Older accounts of Stephenson's withdrawal from the race give differing reasons for his departure. Former Democratic Illinois Governor Thomas Ford's 1854 "A History of Illinois" stated that Stephenson's reason for withdrawing from the election was "on account of sickness." James Washington Sheahan wrote in his 1860 biography of Stephen A. Douglas that Stephenson's early exit from the election was due to being "charged with being a defaulter." John Moses' 1,316-page work, "Illinois, Historical and Statistical" (1889), characterized the accusations against Stephenson as "serious charges."