-republican and Illinois lawyer-at first, he joined the Whig party and served four terms in the Illinois state legislature and one term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives-he was a realist and knew that slavery could not be easily eliminated and he believed that the federal government had no right to interfere with slavery in the states where it already existed-he condemned popular sovereignty-he eventually joined the Republican party-by 1858, he was the leading Republican in Illinois and the natural choice to oppose Stephen Douglas in the Senate

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