QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 01:01 on May 29, 2016

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 15:35 on Jun 4, 2016

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: Indiana
  
• Notable Positions: United States Senator from Indiana, Brevet Brigadier General in the Union Army
  
• Biography: Benjamin Harrison was born in 1833, the grandson of the much-forgotten William Henry Harrison. While the Harrisons enjoyed prominence in their home state of Indiana, Benjamin Harrison had early aspirations for greatness. He did not just want to be a senator or governor, he wanted to be President of the United States. He became a diligent student and astute public speaker. After graduating from Miami University, Harrison opened his own law practice and became involved in the local Republican Party. In 1862, Harrison joined the Union Army where he eventually attained the rank of brevet brigadier general. Using his war experience as a springboard, Harrison became a powerful power broker within the Republican Party and was largely responsible for the nomination of James Garfield. In 1880, the Indiana legislature named him to the Senate, where he enjoyed considerable prominence. After Grover Cleveland vetoed one of his pension bills, Harrison set out to dethrone him. While Harrison is well-known and extremely successful, he is not considered to be charismatic. Privately, many consider him cold and mechanical. He has earned the nick-name, “the human iceberg.”
  
• Platform: Benjamin Harrison is a moderate Republican who believes in slow, gradual change over sudden, massive reforms. At the center of his campaign is the tariff issue. Unlike Cleveland, who has advocated for a policy of free trade, Harrison thinks that tariffs should be enlarged and expanded to protect industry, improve the wages of workers, and fuel federal revenue. Harrison has stated that he wants to use tariff revenue to replace sales taxes on things like alcohol and tobacco, which unfairly burden certain segments of the population. He also wants to use the new revenue to address major social issues, like guaranteeing pensions for veterans and their dependents, protecting African Americans from Southern harassment, and guaranteeing all African Americans access to federal education. Harrison is also in “favor of the use of both gold and silver as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration in its efforts to demonetize silver.” Harrison wants to counteract the growing influence of the railroads and possibly reserve large tracts of land for federal use, but has not stated how he would like to accomplish this goal. In international affairs, Harrison sees the United States as a rising power, one that must counteract British imperialism. In his unusual hostility towards the British, Harrison wants to expand and modernize the navy and expand American influence into the Pacific and Latin America. He is particularly interested in Hawaii, which is increasingly controlled by American businessmen. Harrison strongly opposes restrictions on immigration and was one of the few legislators to vote against the Chinese Exclusion Acts.

• Party Affiliation: Republican Party
  
• Home State: New York
  
• Notable Positions: United States Ambassador to France, United States Representative from New York
  
• Biography: Levi Morton was born in Vermont to a Congregationalist minister. Interested in business and politics at an early age, Morton left school early to work as a merchant in Massachusetts and a teacher in New Hampshire. After gaining a small pot of savings, Morton moved to New York City, where he established a dry-goods business and became a semi-successful banker. Like many wealthy business owners, Morton decided that the next logical step in his career was to secure election for national office. He ran unsuccessfully in 1876 for a seat in the House of Representatives but won the following election cycle. Having met Morton during the Grant Administration, likely nominee James A. Garfield asked Morton to be his vice president. After Morton refused, he was instead appointed to be Garfield’s Minister to France, an appointment that would drive Charles J. Guiteau to assassinate Garfield several weeks later. In this capacity, Morton is extremely capable. Under his watch, French and American relations have flourished and commercial relations have grown. In 1881, the French allowed Morton to drive the first rivet into the Statue of Liberty.
  
• Platform: Levi Morton is a business Republican, more interested in strengthening American industry and its foreign prestige than any particular social issue. He identifies strongly with Harrison’s campaign platform, which emphasizes the need for high tariffs. Morton believes that tariffs will spur the development of industry, guarantee high profits, and promote high wages. Morton is also a strong advocate of the gold standard and believes that a strong currency is needed to protect American banking. Throughout his career, Morton has acted as a defender of American banks and has urged the federal government to offer more support to them. Though he is a Republican, Morton does not strongly identify with the cause of civil rights and has often viewed it as a distraction from more pressing economic issues. He would rather delay the cause of civil rights than alienate the Southern gentry, who control most of the South’s wealth.

