He was still brown nosing for votes in 1854.
In 1854 Lincoln had been out of office for six years. He later said that he had lost interest in poltitics and elective office until national events drew him back in.
His Peoria speech was in direct response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed the spread of slavery into areas from which it had been banned for decades.
Lincoln did not run again for office for another four years after the Peoria speech, 1858, when he challenged Douglas for his Senate seat. Even then he wasn’t seeking votes in the way you mean, since the legislature, not the voters, elected the Senator.
Is it just possible that his Peoria speech, not made as part of a run for office, expressed nothing but his sincere beliefs?