Commissioner of South Carolina, John Smith Preston, believes that “the South cannot exist without slavery…” (Page 72) which is why South Carolina was the first to succeed from the Union. Southerners did not want to put and end to slavery, therefore creating this uprising that influenced many factors such as states rights, the economy, and the state as a whole. With the many states succeeding in effort to dissolve the Union, politics played a big role between the North and the South. Dew realized that time and time again, in all the commissioners’ speeches and letters, slavery was always the main topic brought up along with other brief topics discussed in this book.…