• Party Affiliation: Democratic Party
  
• Home State: New York
  
• Notable Positions: Governor of New York, Mayor of Buffalo, New York, Sheriff of Erie County, New York
  
• Biography: Grover Cleveland was born in Caldwell, New Jersey to a poor Reverend. Spending most of his childhood in central New York, where his father ministered, Cleveland had no opportunity to attend college and instead worked constantly to support his family. Though he would never attend college, he would pass the New York bar at twenty-two through sheer force of will. Cleveland was able to evade the draft during the Civil War by hiring a substitute, a decision that would advance his career in the short-run but haunt him long-term. He would be elected Sheriff of Erie County in 1870 where he cultivated a reputation as a non-partisan reformer, who nonetheless took pleasure in food, alcohol, and the like. After elected to be Mayor of Buffalo, New York, Cleveland exposed rampant corruption in his own party and oversaw a complete restructuring of Buffalo’s city government. Seeing the advantages of running an upright urban reformer against an increasingly corrupt Republican Party, the New York Republican Party nominated him for the governorship in New York. There, he vetoed what he saw as extravagant legislation intended to benefit special interest groups. He worked with local reformers in New York City to destroy Tammany Hall and gained a reputation as the hardest working politician in New York government, frequently working late hours. As a candidate for President, the Democrats have emphasized Cleveland’s status as a political outsider, a reformer, and a man of integrity. Despite recent allegations about his behavior as sheriff, Cleveland is widely perceived as a man of integrity.
  
• Platform: Cleveland is a staunch political and social conservative who views the President’s role as one of a distant overseer. The President should ensure that the government is honest and effective. For this election, however, Cleveland has pushed those views aside. In his State of the Union address for 1887, Cleveland argued that American tariffs were too high and stifled the growth of the American economy. He has, thus, made free trade the centerpiece of his campaign and urged the American public to remove its restrictions on international markets so that foreign countries might reduce their tariffs in kind. He has reminded Americans that the United States is already a low-cost producer and that its current tariffs make little economic sense. Once the United States has benefited from lowering tariffs, Cleveland promises to establish a distant, “hands-off” government. He would like to remove “all unnecessary taxation” and has spent his presidency eliminating wasteful federal spending. Cleveland thinks that the National Treasury has gained an alarmingly large surplus that needs to be reduced. He strongly opposes immigration from “servile races” like the Chinese and wants to increase restrictions on Asian immigration lest they steal American jobs. In an executive order, Cleveland ordered the Union Army to return all captured Confederate battle flags to their home states. The order endeared the South but enraged the powerful Grand Army of the Republic, forcing Cleveland to rescind the order.

• Party Affiliation:
  
• Home State: Ohio
  
• Notable Positions: President pro tempore of the United States Senate, United States Senator from Ohio, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, United States Representative from Ohio
  
• Biography: Born in Lynchburg, Virginia to a Methodist minister and former slaveowner, Thurman grew up with incredible opportunities. Pushed by his father, Thurman began studying law at an early age and apprenticed under his uncle, who would later become a United States Senator. At the age of twenty-one, Thurman’s private connections secured him a position as a private secretary to the Governor of Ohio. A few years later, he became a partner in his uncle’s law firm and was set on the path to join him in government. Thurman was elected to Congress during the Polk Administration and served as a prominent ally to them. In 1851, he left Congress to serve in the Ohio Supreme Court, where he advanced Democratic causes and policies. In 1869, he rejoined national politics, this time as a Senator. In that capacity, he became known as a hard worker and courteous speaker. Though he has since retired, Thurman is still fondly remembered in Washington.
  
• Platform: Thurman is a throwback to the pre-Civil War Democratic Party and embodies the old Democratic tradition of ignoring race in favor of economic issues. Throughout his career, Thurman has pushed policies to help poor whites. He supported the Mexican-American War and tried to ban all non-white settlers from moving to the newly attained land. In the lead-up to the Civil War, he supported the Missouri Compromise. After the south’s secession, he firmly opposed the emancipation and enfranchisement of blacks, fearing that they would be easily controlled by the Republicans and create an oligarchy for the rich. Inspired by Jacksonian tradition, Thurman has consistently pushed to regulate big business and empower the less wealthy. He is a vocal critic of the railroads and wants to reign in their excessive land grants. Thurman also wants to prohibit monopolies as he considers them destructive to the political process. He supports expansive internal improvement projects to help the economy.

• Party Affiliation: Prohibition Party
  
• Home State: New York
  
• Notable Positions: Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau for Kentucky and Tennessee, Brevet Major General in the Union Army
  
• Biography: Born in 1828 as the sixth son of a blacksmith, Fisk endured a hard childhood. In 1832, Fisk’s father died of a typhoid epidemic. The following year, his widowed mother lost all her possessions to a gang of robbers. After she remarried, Fisk’s step-father sent him away to a seminary so that he would not have to raise Clinton himself. Despite these disadvantages, Fisk was able to work his way through school. After grueling labor, he succeeded in paying his way through Michigan Central College. He briefly knew success during the 1850s as a merchant, banker, and insurance agent, but the Panic of 1857 wiped out his personal savings and left him on the brink of ruin. Because of this financial status (and his sympathies with slaves), he joined the Union Army. There, Fisk distinguished himself by counteracting Confederate raids and guerrilla attacks. After the war, he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau in Kentucky and Tennessee, a position that allowed him to realize his ideas on race. Using abandoned barracks, Fisk opened the first integrated schools in the South. After the authorizing legislation for the Freedman’s Bureau expired, Fisk served the Board of Indian Commissioners where he tried to compensate the native tribes for their lost lands. He is a mid-ranking bureaucrat with some fame for his Civil War service.
  
• Platform: Having succeeded again in bucking the “narrow gauge” faction of the party, the Prohibitionists have adopted a broad reformist platform that gives preference to, but does not exclusively seek, the prohibition of alcohol. In addition to securing anti-alcohol amendments to the national and state constitutions, the Prohibition Party wants to abolish the Internal Revenue Service for unfairly profiting from the liquor traffic and unfairly targeting the poor. In its place, the party promises to pay for government expenditures through tariff reform, namely by raising duties on food, clothing, and “other comforts and necessities… as will give protection both to the manufacturing employer and producing laborer against the competition of the world.” They also want workers to be granted the right to organize so that they might unite against big business. The Prohibitionists want the land monopolies to be broken up and their assets redistributed to actual settlers. Fisk also supports legislation that will guarantee equal wages for individuals regardless of sex or race, They believe that suffrage is a right that should be accessible to all people of the proper mental and moral qualifications. Though they want the Sabbath to be recognized as a national holiday and civil institution, Fisk has reminded his supporters not to oppress those who worship on other days of the week. He also supports standardizing the laws of marriage and divorce, both to promote equality and to ensure the abolition of polygamy. Fisk supports civil service reform and believes the federal bureaucracy should be a non-partisan meritocracy. He thinks current immigration laws should be enforced and supports neither strengthening or laxening current immigration law.

• Party Affiliation: Prohibition Party
  
• Home State: Missouri
  
• Notable Positions: Member of the Prohibition National Committee
  
• Biography: John Anderson Brooks is a native of Kansas City, Missouri and a minor member of the Prohibition National Committee. He is a local religious leader and scholar. Very little information is known about him.
  
