Campaign Trail Results: Game #1435062
Play The Campaign Trail
This Game:
- Year: 1860
- Player Candidate: Stephen A. Douglas
- Running Mate: James Guthrie
- Difficulty Level: Easy
- Winner Take All Mode?: Yes
- Game Played:
View overall results, or a specific state:
| Candidate | Electoral Votes | Popular Votes | Pop. Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|
| ---- Abraham Lincoln | 166 | 1,786,182 | 38.31 |
| ---- John C. Breckinridge | 58 | 878,514 | 18.84 |
| ---- John Bell | 53 | 719,686 | 15.44 |
| ---- Stephen A. Douglas | 26 | 1,277,743 | 27.41 |
Answers:
- How should your party address the slavery issue during this campaign?I have always supported the Democratic ideal, that the citizens of any given state or territory should be allowed to decide the slavery question according to their own dictates.
- What do you have to say about the merits of your running mate, James Guthrie?I'm proud to share a ballot with James Guthrie of Kentucky.
- To what extent do you plan to personally campaign in this election?I will break precedent by actively campaigning, and I will focus my stops in the state of New York.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Republicans and Abraham Lincoln in this election?Lincoln and his party are abolitionists, whether they care to admit it or not. I don't believe a majority in the North would support them if this were fully understood.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Constitutional Unionists and John Bell in this election?This party has no discernible platform or political positions on any issue. They are the carcass of the pro-slavery wing of the Whig Party, masquerading as saviors of the Union.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Southern Democrats and John Breckenridge in this election?We need to make it perfectly clear that we have no use for this secessionist splinter group, and that we are a national party that truly represents Democracy in this country.
- What is your opinion on the formation of fusion tickets in the Northern states to consolidate the anti-Lincoln vote?I will never appear on a fusion ticket with Breckinridge, but I will take my name off the ballot in the slave states (barring Missouri, of course). Hopefully he and Bell will reciprocate in the north.
- Will you keep your name on the ballot in Oregon and California, even if doing so might divide the anti-Lincoln vote?No, I will not. I have a good chance of winning them and I need every vote I can get.
- What should your party's position be on the raid of John Brown, late in 1859?We will condemn the activity of any such self-styled revolutionaries. John Brown was a fanatic and a lunatic.
- Do you have any comment on the paramilitary “Wide Awake” clubs that have marched in support of Republicans?In our volatile environment, it is hardly helpful to have many thousand young men marching in pseudo-military garb, professing their support for the Republicans.
- Should your party continue its familiar attacks on the “black Republicans” as abolitionists and supporters of social and political equality for blacks?It might be in our best interest to play down such rhetoric in this particular campaign. Our base in the North will vote for us anyway, and it's not as if we have any Southern support to lose at this point.
- What position should your party take on the tariff question in this election?Everybody knows that the Democrats are the party of low tariffs, and we intend to keep it that way.
- How much should your party emphasize its support of a Transcontinental Railroad in this election?I've been an advocate of a Transcontinental Railroad for the past decade. We need to make sure that is appreciated by the voters.
- How much should your party emphasize its support of a homestead act in this election?This has been a Democratic idea since the days of Andrew Jackson. We support it completely.
- What position should your party take on foreign immigration and nationalization in this election?We will attack the Republican embrace of immigration as opportunistic and disingenuous. It doesn't take a genius to figure out which party the Know Nothings joined.
- What is your position on the Supreme Court's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision?We join the Republicans in denouncing this decision. We may have our differences, but we can all agree that this Court has acted well beyond its bounds in this case.
- Do you have anything to say about the efforts of some to reopen the Atlantic slave trade?This is the type of aggressive, expansive move by the Southern Democrats that led to the split in our party. Under no circumstances would I support the reopening of the Atlantic slave trade.
- Do you support the further expansion of the United States into Mexico, Cuba, or the Caribbean?This is an abstract question at this point. We can barely hold this country together as it is, without addressing some theoretical expansion into the Caribbean.
- What is your position on the passage of “personal liberty laws” by various states, to flout the Fugitive Slave Act?I'm not going to make any statements condemning these laws during the present campaign. That would be a hasty, alienating move on our part.
- Would you support a compromise Amendment which permanently protected slavery in the Southern states, in return for no further expansion of the institution?I would need to see the details of these Amendments before I could take a position.
- If any Southern state was to secede, would you use military force as President to preserve the Union?Let there be no question that I support the preservation of the Union above all else.
- Do you believe that a Republican victory would result in a flood of free blacks into Northern states and western territories?This is the logical conclusion of the Republican program, if they succeed in closing off slavery and slowly extinguishing it.
- Should the proposed constitution for the state of Kansas be accepted by Congress, and Kansas admitted as a free state?This action is perfectly in line with my own doctrine. The will of the voters in Kansas clearly calls for admission as a free state.
- Do you have any statements to make about the Administration of James Buchanan, who you have had icy relations with in the past?I'm not going to say a word about James Buchanan. He disgusts me personally, but many Democrats do support him, after all.
- Is there a particular state that you would concentrate your efforts on during the final days of the campaign?I will make one final stop in New York to campaign.
