Lincoln’s assaults backfired: Adams won the August election handily, receiving 1,025 votes to Henry’s 792. Although Lincoln had built a strong case, the public evidently considered his tactics unfair and regarded Adams as a victim of persecution. The Democrats protested that Adams, “an infirm old man,” had been “wantonly slandered,” “bitterly persecuted,” and “deeply calumniated.” The Sangamo Journal acknowledged that if “a community can be made to believe, that an individual is persecuted, it is natural for them to sustain him.”
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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