Lincoln took charge of the Harrison campaign in traditionally Democratic Illinois, where “the idea prevailed … that all things were fair in politics, love, and war.” He predicted the state would turn Whig in 1840. In January, he reported to John Todd Stuart that the “nomination of Harrison takes first rate. You know I am never sanguine; but I believe we will carry the state. The chance for doing so, appears to me 25 per cent better than it did for you to beat Douglass.” In the fall and winter of 1839–1840, he helped organize two series of debates with Democrats, the first of which took place in November. They were preceded by informal political discussions in Joshua Speed’s store, where one evening Douglas accused the Whigs of committing every imaginable political crime and challenged his opponents to a public debate. The Whig spokesmen were Lincoln, Cyrus Walker, and Edward D. Baker; the Democrats were represented by Douglas, John Calhoun, Josiah Lamborn, and Edmund R. Wiley.
Source: Abraham Lincoln ∶ A Life ▫𓂃
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