As the first Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury, Memminger was the principal author of the economic policies of Jefferson Davis's administration.

[1] His mother, Eberhardina (née Kohler) Memminger, immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, but died of yellow fever in 1807.

[5] In 1859, after John Brown's raid, he was commissioned by South Carolina to consult with other delegates in Virginia as to the best method of warding off attacks of abolitionists.

He attempted to finance the government initially by bonds and tariffs (and the confiscation of gold from the United States Mint in New Orleans).

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 resigned as Secretary of the Treasury on July 1, 1864, and was replaced by fellow South Carolinian George Trenholm.

He also continued his work on developing South Carolina's public education system and was voted to a final term in the state legislature in 1877.