In editing Lincoln’s papers, his secretaries John G. Nicolay and John M. Hay assigned this undated fragment a date of October 1, 1858, without offering a rationale. Roy P. Basler, editor of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, retained this date “for want of evidence to the contrary.” The content of this fragment—specifically Lincoln’s focus on the national consequences of rejecting a fundamental equality among men—provides some indication of the date he wrote it.

Lincoln ran in the 1858 Federal Election as the Republican Party’s candidate to supplant Democratic incumbent Stephen A. Douglas in the U.S. Senate. He devoted significant time and energy to the topic of equality during a July 10 speech in Chicago, Illinois. When he spoke in Springfield, Illinois, on July 17, Lincoln noted that Douglas was misrepresenting his remarks about equality as articulated in the Declaration of Independence and claiming that Lincoln favored social and political equality between the races. On October 16, the Daily Illinois State Journal published excerpts from both the Richmond Enquirer and the New York Day-Book advocating slavery as both natural and necessary in human society—regardless of race. Lincoln may have used these excerpts in his composition of this fragment, or the Daily Illinois State Journal may have printed them after he delivered a public address referencing these papers’ assertions. It is therefore possible that Lincoln wrote this fragment anytime between July and October 1858. Given that Lincoln honed his arguments regarding the fundamental, national implications of Douglas’s and others’ indifference to the moral and social consequences of slavery over the course of the campaign of 1858, he most likely wrote this fragment between mid-September and mid-October 1858. The editors provide the more generous date range of July to October 1858 for this fragment to acknowledge the ambiguities inherent in dating the item.

Other fragments and notes written by Lincoln and thought to be potentially related to his preparations for the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, as part of the 1858 campaign, include: Definition of Democracy; Fragment of Notes for Debates; Fragment of Notes for Speeches; Notes for the Debate at Jonesboro, Illinois; Fragment of Notes on Pro-slavery Theology; Fragment on the Struggle Against Slavery.

Lincoln referenced the Richmond Enquirer in speeches in 1856, so he was aware of and reading the paper at least as early as then. Lyman Trumbull wrote Lincoln on September 14, 1858 pointing Lincoln to an article in the September 10 issue of the Richmond Enquirer that was related to Douglas’s arguments during the debate at Freeport, Illinois. This article, however, focused largely on whether or not the U.S. Congress could pass legislation protecting slavery in the territories; therefore, it does not fit with Lincoln’s assertion, at the beginning of this fragment, that he would address a “larger issue” than whether or not Congress could prohibit the expansion of slavery.

Lincoln referenced Pettit’s remarks in at least one letter and in multiple speeches he gave several years prior to the campaign of 1858. He also discussed them during the seventh Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

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 ultimately won reelection to the U.S. Senate. Despite the loss, Lincoln’s participation in the senate race—and in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates in particular—propelled him to national prominence and helped him win the presidential contest of 1860.