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 reluctantly 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. He won a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives, but in late-November 1854, he declined to serve in order to run for the U.S. Senate. When the General Assembly met in a joint session on February 8, 1855, to elect a U.S. senator, Lincoln and Shields received the most votes in the first round of balloting, with forty-five and forty-one votes respectively. As neither received a majority of votes, several more rounds of balloting ensued. Lincoln received a majority of the anti-Nebraska votes until the tenth and final ballot, when he withdrew and urged his supporters to vote for anti-Nebraska Democrat Trumbull in order to ensure that an anti-Nebraska politician filled the seat. With the votes of Lincoln’s supporters, Trumbull won the seat. See 1854 Federal Election.

Lincoln had received several letters in December 1854 that also mentioned the possibility that Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly would refuse to hold an election for U.S. Senator if they could not elect a pro-Nebraska politician. In fact, it was the anti-Nebraska forces that attempted to delay the election when Shields pulled 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 fifty-six to forty-two. Of the forty-one legislators who voted for Lincoln on the third ballot, Whig representative George F. Foster cast the single vote against adjourning the session.

In a list of members of the Illinois General Assembly that Lincoln created around January 1855, Lincoln listed Lovejoy as an abolitionist--the only legislator he so designated. Lovejoy voted for Lincoln on the first three ballots, then switched to William B. Ogden for four ballots, before settling on Trumbull on the eighth ballot.