house of representatives' historian robert remini's latest book. the come propoise brokered between the north and the south -- [applause] >> thank you for that gracious introduction, and i am delighted to be here at the opening of this commemoration on the civil war. and one of the reasons is i'm here to peddle a new book. [laughter] because this is the prelude to the civil war. and when you think about it, the compromise of 1850 prevented secession and civil war ten years before it actually happened. and i'm personally convinced, although i can't prove it to you, that had the south secedeed in 1850, they would have made good their independence. the united states would become the disunited states, and once you break it, you can break it again and again, and where would we be today? that's how important it was to work out a solution to the problem that seemed 'em possible. -- impossible to fix. slavery. .. >> civil war would mean a bloody contest. in 1850, the south was well off because they just come out of the mexican war. the north didn't have ne