This time, however, he met his match, in courage.

Bissell named an officer of the army as his second, instructing him to suggest as weapons "muskets, loaded with ball and buckshot." The terms of combat do not appear to have been formally proposed between the friends who met to arrange matters, but they were evidently understood; the affair was hushed up, with the simple addition to Bissell's first reply that he was willing to award the Mississippi regiment "the credit due to their gallant and distinguished services in that battle." [Sidenote] 1856.
The Bloomington Convention came together according to call on the 29th of May.

By this time the active and observant politicians of the State had become convinced that the anti-Nebraska struggle was not a mere temporary and insignificant "abolition" excitement, but a deep and abiding political issue, involving in the fate of slavery the fate of the nation.

Minor and past differences were therefore generously postponed or waived in favor of a hearty coalition on the single dominant question.

A most notable gathering of the clans was the result.