Judd wrote Lincoln on the 15th of November, asking for help to cover an estimated $2,500 debt from the election campaign. Lincoln responded, offering $250 to help cover the debts incurred during the campaign. This was the second of Lincoln’s “two favors” to Judd; he also wrote him on November 15.

The Dred Scott Decision was a recurring issue in the debates. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in this case, which banned the exclusion of slavery from U. S. territories, stood against Douglas’s popular sovereignty doctrine. Lincoln addressed this contradiction at the second debate at Freeport when he asked Douglas, “Can the people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Constitution?” Douglas’s response to this question was “It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a territory under the constitution, the people have the lawful means to introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the people to make a slave territory or a free territory is perfect and complete under the Nebraska Bill.” This answer, in which Douglas affirmed his support of popular sovereignty over his support of the ruling in Scott v. Sandford, became known as the Freeport Doctrine.

This stance was popular among Illinois Democrats, who supported the popular sovereignty doctrine espoused by Douglas and elected him to the Senate in the election of 1858. This stance was enough to win the Senate election in Illinois, but it was very unpopular among the Southern Democrats who supported the Dred Scott decision and saw it as a massive step in spreading slavery into new territories and states. Douglas national reputation among Democrats was tarnished and he would never recover. He would lose the presidential election to Lincoln in 1860.