House of Representatives
  
• Biography: With the possible exception of Andrew Jackson, no man like Andrew Johnson has ever been nominated by a major party for election. Born in a log cabin to impoverished, nearly illiterate parents, Johnson spent his early childhood apprenticed under a cruel local tailor, from whom he fled when he had the first opportunity. Fleeing from the law, who had put a reward on Johnson’s head, Johnson and his family moved to Greenville, Tennessee, where Andrew set up a shop as a tailor and met his future wife, Eliza McCardle. Though interested in politics, Johnson’s near illiteracy prevented him from joining the fray until he received private tutoring from his wife. By 1834, Johnson had served as a town alderman and mayor and had made a name for himself within the South as a Jacksonian Democrat. Viewed as a rising political star despite his humble beginnings, Johnson was served to a term in the House of Representatives and was appointed to the United States Senate. In 1865, he became the only Southern senator to retain his seat and reject calls for secession. For this decision, Johnson has been lauded across the Union.
  
• Platform: Afraid that he might lose re-election, Lincoln made a radical decision when he decided to put Andrew Johnson on his ticket. A War Democrat, Johnson has earned the praise of Republicans and Unionist Democrats alike for having stood loyal while “in the very furnace of the rebellion.” A yeoman Democrat, who has relied on small farmers and artisans throughout his political career, Johnson is known for his hatred of the planter aristocracy. He has personally sworn to do everything in his power to bring the would-be separatists back into the fold. However, many worry about Johnson’s views should the war come to an end or, God forbid, Lincoln be killed. Johnson has virtually no executive or administrative experience and no extraordinary talents of which to speak. He is suspected to be illiterate and, though he opposes the South for their separatism, many suspect that he is not at all committed to abolition and will seek the South’s immediate reintegration into the Union the moment the war ends. He is, afterall, a native son of Tennessee, and it would not do to have his brothers denied suffrage until they sign loyalty pledges while the blacks gain a political foothold. Johnson is believed to hold the same views on slavery as his secessionist cousins and would only support it as a measure to spite the secessionists. As Military Governor of Tennessee, Johnson convinced Lincoln to exempt Tennessee from the Emancipation Proclamation.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: New Jersey
  
• Notable Positions: Major-General in the Union Army
  
• Biography: George B. McClellan is a skillful Union general, who has earned the unfortunate nickname “Little Mac” for repeatedly failing to destroy Confederate forces. Graduating second in his class from West Point, McClellan served in the Mexican American War and is an expert in military engineering, railroads, and “big war science.” For these skills, McClellan became an immediate icon in the leadership-starved Northern army, pursued by the Governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to command their militias. Though he disagreed with Lincoln politically, McClellan joined the federal government’s forces, saving western Virginia from Confederate takeover. After Union defeat at Bull Run, McClellan was promoted and formed the Army of the Potomac. Though much beloved, McClellan’s popularity plummeted when he refused to take the offensive against the enemy and had to be directly ordered by the President to advance into Confederate territory. As the war went on, McClellan’s reputation for hesitancy only grew. He withdrew when he could have taken Richmond. He retreated when he heard that General Robert E. Lee was commanding the Confederate Army in the Seven Days’ Battle and, most egregiously, he let Southern forces get away at the Battle of Antietam when they could have been destroyed. Exasperated, President Lincoln relieved him of his command.
  
• Platform: McClellan’s candidacy has been rocked by division within the Democratic Party and general confusion about the future of the Union. Whereas the Democratic Party itself has endorsed peace talks and has called for an end to the war, McClellan has publicly declared that he supports the continuation of the war and is only running to take command from the martially incompetent Lincoln. For him, Lincoln is a butcher who has unjustly put men into harm’s way. Lincoln has no military experience and, thus, is unable to ensure victory against the secessionist, who McClellan also despises. His election, he claims, would not be an end to the war but a recalibration in strategy focused on minimizing losses and avoiding expensive boondoggles like the Emancipation Proclamation, which will make eventual reintegration painful. Unfortunately, Little Mac has been forced to fight against his own newspapers, which have pushed for a negotiated settlement, and his running mate, who believes that hostilities between the two feuding parties should cease. Despite these disagreements, McClellan is in agreement with his party on the slavery issue. He does not believe the federal government has the authority to end slavery and would seek a reasonable compromise on the issue between North and South, assuming the South agreed to abandon its independence. He has no positions on any other issues.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Ohio
  
• Notable Positions: United States Representative from Ohio, Member of the Ohio Senate
  
• Biography: Known as “Gentleman George,” Pendleton is one of the country’s leading Peace Democrats. Admitted to the bar in 1847, Pendleton owns a successful law firm in Cincinnati Ohio. Through his various cases, Pendleton worked his way into the political elite and, in 1853, was elected to the Ohio State Senate before pursuing a career in federal government. Pendleton was forced to spend his inaugural term watching the nation collapse around him. Though he supported early peace talks between North and South, the continued fighting has taken its toll on Pendleton. He has pushed against radical proposals by the Republicans in the majority and has remained one of Lincoln’s few critics still left in Congress. His grandfather was present at the Hamilton-Burr Duel.
  
• Platform: George H. Pendleton believes that the war with the South is impossible to win, that the South is more committed to victory than the North will ever be, and that the two sides are at greater risk of destroying themselves than they are of one another. As such, Pendleton pushed the Democratic Party to adopt a peace platform in 1864. He hopes to achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities between the two sides and some negotiated settlement in which the threat posed by the South can be mitigated. For these views, Pendleton has come into conflict with his running mate, McClellan, who does not believe the war should end. It is unknown how these two men would handle their differences if elected. Their only source of agreement are their views on Lincoln. Both men are worried about the sacrifices Lincoln is willing to make in order to achieve victory and has pointed to the suspension of civil liberties as well as the Emancipation Proclamation as dangerous threats. On all other affairs, Pendleton is a Jacksonian Democrat.

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 18:47 on Apr 4, 2016