Christopher Gustavus Memminger

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Christopher Memminger

Christopher Gustavus Memminger (born January 7 or 9, 1803 in Vaihingen an der Enz , Württemberg , Germany ; † March 7, 1888 in Charleston , South Carolina ) was a Confederate officer and politician. His picture was also found on a $ 5 Confederate note.

Origin and career

He was the son of Christopher Gottfried and Eberhardina (Kohler) Memminger and came to the USA as a child. His father was an officer in the Württemberg army and died in a battle just a month after he was born. His mother died after immigrating to the United States when he was four (1807), leaving him in an orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina. At the age of eleven (1814) he was adopted by the future governor of South Carolina (1820-1822) Thomas Bennett . His social class and views were largely shaped by his adoptive family, and so he justified slavery . He graduated second in his class from South Carolina College in 1819 and was admitted to the bar in 1824. In the same year he became an American citizen. In 1832 he married Mary Wilkinson. From this marriage eleven children were born. After her death in 1878 he married her sister Sarah A. Wilkinson. He became a successful lawyer in Charleston, SC, helping the city develop the most comprehensive public school system in the country.

Political career

As an opponent of nullification , Memminger was elected to the Lower House of South Carolina from 1836 to 1852 and from 1854 to 1860 . He chaired the Committee on Means and Ways in this House for twenty years. In 1855 he served on the committee for a free school in Charleston. In 1852 he was a unionist delegate to the Convention for Southern Rights . After serving as the South Carolina envoy in 1860 to try to get Virginia to secession, he was a delegate to the South Carolina Secession Convention, where he advocated secession.

Secession period

Memminger was elected to the Provisional Confederate Congress , where he sat on the Committee on Economic Affairs and as chairman of the committee that would draft the Provisional Constitution . Jefferson Davis , the President of the Confederate States of America (CSA), appointed him Treasury Secretary on February 25, 1861, at the suggestion of Robert Woodward Barnwell , a post he held until June 15, 1864, when he resigned because he did not have one Saw way to solve the Confederate financial problems. His sober demeanor offended many politicians, but his relationship with the president was excellent. He was aware of the need to consolidate finances. But attempts to lower inflation through bonds, dwindling commodities, the confiscation of gold from the US Mint in New Orleans , Louisiana, and worthless securities were unsuccessful. With little support from Congress of the CSA, his taxation plans also failed. The attempt to sell bonds abroad failed because of the demands of the Confederate military . After his resignation, he returned to North Carolina and from then on did no more services for the Confederates.

post war period

In 1867 he obtained a pardon and returned to his legal practice in Charleston, SC. In 1868 he founded a company that produced sulfuric acid. He also went on to develop the public school system. He died in Charleston, SC, on March 7, 1888, in the cemetery was the first St. John the Baptist Mission of the Episcopal Church ( St. John's of the Wilderness First Mission of the Episcopal Church ) buried.

literature

  • Jon L. Wakelyn: Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge ISBN 0-8071-0092-7 .
  • Ezra J. Warner and W. Buck Yearns: Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT and London, GBR ISBN 0-8371-6124-X .
  • The Civil War Almanac. World Almanac Publications, New York, NY, ISBN 0-911818-36-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. Description of the $ 5 note on Ebay.de. Retrieved May 31, 2015 .
predecessor Office successor
No predecessor Finance Minister of the Confederate
25 February 1861-15. June 1864
George Alfred Trenholm