Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and its effective repeal of the Missouri Compromise reawakened Lincoln’s passion for politics, and he threw himself into the congressional election campaign in the fall of 1854, crisscrossing Illinois to deliver speeches against the Kansas-Nebraska Act and in support of anti-Nebraska candidates. He even allowed himself to become a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly (albeit unwillingly at first). As the election campaign reached its climax, Lincoln’s name began to circulate as a possible nominee for one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. In November and December 1854, he wrote confidential letters to political allies, seeking support for his candidacy and information about his prospects. A November 14 letter from Washburne reveals that Lincoln likely wrote him such a letter on November 10, although it has not been located.

Lincoln won election to the Illinois General Assembly, but, on November 25, 1854, officially declined to serve in order to run for the U.S. Senate. Per article three, section seven of the 1848 Illinois Constitution, state legislators were ineligible for election to the U.S. Senate.

Fusion tickets became common during the election of 1854, as disaffected Whigs and Democrats banded together or “fused” with Free Soilers, Nativists, and temperance advocates, often over shared opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the extension of slavery. See the 1854 Federal Election.

Whig newspaper editor and publisher Richard L. Wilson admired Lincoln’s opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In October 1854, he invited Lincoln to Chicago to give a public address against the act, which Lincoln delivered on October 27, 1854 and which White covered in positive terms in his newspaper, the Chicago Journal.

In a December 20 letter to Lincoln, Washburne characterized his second letter to Eastman as “strong.” Washburne was not the only Lincoln supporter to chastise Eastman for his portrayal of Lincoln in the Free West. On December 12 Jesse O. Norton also wrote Lincoln a letter discussing Eastman’s “clamor,” then wrote Lincoln again on December 20, noting that he had written a “Kind but pointed letter” to Eastman on “the impropriety of his course.”

In a list of members of the Illinois General Assembly that Lincoln created around January 1855, he listed Judd, Foss, Richmond, and Foster as anti-Nebraska Democrats and Dunlap as a Whig.

Despite rumors about pro-Nebraska Democrats conspiring to avert or delay the election, in reality it was the anti-Nebraska forces that attempted to delay the election after incumbent James Shields polled even with Lincoln after the third ballot. Stephen T. Logan motioned for the adjournment of the joint session, but members refused to adjourn by a vote of 56 to 42. Of the forty-one legislators who voted for Lincoln on the third ballot, only one—Foster—voted against adjourning the session.

Ultimately, Lincoln did not win election to the U.S. Senate; the Illinois General Assembly selected anti-Nebraska Democrat Lyman Trumbull instead. Judd voted for Trumbull on all ten ballots. Richmond supported Lincoln until the ninth ballot, when he switched to Trumbull. Dunlap voted for Lincoln on the first three rounds, switched to Trumbull on the fourth, back to Lincoln on the fifth, and finally settled on Trumbull on the eighth ballot. Foster and Foss supported Lincoln in the first three ballots before shifting between Trumbull, Archibald Williams, William B. Ogden, and Lincoln, before siding with Trumbull in the eighth and ninth ballots, respectively. Morrison cast his first six ballots for Shields before switching his support to Joel A. Matteson. See the 1854 Federal Election. Stung and disappointed by his loss, Lincoln made no political speeches or public statements for an entire year after his defeat and reinvested his energies in his law practice.