text: Though the Republican legislative candidates won more popular votes, the Democrats won more seats, and the legislature re-elected Douglas.However, Lincoln's articulation of the issues had given him a national political presence.In May 1859, Lincoln purchased the Illinois Staats-Anzeiger, a German-language newspaper that was consistently supportive; most of the state's 130,000 German Americans voted for Democrats, but the German-language paper mobilized Republican support.In the aftermath of the 1858 election, newspapers frequently mentioned Lincoln as a potential Republican presidential candidate, rivaled by William H.Seward, Salmon P.Chase, Edward Bates, and Simon Cameron.While Lincoln was popular in the Midwest, he lacked support in the Northeast and was unsure whether to seek the office.In January 1860, Lincoln told a group of political allies that he would accept the presidential nomination if offered and, in the following months, several local papers endorsed his candidacy.Over the coming months, Lincoln was tireless, making nearly fifty speeches along the campaign trail.By the quality and simplicity of his rhetoric, he quickly became the champion of the Republican party.However, despite his overwhelming support in the Midwestern United States, he was less appreciated in the east.Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, at that time wrote up an unflattering account of Lincoln's compromising position on slavery and his reluctance to challenge the court's Dred Scott ruling, which was promptly used against him by his political rivals.On February 27, 1860, powerful New York Republicans invited Lincoln to give a speech at Cooper Union, in which he argued that the Founding Fathers of the United States had little use for popular sovereignty and had repeatedly sought to restrict slavery.He insisted that morality required opposition to slavery and rejected any "groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong".