During the 1858 United States senatorial race in Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, who regularly stayed at the hotel while in Chicago, delivered a July 9, 1858 speech that included a rebuke to Abraham Lincoln's House Divided Speech. Lincoln, who was in Chicago to attend an opening session of United States District Court, appeared at the hotel that night to deliver a rebuttal. This, in a sense, was the start of each individual's campaigns for senate.