February 16, 1855

<div2 part='N' sample='complete' org='uniform' type='New'>
         <dateline> 
            <date value='1855-02-16'>Friday,
  February 16, 1855.</date> 
            <place key='39.8000, -89.6333' teiForm='name'>Springfield,
  IL</place>.</dateline>
         <p>Lincoln writes to Illinois Congressman
  Jesse Olds Norton eight days after Lincoln lost a bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
  At a time when U.S. Senators were elected by state legislatures, Lincoln
  explains to Norton how various Illinois legislators voted. Lincoln, a Whig,
  ultimately lost the race to Anti-Nebraska Democrat Lyman Trumbull, an Illinois
  Supreme Court justice. Lincoln attributes his loss to the "manoevering" of
  Governor Joel A. Matteson, who also sought the Senate seat, and "forced upon me
  and my friends the necessity of surrendering to Trumbull." Lincoln lost, he
  explains, in spite of the fact that he "finally surmounted the difficulty with
  the extreme Anti-Slavery men, and got all their votes, [Owen] Lovejoy's
  included." Trumbull was elected on the tenth ballot after Lincoln advised his
  backers to vote for Trumbull in order to avoid the "<uLine>imminent</uLine>
  danger of Matteson's election." Lincoln writes that his supporters "were taken
  by surprise" by his directive, "Trumbull quite as much as any one else."
  Lincoln explains that in spite of his loss, he is "very happy to find myself
  quite convalescent." <bibl default='NO'>Abraham Lincoln to Jesse Olds Norton, 16 February
  1855, IHi, Springfield, IL.</bibl>
         </p>
      </div2>