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 20 unexpected opportunity of aiding a Democratic president to defeat a Democratic senator for re-election.

If Douglas entered the canvass beset with difficulty, Lincoln was far from being able to place the contest purely on the basis of merit. The patronage of the state so long enjoyed by Senator Douglas under Democratic administration had dotted the state with Douglas postmasters, revenue collectors, and other federal officers. That Lincoln fully appreciated this handicap is evident from one of his Springfield speeches of 1858:

There was also a possibility that at the last moment it might become necessary to name as the Republican candidate for the senatorship a former Democrat, as had been done in the election of 1854. It was also rumored that John Wentworth of Chicago was the real candidate and