Ibogaine has issued a correction as of 18:12 on May 2, 2016

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 16:34 on May 6, 2016

Ibogaine has issued a correction as of 00:32 on May 7, 2016

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: Ohio
  
• Notable Positions:
  
• Biography: James Garfield was born the youngest of five children on the outskirts of Ohio. One of the poorest men to ever seek the presidency, Garfield supported himself as a part-time teacher, a carpenter, and a janitor through college. After graduating from Williams College, Garfield decided to pursue law and, in 1861, passed the Ohio bar exam and joined the Ohio Legislature. There, Garfield earned a reputation as a loyal Unionist and a passionate defender of the Republican Party. His achievements would come to help in earn a seat in the House of Representatives without campaigning. As a Congressman, Garfield distinguished himself as a “Gold Bug” Republican, a proponent of “hard-money” reforms. He would come to regret this position following the economic collapse of 1873. After his implication in the Credit Mobilier scandal, Garfield shifted his stance on civil service reform and became a steadfast advocate of Rutherford B. Hayes’s civil service reforms. He has since earned a reputation for bridging together disparate factions.
  
• Platform: Since the end of Reconstruction, the two parties have moved increasingly close together. This fact is especially evident with the nomination of James A. Garfield, a Unionist war hero with a reputation for honesty who supported Reconstruction.Like his opponent, Garfield is sympathetic to hte plight of American workers and supports bimetallism, believing that a fixed silver standard system will increase inflation and help workers pay off their debts. Also like his opponent, Garfield has been incensed by the disappointing civil service reforms of the Hayes Administration. He hopes to make patronage a federal crime and wants to institute term limits on minor Executive posts to reduce the branch’s problem with rampant corruption. The only political belief really separating Garfield and Hancock are their views on tariffs. Unlike Hancock, Garfield believes that tariffs should be used to both increase government revenue and protect American industry. Hancock has used this view to paint Garfield as unsympathetic to American consumers. As a Republican, James Garfield is a fierce opponent to Jim Crow laws across the South and a proponent of black suffrage. However, he was ill at ease with some of his allies, who seemed to want military occupation to remain in place forever. Garfield disliked the radical attempts to suspend habeas corpus and other civil liberties across the South and opposed the Ku Klux Klan Act for giving the Executive excessive authority to track down terrorists. Garfield believes that the United States should increase its relations with Latin America and support the development of the new republics there. He is particularly interested in constructing a canal in Central America, but is not yet sure of the details.

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: New York
  
• Notable Positions:
  
• Biography: Chester Alan Arthur was born in 1829 in a small log cabin as the fifth of eight children to Reverend William Arthur, a passionate abolitionist, and Malvina Arthur. Though he was a lazy student, Arthur had aspirations at an early age of entering the public service and used his father’s connections to pursue that goal. In 1854, he gained a clerkship in a New York law firm under abolitionist Erastus D. Culver, who would later achieve fame by supporting the claims of slaves against their former masters. Arthur spent much of his time handling this case and, although the New York Supreme Court ruled against him, Arthur gained connections with prominent legal minds across the state. Arthur’s involvement in the case of Elizabeth Jennings, who had been forced out of a white section of a streetcar, earned him praise and distinction among New York’s abolitionist community, praise which only heightened after Arthur enlisted in the Union Army for the Civil War. After the war, Arthur became extremely wealthy defending his former compatriots in civil suits for war-related damages. The war also allowed him to secure an appointment as the Collector of the Port of New York. Though he was given a hefty salary, Arthur routinely collected kickbacks and bribes for his services. Following the inauguration of Hayes, however, Arthur tried to shake his reputation as the former tried to have him removed from office.
  