• Platform: As a member of the Prohibition National Committee, it can be assumed that Brooks endorses his running-mate’s platform. He is likely strongly opposed to alcohol and wants it to be immediately outlawed. Little else is known about him.

• Party Affiliation: Union Labor Party
  
• Home State: Illinois
  
• Notable Positions: Member of the Illinois House of Representatives
  
• Biography: Alson Jenness Streeter was born in 1823 in Rensselaer County, New York. While he was still young, Streeter’s family moved to the Illinois frontier and effectively squatted on the land until the government was forced to recognize their claim. As a result of this odd upbringing, Streeter attended school irregularly and spent much of his early life in isolation. When he was 14, Streeter left home to attend a nearby manual labor college and supported himself by working as a janitor. After marrying at an early age, however, Streeter was expelled from school. He subsequently resettled in California, where he hoped to make a fortune in the gold boom. His hopes of easy fortune were crushed early on and Streeter resigned himself to herding cattle, which he did for the next ten years. Now in his thirties, Streeter and his wife returned to Illinois where they bought a small farm. He campaigned vigorously on behalf of Stephen Douglas and identified as a pro-Union Democrat “consistently opposed to the prosecution of the [Civil] War.” During the 1870s, Streeter was successfully elected to the Illinois General Assembly as a Democrat. In this capacity, he served largely as a populist, supporting regulations against the railroads but opposing measures meant to help immigrants. In 1878, Streeter joined the Greenbacks and became a vocal advocate for the movement in Illinois state politics. Despite his defection, Streeter continued to caucus with the Democrats.
  
• Platform: Alson Streeter is an agrarian liberal and populist who hopes to unite the old Greenback coalition under his leadership. Unlike the party of old, however, Streeter has embraced a broad platform in an attempt to appeal to both American farmers and laborers. Streeter proposes setting maximum limits on land ownership and the nationalization of all monopolies. He wants the government to seize control of the railway, the telegraph, and the new telephone and have the government treat these services as public utilities, available at little cost to all Americans. He has also endorsed the socialist idea of a “graduated income tax,” which would require the rich to pay a larger portion of their income to the government, and service pensions. On social issues, Streeter wants men and women to be given equal pay, equal voting rights, and equal treatment under the law. He does not consider civil rights to be a major concern but he does support the direct election of U.S. senators. Streeter also wants to ban all foreign workers from the United States and prohibit all Chinese people from entering the country.

• Party Affiliation: Greenback Party
  
• Home State: Arkansas
  
• Notable Positions: Officer of the Arkansas State Grange
  
• Biography: Charles Cunningham was born in 1823 to a British military captain who immigrated to the United States following the War of 1812. Though both his parents died while he was young, Cunningham was able to attain a classical education due to programs operated by Virginia and Maryland. In 1849, he moved to California to try and get rich off the gold rush. When his endeavor inevitably failed, he moved to the Great Plains where he established a lucrative lumber plant and sawmill. In 1876, Cunningham became a founding member of the Arkansas Greenback Party and attended the party’s national convention in Toledo. He would subsequently run for the U.S. House of Representatives as the Greenback Party and, at one point, received almost a third of the popular vote. In 1882, he ran for governor as a member of the Agricultural Wheel, an Arkansas farmer union. He has been nominated as Streeter’s running mate because of his strong ties to farmers across the Great Plains.
  
• Platform: Cunningham has two major concerns. First, he supports strict limitations on the amount of land that one person can own. He greatly fears land monopolies and believes that big business is trying to price poor farmers out of business. Second, Cunningham wants the federal government to seize control of the railroads, as he believes that they have become too powerful and threaten agrarian life. He has no other strong positions, but it can be assumed that he identifies strongly with his running mate Streeter.

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 17:42 on Jun 4, 2016

Platystemon has issued a correction as of 19:51 on Jun 4, 2016

Mountaineer has issued a correction as of 19:52 on Jun 4, 2016

QuoProQuid has issued a correction as of 20:16 on Jun 4, 2016