Lincoln replied to Woods’ letter on July 25, asking Woods to show his reply to Palmer. Lincoln also wrote Palmer on August 5, promising to speak in Carlinville on August 31. He did so, and Palmer spoke after him.

For the first part of the election campaign of 1858, Lincoln often followed Douglas on the trail, delivering speeches either later in the evening after Douglas finished, or the next day. It was not until July 24 that Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of formal debates. Douglas eventually agreed, and these became the famous Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

In appealing to former members of the American Party, Douglas adopted a campaign strategy labelling Republicans sectional agitators and abolitionists devoted to elevating African Americans to social and political equality with whites.

In the local elections of 1858, Douglas and the Democrats ultimately proved more adept than the Republicans in attracting the votes of former members of the American Party. For instance, of the fourteen counties where the American Party vote had an impact on the election for state representatives, Democrats carried eleven of the fourteen counties. One of these counties, Madison, sent two former members of the American Party to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1856, but shifted to the Democrats in 1858. Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly. At the time, members of the General Assembly voted for and elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, and, in the federal election of 1858, Douglas won reelection. Through the campaign, however, and in particular through his participation in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln gained recognition as well as standing within the national Republican Party.