Lincoln, who recently lost the election for U.S. Senate to Democrat Stephen Douglas, writes to the Republican party's state central committee chair, Norman B. Judd, of Chicago. Judd worries that the Democrats will re-district the state and thus gain future electoral advantage. Judd also laments the committee's unpaid debt. Lincoln promises to contribute "two hundred and fifty dollars . . . towards discharging the debt." He adds, "I have been on expences so long without earning any thing that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes." As to the party's future, Lincoln counsels, "'And this too shall pass away.' Never fear." Norman B. Judd to Abraham Lincoln, 15 November 1858, Robert Todd Lincoln Collection of Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC; Abraham Lincoln to Norman B. Judd, 16 November 1858, CW, 2:337.