• Platform: Chester A. Arthur is a moderate technocrat, capable of managing the extensive federal bureaucracy to help Garfield fulfill his platform. With his involvement in corruption, he is also capable of sorting out pork-barrel proposals from real proposals. Arthur considers the two largest issues in American politics to be corruption and improving economic conditions. For the former, Arthur has expressed full commitment to Garfield’s proposals banning salary kickbacks. He also hopes to transform the civil service from a patronage-based system to one based on merit, with advancement explicitly based on examinations. For the latter, Arthur has broken with Republican orthodoxy and believes that it is necessary to lower tariffs to kick start the economy. He believes that protectionist policies only reduce consumer welfare and harm national growth. Arthur has a history defending former slaves and is concerned about civil rights. Unlike any other candidate, he does not feel threatened by Chinese immigration and considers it a likely benefit to the American economy.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Pennsylvania
  
• Notable Positions: Military Governor of the Fifth Military District, Major General in the Union Army
  
• Biography: William Hancock is a general best known for his bravery at Gettysburg. A twin born in Montgomery Square, Pennsylvania, Hancock was an active part of his local community. In the 1840s, Hancock’s reputation helped him secure admission to West Point, where he graduated 18h in his class of 25 and was assigned to infantry. This position allowed Scott to participate in the Mexican-American War, where he proved adept at recruiting soldiers and leading men into battle. He participated in the occupation of Mexico City, the last military action he would see until the Civil War. In the American Civil War, Hancock earned himself the nickname “superb” for leading a critical counterattack in the Battle of Williamsburg. He continued his excellent service and led a major drive during the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, Hancock was granted control of the Fifth Military District, a military occupation covering Texas and Louisiana. Though imbued with substantial powers, Hancock earned the ire and respect of his superiors for refusing to use military force on a frequent basis. Rather, he saw his role as to encourage the reestablishment of civil government in “natural and rightful dominion.” Hancock is widely respected across the North and well -liked across the South for his leniency
  
• Platform: With the end of Reconstruction, the Democratic and Republican parties have increasingly come to resemble one another. This fact is especially evident in the nomination of Winfield S. Hancock, a Unionist war hero with a reputation for honesty that participated in the military Reconstruction of the South. Like his main opponent, Hancock favors “soft-money” and bimetallism to help the poor farmers of the West. After the disappointing reforms of Hayes, Hancock also promotes extensive civil service reform and wants to make patronage a federal crime. Unlike the Republicans, however, Hancock draws parallels between rampant corruption and the “Great Fraud of 1876-1877, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes, the candidate defeated at the polls was declared to be President.” If elected, Hancock promises a major investigation into the disputed election to determine the actual victor. Also unlike his opponent, Hancock believes that tariffs are ultimately harmful to the American consumer and only supports them to improve government revenue. This view has allowed the Republicans to paint Hancock as unsympathetic to Northern labor and harmed his position among industrialists. Hancock participated in Reconstruction and is believed to be sympathetic to the plight of blacks across the South. However, he believes that “the military power should cease to lead, and the civil administration[s of the South] should resume [their] natural and rightful dominion.” These views earned him the scorn of Radical Republicans who believed he was inviting Confederates back into the fold. As military governor, he refused to overturn elections and court verdicts while stamping down on Confederate terrorism. He opposes immigration from China and believes that American values in the West are under threat by the Chinese invasion. Hancock is, however, interested in improving America’s ties with Latin America. He believes that the region is ripe for American investment.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: Indiana
  
• Notable Positions: United States Representative from Indiana, Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives, Member of the Indiana House of Representatives
  
• Biography: William Hayden English was born in Lexington, Indiana as the only son of Elisha and Mahala English, Kentucky slaveholders who hoped to take advantage of the new land grants out West. Following his father’s example, William became embedded in politics at an early age and opened a law firm in his hometown of Scott County. In 1842, English accepted a mentorship under Governor Jesse Bright, who was a member of the same Democratic Party faction as then-President Polk. As a reward for Bright’s service, English gained a “special” appointment as a clerk in the Treasury Department, a position which he served for four years before being purged by Zachary Taylor, who loathed his predecessor’s patronage. Returning home, English was to catapult his federal experience into a viable career in state politics. In August 1851, he became a member of Indiana’s House of Representatives and, later, its speaker. In 1853, he joined the U.S. Congress where he tried to build compromise between the North and South. Seeing his efforts in vain, English declined to run for office in 1860 and instead focused on his business career where he chartered Indiana’s largest bank. Though the Panic of 1873 has adversely affected his wealth, it has allowed him to slowly buy up large portions of downtown Indianapolis at a cheap price. As such, English is well-known statewide.
  
