Christopher Gustavus Memminger (born Christoph
Gustav Memminger; January 9, 1803 – March 7, 1888) was a German-born
American politician and one of the founding fathers of the Confederate States.
He was the principal author of the Provisional Constitution (1861), as well as the founder
of the nation's financial system. As the first Confederate
States Secretary of the Treasury, Memminger was the main author of
the economic policies of the Jefferson Davis administration. Memminger was born on
January 9, 1803, in Vaihingen, Württemberg (present-day Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany). His father, Gottfried Memminger, was an officer who died a
month after his son's birth. His mother, Eberhardina (née Kohler)
Memminger, immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina,
but died of yellow fever in 1807.
Christopher was placed in an orphanage. His fortunes changed when, at the
age of eleven, he was taken under the care of Thomas Bennett, a
prominent lawyer and future Governor. He entered South Carolina College at
the age of 12 and graduated second in his class at 16. Memminger passed the bar
in 1825 and became a successful lawyer. He married Mary Withers Wilkinson in
1832. He was a leader of the opponents during the nullification excitement.
He published The Book of Nullification (1832–33) which
satirized the advocates of the doctrine in biblical style. He entered state politics and
served in the South Carolina state
legislature from 1836 to 1852 and 1854 to 1860, where for nearly twenty years
he was the head of the finance committee. Memminger was a staunch advocate
of education and helped give Charleston one of the most comprehensive public
school systems in the country. In 1859, after John Brown's raid, he was
commissioned by South Carolina to
consult with other delegates in Virginia as to the best method of warding off attacks
of abolitionists. Memminger
was considered a moderate on the secession issue, but after Lincoln's election, he decided secession was necessary.
When South Carolina seceded from the United States in 1860, Memminger was asked
to write the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the
Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union which
outlined the reasons for secession. When other states also seceded, he was
selected as a South Carolina delegate to the Provisional
Congress of the Confederate States, and was the chairman of the
committee which drafted the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States.
The twelve-man committee produced a provisional constitution in only four days.
When Jefferson Davis formed
his first cabinet, Memminger was chosen as Secretary of the Treasury on
February 21, 1861. It was a difficult task, in view of the financial challenges
facing the Confederacy. He attempted to finance the government initially via
bonds and tariffs (and confiscation of gold from the United States Mint in New Orleans), but soon found himself forced to more extreme
measures such as income taxation and fiat currency. He had been a supporter of hard currency before
the war, but found himself issuing increasingly devalued paper money, which by
war's end was worth less than two percent of its face value in gold. Memminger
resigned his post as Secretary of the Treasury on July 1, 1864 and was replaced
by fellow South Carolinian G. A. Trenholm. He returned to his summer residence in Flat Rock,
North Carolina. In the post-war years, he returned to Charleston,
received a presidential pardon in 1866, and returned to private law practice
and business investment. He also continued his work on developing South
Carolina's public education system and was voted to a final term in the state
legislature in 1877.