In 1840, Abraham Lincoln campaigned in southern Illinois for Whig presidential candidate William Henry Harrison as a Whig elector. In Lawrenceville on October 28, he had a dispute with local physician William G. Anderson, who the previous August had run as a Democrat and lost the election for state representative. Writing to Lincoln on October 30, Anderson said Lincoln was the "aggressor" in the dispute and that his "words imported insult." Lincoln denied the charge and said that he regretted the incident.