Napoleon’s giant sale of land by the Mississippi upset a delicate balance between the slaveowning states to the south and abolitionist states to the north. Both intended for the new lands of the Louisiana purchase follow their example, and the result was the Missouri Compromise which split the new lands similarly between north and south along parallel 36°30′ north. That balance was upset once more by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, which now called for a popular referendum in the new territories to determine whether they would allow slave ownership.

On this day July 6, in 1854, in response to this troubling turn of events, a national meeting of the Republican party, some 4,000 delegates strong, met at Bronson Hall on Main Street (now Michigan Avenue) in Jackson, Michigan. With no air conditioning, the temperature inside the hall quickly grew unbearable, and the meeting was taken outside “Under the Oaks.”

The abolitionist Republican party quickly gained supporters, and by the national elections a Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, became the clear frontrunner, leading many southern states to threaten secession if he should win. The stage was set for the Civil War.