Memminger was considered a moderate on the secession issue, but after the election of Abraham Lincoln, decided that 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 by bonds and tariffs (and the confiscation of gold from the United States Mint in New Orleans), but he soon found himself forced to more extreme measures such as income taxes and fiat currency.
He had been a supporter of hard currency before the war but found himself issuing increasingly-devalued paper money, which had become worth less than 2% of its face value in gold by the end of the war.
Memminger was considered a moderate on the secession issue, but after the election of Abraham Lincoln, decided that 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 by bonds and tariffs (and the confiscation of gold from the United States Mint in New Orleans), but he soon found himself forced to more extreme measures such as income taxes and fiat currency. He had been a supporter of hard currency before the war but found himself issuing increasingly-devalued paper money, which had become worth less than 2% of its face value in gold by the end of the war.
Christopher Memminger