Memminger, Christopher G.

Autograph letter signed (" C. G. Memminger Secty of Treas."), 3 pages (9 3/4 x 8 in.; 246 x 202mm), on stationery of the Treasury Department C.S.A, Richmond, 13 September 1862, to Jefferson Davis; last page neatly inlaid. Grey linen portfolio, black morocco spine label.

On payment for iron clad ships. Written just six months after the fateful encounter between the Monitor and the Merrimac, Memminger's letter regarding payment for additional iron clad vessels affords insight into many of the financial problems facing the South, the problems caused by the Union blockade and the widespread Confederate hope that cotton could be used to pay the expenses of government and war. He explains to President Jefferson Davis: "I have given much consideration to the Letter addressed to you by the Secretary of the Navy in relation to remittances abroad to pay the appropriation for Iron Clad Ships. The difficulties of procuring foreign Exchange are correctly stated by the Secretary; and these difficulties are increased by a similar demand for large sums for the War Department which are even more urgently required than those for the Navy." Memminger states the only course of action is to make some kind of arrangement on time with foreign contractors "as the Treasury is not in possession of any sufficient amount of Coin belonging to the Government, and cannot purchase Exchange." He suggests the purchases be made with cotton and the cotton "be stored at convenient Depots according to the regulations under the Produce Loan, and thereupon that the Certificates of ownership be offered to the Contractors by way of hypothecation, the title to the Cotton to be transferred to them and the Cotton as neutral property whenever it can run the Blockade to the order of the Contractors, or to remain stored here at their pleasure; the proceeds of the Cotton when sold in England to be placed to the Credit of the Contract." Memminger then outlines an alternative method as well and expresses the belief that "that one or other of these plans would probably be accepted."