The digitized content of the Campaign Plain Dealer consists of twenty issues of a 1960 facsimile edition of the Campaign Plain Dealer and Popular Sovereignty Advocate, published by Lincoln College.

The Campaign Plain Dealer was a weekly publication out of Cleveland, Ohio, published by Cleveland’s major newspaper, The Plain Dealer. Published from June 30, 1860, through November 17, 1860, The Campaign Plain Dealer and Popular Sovereignty Advocate was created to support the presidential campaign of Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 election. This weekly publication would include news and updates from Douglas’s campaign for presidency, political cartoons, and published speeches from notable Democrats and Douglas supporters.

The 1960 facsimile edition of the Campaign Plain Dealer and Popular Sovereign Advocate was created after former Lincoln Memorial University President Stewart W. McClelland found a complete file of the publication in a Seattle book shop. 500 facsimile sets of the publication were produced under the direction of Ralph G. Newman, a Lincoln scholar and owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop.

The digitized content contains twenty facsimile issues of the Campaign Plain Dealer and Popular Sovereignty Advocate, published by Lincoln College. Frequently discussed topics within the publication include Stephen A. Douglas, the 1860 election, slavery, secession, Abraham Lincoln, politics, and the Democratic Party.

The Illinois History and Lincoln Collections unit at the University of Illinois Library manages the physical facsimile copy of the Campaign Plain Dealer and Popular Sovereignty Advocate, which was completely digitized in 2025. For more information, contact an archivist at ihlc@library.illinois.edu.