• Platform: English is a member of the conservative faction of the Democratic Party and has consistently defended traditional Democratic values like states rights. In 1851, English worked to ensure that the Indiana Constitution restricted suffrage to white men at the expense of freedmen. He later promoted the doctrine of popular sovereignty in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, though he expressed reservations about its implementation. More recently, English has made a name for himself as an advocate of the gold standard and believes strong “hard-money” policies are needed to promote financial stability. He opposes tariffs for anything but revenue purposes. English is a major advocate of civil service reform and believes that the Republicans are too compromised as an institution to promote good governance.

• Party Affiliation: Greenback Party
  
• Home State: Iowa
  
• Notable Positions: United States Representative from Iowa, Brevet Birigadier-General in the Union Army
  
• Biography: James B. Weaver is an agrarian activist and radical. Born in Ohio, Weaver’s family took advantage of the Homestead Act to move out to the Iowa Territory. While initially happy with their new land, Weaver’s family became increasingly unhappy by wealthy landowners who seized land around them. Over the next few yeears, Weaver took several different professions to protect himself. He read law. He drove cattle from Iowa to Sacramento, California. He prospected gold, sailed to Panama, and ran a small store. By 1856, Weaver’s experiences led him to reject slavery and he joined the newly formed Republican Party. Known for his adventurism, Weaver became a staple of Iowa’s Republican Party and frequently gave speeches across the state in support of anti-slavery Republicans. Naturally, after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, Weaver enlisted in the Union Army and participated in major battles at Shiloh and Corinth as well as Major General Sherman’s March Through Georgia. After the war’s end, Weaver gained several minor positions in the federal government before receiving the Republican nomination for Congress. After his loss and the Panic of 1873, Weaver grew disenchanted with the Republicans and joined the Greenbacks. He is currently one of the few third-party Congressmen.
  
• Platform: As one might expect from the nominee of the Greenback Party, Weaver’s central commitment is the passage of so-called “soft-money” reforms. In the Greenback conception of things, these reforms would move the United States off of the gold standard and towards a credit-based, government-issued paper currency system. Weaver points to the success of the Greenbacks during the Civil War as a sign that his proposal is realistic. Hoping to expand the party base and become a major player in future elections, Weaver has adopted an extensive reformist platform intended to appeal to workers and farmers. Weaver supports an eight-hour work day that is protected by national and state authorities, as well as safe work environments for all workers. Weaver has decried the horrendous working conditions of most of the poor and the growing number of children involved in manufacturies. He thinks that child labor should be prohibited. Further, Weaver considers it the duty of Congress to protect American consumers from monopolies and corporations. As can be seen in the growing influence of the railroads across the West, Congress must be willing to step in when private companies become too powerful. This regulatory environment can be supported by the reintroduction of an income tax. Weaver supports women’s suffrage and believes that all people, except felons, should be fully enfranchised. He does not, however, support Chinese immigration and believes that their importation is degrading and brutalizing American labor. Weaver supports the prohibition of alcohol.

• Party Affiliation: Greenback Party
  
• Home State: Texas
  
• Notable Positions: Largest landowner in Johnson County, Texas
  
• Biography: Barzillai Jefferson Chambers is a pioneer and politician, noted for his radical populist views. The son of Walker and Talitha Cumi Chambers, Kentucky farmers, Barzillai spent the first twenty years of his life doing intense farm work. Bored of farm life, Chambers followed his uncle into Texas and helped the latter form a militia in support of the Texas Revolution. After the revolution and the state’s subsequent annexation, Chambers became the deputy surveyor for north central Texas and helped promote American settlement between the Brazos and Trinity Rivers. His success is surveying (and success in escaping Indian attacks) allowed him to accumulate massive tracts of land. Like many wealthy landowners, Chambers opposed Abraham Lincoln and supported Southern secession during the Civil War. He has since spent his time promoting railroad development and pushing against the 1875 Constitution for its protection of the debtor class.
  
• Platform: Chambers represents the western farmer wing of the Greenback alliance, which emphasizes personal independence and independence from the two parties. A Southern Democrat who opposed the expansionary powers of the federal government, Chambers first gained prominence for his editorials opposing an interest-bearing national debt. According to Chambers, the Federal Reserve and its policies prevented inflation, which is necessary to reduce the debts of poor farmers in the West. As such, he opposes government intervention in banking and has urged the government to create “a sufficient amount of paper money, making it equal to gold and silver and full legal tender for all debts.” The banks, Chambers believes, are the source of America’s problems. Chambers has also spoken substantially about reforming the settlement process, believing that it unfairly benefits creditors at the expense of the poor. Though he is not a socialist himself, Chambers has fought constantly to protect the rights of socialists within the Greenback Party and within Texas itself and considers their beliefs as valid as anyone else’s. He does not support the black civil rights movement and supported the Confederacy.

• Party Affiliation: Prohibition Party
  
• Home State: Maine
  
• Notable Positions: Mayor of Portland, Brigadier-General in the Union Army, Founder of the Maine Temperance Union
  
• Biography: As the so-called “Napoleon of Temperance” and “Father of Prohibition,” Neal Dow is either a saint or an embarrassment to the entire state of Maine. Born in Portland to a pair of devour Quakers, Dow was involved in activism and volunteer work from an early age. As a teenager, he served as a volunteer firefighter and gained notice among locals as one of the few firemen not constantly drunk. In his early twenties, he became so concerned over the growing presence of alcohol in the American diet that he helped form the Maine Temperance Society before splitting off to form the Maine Temperance Union over the question of temperance versus abstinence . Dow favored the latter. Using his social connections, Dow was elected as Mayor of Portland in 1851 and single-handedly secured the passage of legislation that would ban alcohol statewide. Though many expected the Governor to veto the law, Dow succeeded in soothing and cajoling the Governor into letting the law stand, making Maine the first state to prohibit alcohol. After losing re-election, partly over the prohibition, and a disastrous riot that caused Dow to be prosecuted under the Maine law, Dow joined the Union Army, where he participated in the capture of New Orleans and the Siege of Port Hudson. Since the war’s end, Dow has worked to transform prohibition from a quirky fad in New England to a nationwide experiment.
  
• Platform: Given his personal history and party, it should be no surprise that Dow’s primary concern is to ensure that the production and distribution of alcohol is stopped immediately. Dow believes that alcohol leads to the degradation of morals and is a poison that “paralyzes thrift, industry, manufacture, and commercial life.” Dow has called Congress to pass an act similar to the Maine law, which prohibited all alcoholic beverages except for “medicinal, mechanical, or manufacturing purposes,” if not an outright amendment to the Constitution. Though Dow is an ardent believer in black equality and known to have been part of the Underground Railroad, the party has chosen to focus solely on the issue of temperance and prohibition. Given how the two parties have ignored prohibition, it is necessary for the Prohibition Party to spend all their time and effort raising awareness of teetotalism.

• Party Affiliation: Prohibition Party
  
• Home State: Ohio
  
• Notable Positions: President of Otterbein University
  
• Biography: Henry Thompson is an activist and intellectual with extensive experience in financial management. Born in 1837 to anti-slavery and temperance activist John Thompson. John Thompson served as county sheriff of Chester County,Pennsylvania, an experience that exposed both him and his son to a variety of social ills. In 1854, Thompson attended Jefferson College to study theology and became deeply embedded in the college’s pietist community, a radical Christian sect that emphasizes personal piety above all else. In 1862, Thompson began applying his religious beliefs through his teaching career. He taught at Otterbein University and later became superintendedent of schools in Troy, Ohio. In 1872, Thompson returned to Otterbein to become its President, a position that he unfortunately took immediately before the Panic of 1873. As such, Thompson has spent much of his tenure trying to keep the school afloat via fundraising. He gives speeches around the country on the importance of education and abstinence from alcohol.
  
• Platform: Thompson is a member of the Pietist movement, a Christian movement that emphasizes indivudual piety in accordance with the Bible. This moral code has led Thompson to the same conclusions as his running-mate regarding alcohol, that it undermines society by laxening moral standards and inviting vice. He ses alcohol as responsible for the ongoing economic crisis and has agitated for prohibition nationwide. He sees a constitutional amendment as the best way to achieve total and permanent prohibition. Thompson has declined to elaborate on his other views, though he is a former Republican.

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 03:56 on May 9, 2016

Platystemon has issued a correction as of 04:17 on May 9, 2016

karmicknight has issued a correction as of 04:28 on May 9, 2016

Platystemon has issued a correction as of 04:36 on May 9, 2016