in Charleston, he was in position to do so, he not only became a Commissioner to guard the institution that had been his childhood's home, but with a solicitude which could only have come from his experiences, he would watch the education and minister in the gentlest manner to the comfort of the children who were, as he had been, the wards of the city. As his biographer, I consider that it would not be just to the character of my noble friend, nor would it be more than a partial discharge of the duty I owe to posterity should I omit this most interesting period of his life. A gentleman of high character, now residing in Charleston, informs me that he, in a public speech of Mr. Memminger's long, long ago, remembers only this sentence:

"Not that I would object to have any son of mine sit by the side of the poorest boy in the land, for I have not forgotten that I was once a poor boy myself."

Leaving the nursery, the play-grounds, the school-room and sympathies of the Orphan House at the tender age of eleven years, young Memminger found himself a part of the family of an excellent gentleman whose many graces of character were to infuse themselves into the plastic nature of a clever boy, while his ample fortune enabled him to secure for his protegé the best facilities that the country offered for securing an education. At the time that young Memminger was adopted into his family, Mr. Bennett had not only reached distinction, but was recognized in Charleston and throughout the State of South Carolina as a representative man among the men who in that day made the peculiar virtues of Carolina civilization admirable even in the courtly circles of Europe. Around the fireside or in the counsels of the nursery, at the dinner table or in the drawing-room, there were no associations but those of the Christian gentleman, the devoted patriot, and the upright citizen. The refinements of a cultured family were there to inculcate the virtues of a true manhood.

From boyhood to manhood is but a short period in the evolution of character, but it is a most important and interesting one. It is then that the boy needs the constant care of one whose disinterested love and experiences are to lead him in the right way, and are to secure to him the facilities for mental training and proper physical as well as moral cultivation. The germs or elemental principles of character may have, and undoubtedly do come through laws of heredity, but it requires patient watchfulness and good training to educe possibilities which otherwise may remain dormant or become perverted to base ends and ignoble purposes.

At the home of Governor Bennett, young Memminger was made to feel that he was at his own home, and without a word or an act to indicate a distinction, he was treated in every sense as a son and a brother. The best training that tutors could give was provided for him, while on his young mind and aspiring nature a lofty ambition and determined purpose was fixed by one who took him gently by the hand and lead his thoughts into deep channels of truth, and who strengthened his spirit by a noble example of manhood. It was in such an elemental school that destiny had ordained that the future statesman was to be tutored, and not in the home of his good Aunt Frederica at Stuttgart, in Germany. In after years, when her nephew was fast coming into prominence as a public man, and was winning his first laurels in his city and State, this noble kinswoman sends across the Atlantic this message of love: "It was my intention to raise you in my family, and if I had what would I have done? May be I would have deterred you from your destiny decreed to you, as I believe, by the Almighty Creator."

This "destiny" was preparing her "lovely Gustavus," as she endearingly addresses him in her letter, for a life of usefulness and for a chaplet of honor in far away America, just as it is to-day

"Shaping our ends, rough-hew them how we will."

The letter of his aunt, Madame Frederica Gauger (formerly Memminger), above referred to, is a beautiful expression of a woman's tender regard for a relative of whom she evidently had lost trace, but whom she yet held dear in her memory. It is dated at "Blumenmacherci in der Hauptstrasse, Stuttgard, Würtemberg." I extract from it the following sentence:

When I consider the emigration of your honorable grandfather and your beloved mother, the great persuasion I used to deter them from such an uncertain project in a far distant part of the world, I am, by your achievement, reminded that there is an All-wise Dispenser of human events who governs the affairs of His children better than they are at times disposed to believe.

CHAPTER II.

His College Life and Admission to Bar, Ete.

ITH the thorough preparation that his academic course in Charleston gave to him, Mr. Memminger was entered as a student in the South Carolina College in the year 1815, before he had reached his thirteenth birthday. He came well equipped for the trials which all must undergo who enter an institution of so high a grade, and desire to enjoy its benefits and to contend for its honors.

His class in the Freshman year was a large one, and embraced through his college course a number of young men who were his seniors in years, and a few who in after life became distinguished citizens of South Carolina and of other States. At this period in its history the South Carolina College took high rank among the institutions of learning in the United States, and was in fact the leading college of the Southern States. Here, young men came from all sections of the South, and from its classic shades and well-appointed halls were sent out men who for near a century have impressed their virtues upon the civilization of all sections of our country. Appreciating fully the importance of a liberal education for her sons, and not yet distracted by the political discords that in after years wasted her resources, and which to some extent appear to have alienated the sympathies of her people, South Carolina made ample provision for the maintenance of this college; and in fact, by the judicious expenditure of these appropriations made it a great fountain of knowledge, whose pure waters were liberally dispensed to make useful men of those who were disposed to (21)

drink deep at its Pierian spring. At the time of which I am writing the college had just undergone a severe trial in the enforcement of such discipline as the Faculty were then authorized to execute. The students appear, from the account given by Professor La Borde, in his history of the Institution, to have resorted to violence in resenting what they were pleased to consider grievances, and for some time after the great riot of 1813 they appear to have remained in a state of more or less disorder, if not in open rebellion against the constituted authorities. Dr. Jonathan Maxey, the philosopher and eminent divine, was the President; Robert Henry was Professor of Moral Philosophy; the great Doctor Cooper, of Chemistry; Thomas Park, of Languages, and George Blackburn of Mathematics and Astronomy. The tutors were Timothy D. Porter, of Languages, and James Camak, of Mathematics.

The classmates of Mr. Memminger were Henry Campbell, John Campbell, Ulrick B. Clark, Wm. R. Clowney, Charles James Colcock, Mark A. Cooper, John M. Deas, Franklin H. Elmore, James A. Fleming, Benjamin Green, Samuel M. Green, Ezra M. Gregg, James A. Groves, John S. Groves, John M. Harris, Samuel J. Hoey, Benjamin F. Linton, Thos. Jefferson Means, Henry G. Nixon, John A. H. Norman Edward G. Palmer, James S. Pope, Wm. Porcher, John M. Ross, Napoleon B. Scriven, Samuel P. Simpson, Joseph Stark Sims, James E. Smith, Thomas House Taylor, Wm. H. Taylor, and Edward Thomas.

From a circular issued by the President in 1819, the following I find to be the requisite in order to enter the Freshman class:

A candidate must be able to sustain a satisfactory examination upon Arithmetic and Elementary Algebra and English Grammar; upon Cornelius Nepos, Cæsar, Sallust, and the whole of Virgil's Æneid in Latin; and in Greek upon the Gospels of Sts. John and Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Greek Grammar. The studies to be pursued