Secession produced a new panic. Specie fled the Treasury and the government’s credit rating plunged. When Lincoln took office the national debt was the highest in forty years. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase was a political appointee without prior financial experience—in contrast to the Confederacy’s Memminger, who was an expert in commercial and banking law. But Chase was an adept learner and turned out to be a good treasury secretary.
