Abraham Lincoln was the Republican candidate from Illinois for the U.S. Senate. Politicians and party managers often scheduled political meetings to coincide with circuses, fairs, and other local festivities to ensure a large audience. Circus tents also provided a public place for large crowds to congregate. In the 1858 senatorial campaign, Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, his opponent and the incumbent, spoke in several localities in conjunction with circus performances or fairs. Douglas was also in Centralia and at some point, according to one newspaper, made an “outrageous attack” on Lincoln. This action backfired on Douglas, however, because of the general dislike of bringing politics into the normally non-partisan state fair.

In the local elections of 1858, Republicans won a majority of all votes cast in Illinois, but pro-Douglas Democrats retained control of the Illinois General Assembly, which elected U.S. senators at that time, and Douglas won reelection. See 1858 Illinois Republican Convention; 1858 Federal Election.