Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, asserts, without attribution, that John T. Stuart picked this single sheet of notes up from the debate platform at the third Lincoln-Douglas Debate, which was held in Jonesboro, Illinois, on September 15, 1858, kept it, and preserved it thereafter. There is evidence in the provenance of this document to support this assertion, as the Illinois State Historical Society in Springfield, Illinois, (currently the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum) acquired the document in 1951 directly from the estate of Stuart’s descendants.

Basler dated these notes September 15, 1858—the day of the Jonesboro debate. However, the content of this document reveals that it is possible Lincoln wrote these notes anytime between the debate in Freeport, Illinois, on August 27, and the Jonesboro debate, on September 15. Lincoln posed the two questions in this note to Stephen A. Douglas during the Freeport debate, and Douglas responded to the questions during that debate. Therefore, the editors date these notes between August 27 and September 15, 1858.

During the 1858 Federal Election, Lincoln was the Illinois Republican Party’s candidate for election to the U.S. Senate. He competed against Democratic incumbent Douglas. Lincoln and Douglas both traveled the state throughout the fall and summer of 1858, delivering public speeches in support of candidates for the Illinois General Assembly in their respective parties, as well as for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. They were highly attuned to the local elections for members of the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate because, at the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate. See the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention.

Other fragments and notes written by Lincoln and thought to be potentially related to his preparations for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates include: Definition of Democracy; Fragment of Notes for Debates; Fragment of Notes for Speeches; Fragment of Notes on Pro-slavery Theology; Fragment on the Struggle Against Slavery; Fragment of a Speech on Slavery.

During the debate at Jonesboro, Lincoln addressed this chicanery, asking, “Why must he go around hunting for some one who is supporting me, or has supported me at some time in his life, and who has said something at some time contrary to that platform” (meaning the moderate Republican platform that Lincoln actually endorsed)? “Does the Judge,” Lincoln continued, “regard that rule as a good one? If it turn out that the rule is a good one for me—that I am responsible for any and every opinion that any man has expressed who is my friend—then it is a good rule for him.” Lincoln then gave examples of resolutions from multiple Democratic meetings that directly contradicted some of Douglas’s positions with regard to slavery, the admission of slave states, whether the U.S. Congress had the right to prohibit slavery in U.S. territories, and whether the Declaration of Independence applied to African Americans.

Douglas considered supporting the bill, but ultimately opposed it. The bill passed both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on April 30, and President James Buchanan signed it into law. On August 2, Kansans overwhelmingly rejected this Lecompton Constitution-cum-land grant by a vote of 11,300 to 1,788.

Douglas replied to both of the above questions, as well as others Lincoln asked him, during the Freeport debate. Local newspapers also published Douglas’s responses to Lincoln’s questions. During the Jonesboro debate, Lincoln summarized Douglas’s responses to the above to the gathered audience.

In the end, in Illinois’s local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in the state, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly and Douglas won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, Lincoln gained recognition and standing within the national Republican Party.