Memminger, Christopher Gustavus

Memminger, Christopher Gustavus (mĕm`ĭnjər), 1803–88, American politician, Confederate secretary of the treasury, b. Württemberg, Germany. He was brought to Charleston, S.C., as a child and became a successful lawyer. He took a prominent part in the South Carolina secession convention of 1860 and was chairman of the committee that drafted the provisional constitution of the Confederacy. Appointed (1861) Confederate secretary of the treasury, Memminger, although favoring hard currency, was forced by circumstances to direct an inflationary financial program. Blamed for the collapse of Confederate credit, he was compelled to resign in 1864. After the war he practiced law again in Charleston.