Abraham Lincoln had supporters in Illinois who like himself had been a Whig Party member but turned to the new Republican Party. One supporter was Judge David Davis. He was a federal judge in Lincoln's district where he practiced law. One thing he shared with Lincoln was suspicions about radical abolitionists that hurt the new party's image. Another Lincoln supporter was also a former Whig. This was Joseph Gillesppie. He, like Lincoln had to tone down the radicals in the new Republican Party with regards to the antislavery movement.
Abraham Lincoln was the Republican. He ran against Stephen Douglas, a Democrat in 1858. Douglas won.
Several of Abraham Lincoln's biographers point out that Abraham Lincoln had a personal political problem with Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Reportedly Lincoln tried to associate Douglas with the so-called Slave Power Conspiracy during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Allegedly Eastern Republicans such as Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, and New York Governor William Seward were trying to bring Douglas into the Republican Party. If so, Douglas, a senator of national prominence would then be the leader of the Illinois Republican Party. Looking forward to the 1860 Republican Convention, Seward and Greeley saw the Republican Douglas as a huge boost to the Party's chances to elect a Republican president.
Abraham Lincoln was the winning Republican candidate for president in 1860.
Illinois
Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election defeating John Breckinridge, John Bell and Stephen Douglas.
In correspondence to Stephen A. Douglas' friends, he indicated that Abraham Lincoln was not a radical or fanatical Republican. Douglas had admiration for Lincoln. In public, however, politics prevailed. Douglas had to paint Lincoln as an abolitionist and a divisive political figure.
In the electoral campaign of 1860, Lincoln was nominated by the Republican Party to run for President against Steven A. Douglas.
Steven A. Douglas was one, but so were most of his cabinet members. They had run against him at the Republican Convention.
He ran for senate when you actually have sex. IT NEVER HAPPENED
Some reasons the Lincoln-Douglas debates were important:They helped Stephen Douglas popularize the idea of building a railroad from Chicago to California.They made people even more confused about slavery and what was at stake in the upcoming election.They boosted Lincoln's profile, making him a national celebrity and the 1860 Republican candidate for President.
Stephen Douglas was a senator from Illinois. He and Abraham Lincoln had a series of debates in Illinois that made Abraham Liincoln a contender for president. Stephen Douglas wanted to compromise on slavery with the concept of popular soverneignty.
In 1858 when Abraham Lincoln was running for the Senate seat of Illinois held by Stephen Douglas, the Illinois Republican Party declared that slavery and Catholicism were the two greatest threats to American democracy.