[Regular train service begins on Alton & Chicago Railroad. Jacksonville Constitutionalist, 3 August 1854.]

At railroad station Lincoln meets Richard Yates, Anti-Nebraska congressman, returning from Washington to his home in Jacksonville, and talks with him about running for re-election. Abraham Lincoln to Richard Yates, 18 August 1854, CW, 2:226; Illinois Journal, 9 August 1854.

(This meeting marks Lincoln's re-entry into politics, caused by repeal of Missouri Compromise, which Lincoln said "aroused him as he had never been before." Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps, [c. June 1860], CW, 4:60-67.)

Lincoln takes mortgage from Ritta Angelica da Silva to Lot 5 in Block 6, Welles and Peck's addition to Springfield. Mortgage is to secure debt of $125. Interest at ten per cent per annum is payable annually. Principal sum is due in four years.

(See September 4, 1854 and November 24, 1858.) Deed Record PP, 353-54; Mortgage from Ritta A. da Silva, 11 August 1854, CW, 2:224-25.

In letter to Yates Lincoln recalls their meeting of August 9, 1854. "I am disappointed at not having seen or heard from you since I met you more than a week ago at the railroad depot here. I wish to have the matter we spoke of settled and working to its consummation." Lincoln asks permission to announce Yates' candidacy, and encloses draft of notice he wants to insert in "Illinois Journal." Abraham Lincoln to Richard Yates, 18 August 1854, CW, 2:226.

Instead of answering Lincoln's letter, Yates comes to Springfield. (Next day "Illinois Journal" announces Yates' candidacy, although worded differently from Lincoln's suggestion. He later wrote that he "took the stump [in 1854] with no broader practical aim or object than to secure, if possible, the re-election of Hon. Richard Yates to Congress." Autobiography Written for John L. Scripps, [c. June 1860], CW, 4:60-67.)

Lincoln writes and signs foreclosure bill in chancery in Robert Irwin & Abraham Lincoln v. Samuel Sidener. Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Lincoln receives letter from Richard S. Thomas in regard to note he and Lincoln hold for collection. Abraham Lincoln to Richard S. Thomas, 24 August 1854, CW, 2:226.

Lincoln writes reply. If owner of note, he says, will agree to take $110 and Lincoln's fee, "settle the matter that way. As to the amount of my fee, take ten dollars, which you and I will divide equally." Abraham Lincoln to Richard S. Thomas, 24 August 1854, CW, 2:226.

Lincoln, preparing to attend Whig county convention at Winchester on Saturday, goes to Jacksonville, where he stays with Yates. James G. Miner, Abraham Lincoln: Personal Reminiscences of the Martyr-Emancipator as He Appeared in the Memorable Campaign of 1854 and in His Subsequent Career (N.p., 1912), 1-2.

Lincoln addresses a Whig Party convention. A newspaper reports, "His subject was the one which is uppermost in the minds of the people—the Nebraska-Kansas bill; and the ingenious, logical, and at the same time fair and candid manner, in which he exhibited the great wrong and injustice of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the extension of slavery into free territory, deserves and has received the warmest commendation of every friend of freedom . . . His . . . masterly effort . . . was replete with unanswerable arguments, which must and will effectually tell at the coming election." Illinois Daily Journal, 2 September 1854, 2:2; Speech at Winchester, Illinois, 26 August 1854, CW, 2:226-27.

This is Lincoln's first speech on Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Lincoln spends day with Yates, train schedule preventing him leaving Sunday.

In Carrollton, Lincoln delivers a campaign speech on behalf of Whig Party candidate Richard Yates. Yates and his opponent, Democrat Thomas L. Harris, vie for the sixth congressional district seat. A Democratic newspaper reports, "[Lincoln] was for the restoration [of] the Missouri compromise, which did not please near all the [Henry] Clay whigs; and he was against the repeal of the fugitive slave law, which was very unsatisfactory to the abolitionists." Daily Alton Telegraph (IL), 31 August 1854, 2:2; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 1 September 1854, 2:2; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 1 September 1854, 2:4; Speech at Carrollton, Illinois, 28 August 1854, CW, 2:227.

Lincoln writes and signs bill of divorce for Mary Sinclair in Sinclair v. Sinclair. Herndon-Weik Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.