Campaign Trail Results: Game #999364
Play The Campaign Trail
This Game:
- Year: 1860
- Player Candidate: Stephen A. Douglas
- Running Mate: James Guthrie
- Difficulty Level: Normal
- Winner Take All Mode?: Yes
- Game Played:
View overall results, or a specific state:
| Candidate | Electoral Votes | Popular Votes | Pop. Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|
| ---- Abraham Lincoln | 174 | 2,050,329 | 43.92 |
| ---- John C. Breckinridge | 65 | 917,388 | 19.65 |
| ---- John Bell | 62 | 636,300 | 13.63 |
| ---- Stephen A. Douglas | 2 | 1,063,889 | 22.79 |
Answers:
- To what extent do you plan to personally campaign in this election?It's a bold move, but I will campaign for the Democratic cause across the North.
- How should your party address the slavery issue during this campaign?The threat of a Southern schism has forced our hand. We must accept the protection of slavery in federal territories, and protect the instution in future states like Kansas and New Mexico.
- 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.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Republicans and Abraham Lincoln in this election?We may have our issues with Lincoln, but our primary attacks should be reserved for the duplicitous Southern party, and the ambiguous Constitutional Union organization.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Constitutional Unionists and John Bell in this election?Anyone who supports the Union is fine in my book, at least in comparison to the secessionist Southern Democrats.
- How aggressively should your party attack the Southern Democrats and John Breckenridge in this election?We've obviously had our falling out at the Convention this year, but we will eventually need to rebuild our party. Going on the attack in this case will only make things worse.
- Will you keep your name on the ballot in Oregon and California, even if doing so might divide the anti-Lincoln vote?I will take my name off the ballot in those states. We just need to make sure Lincoln doesn't win them.
- What should your party's position be on the raid of John Brown, late in 1859?We will keep silent on this episode as we campaign.
- 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?I'm sure people out there will make these attacks on their own initiative, but we shouldn't emphasize this too much.
- What position should your party take on the tariff question in this election?Let's moderate our stance on the tariff issue a bit, given the peculiar nature of this election. Even President Buchanan appears to be changing his views.
- How much should your party emphasize its support of a Transcontinental Railroad in this election?Of course we'll support this railroad, but there are other issues we should emphasize in this campaign.
- How much should your party emphasize its support of a homestead act in this election?Part of any compromise with Southern Democrats would involve a resolution in the territories. By what rights should planters be denied their opportunity to purchase western land?
- 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?Our goal in this campaign should be to avoid any mention of the Supreme Court. There's not much to gain by talking about this decision.
- Do you have anything to say about the efforts of some to reopen the Atlantic slave trade?Let's keep a low profile on this issue and hope it passes. We don't need to make things worse by issuing controversial statements.
- 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?If I am elected, this type of thing would not happen. This question has no relevance to events.
- Do you believe that a Republican victory would result in a flood of free blacks into Northern states and western territories?We should hold back on this kind of rhetoric, given the unusual nature of this year's election.
- Should the proposed constitution for the state of Kansas be accepted by Congress, and Kansas admitted as a free state?Part of any future compromise with Southern interests may involve the admission of Kansas as a slave state. We should not preclude that possibility at the current time.
- Do you have any statements to make about the Administration of James Buchanan, who you have had icy relations with in the past?I should hope to reconcile with Buchanan and make sure that, in the North at least, our party is united.
- Is there a particular state that you would concentrate your efforts on during the final days of the campaign?Our case is hopeless in this election. I will go south and speak out against secession, to the best of my capacity.
- What is your opinion on the formation of fusion tickets in the Northern states to consolidate the anti-Lincoln vote?I will support any fusion tickets which can be organized, and I will withdraw my name from the slave state ballots. We must find a way to stop Lincoln.