CHRISTOPHER G. MEMMINGER - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/22/1879 - HFSID 167201

FORMER TREASURER REMEMBERS CONFEDERATE LEADERS




CHRISTOPHER MEMMINGER. Autograph Letter Signed: "C. G. Memminger", 1p, 5¾x9. Charleston, South Carolina, 1879 May 22. On letterhead of the Law Office of Memminger & Son to E. Lene Esqr, Chicago. Begins: "Dear Sir". In full: "Yours of 12 Inst just received. Mr Mallory died some years ago I think at Pensacola. I am sorry I can give you no information about Govr Bragg. With much respect". In this letter of May 22, 1879, former Confederate Secretary of Treasury Christopher Gustavus Memminger answered a query about two other Confederate cabinet members. Thomas Bragg (1810-1872), a former governor of North Carolina, had served President Jefferson Davis as Attorney General for two years commencing in February 1861; following the Civil War, he resumed his law practice in Jackson until his death. Memminger knew more of Stephen Mallory (1813-1873), who had remained in the cabinet as Secretary of the Navy during the entire War; he died in Pensacola, Florida, having resumed his law practice there in July 1866 after his prison release. Those in the Davis Administration who remained throughout most or all of the duration of the Confederacy were arrested and charged with treason after the War officially ended on April 9, 1865. Although Memminger had resigned about a year before the War concluded, he was arrested along with the others who still held office, including his successor George A. Trenholm. Prior to the War, Memminger had acquired a reputation as an impressive financier in his efforts to correct state banking policies and finance public education. This status led Davis to choose him as Secretary of Treasury. During his service, Memminger was concerned with the growing financial strain on the Confederacy due to rising inflation and the ever-increasing need of currency backed by bonds and treasury notes which lacked gold and silver subsidy. Having started with an empty treasury and the immediate need of financing a war, he faced insurmountable odds. Knowing the dangers of money without backing, Memminger attempted to restrain the printing and issuance of currency, although War obligations rose. However, the Confederate Congress left him little choice but to issue more and more paper. As treasury notes depreciated and inflation rose, so too did government costs, necessitating more treasury notes totaling over one-and-a-half billion dollars. Memminger's likeness appeared on eleven bonds issued between August 1861 and February 1863. Two months after that, the Congress passed a variation of his tax bill, but it was already too late. The Union blockade had prevented the necessary sale of cotton to keep the South's economy afloat. In 1863, Memminger tried to reduce currency with compulsory bond funding; however, Congress delayed his proposals and passed (February 1864) a widely varied version, worsening the Confederacy's finances. A German immigrant boy orphaned in 1807 and raised by future Governor of South Carolina Thomas Bennett, a well-educated Memminger became a lawyer and rose in state politics. As well as being elected a member of his state House of Representatives, he became Charleston's Commissioner of Schools (1855-1885). When War loomed, he helped draft the provisional Confederate Constitution. Following the Civil War and a pardon in 1867, Memminger resumed his law practice and public school work in Charleston. A father of eight surviving children, the industrious lawyer also started a chemical - sulfuric acid and phosphates - manufacturing company (1868). Lightly creased with fold. Fine condition. Framed to an overall size of 32½x24.