THE COLLAPSE OF THE BANK 99 
New York, N. Y........ 344,071 Saint Louis, Mo......... 58,397 
Norfolk, Va............ 126,337 Tallahassee, Fla... ...... 40,207 
Philadelphia, Pa........ 84,657 Vicksburg, Miss, ....... 114,348 
Raleigh, N. C........... 126,705 Washington, D.C... .... 384,789 
Richmond, Va.......... 166,000 Wilmington, N. C....... 45,223 
Savannah, Ga........... 153,425 nn 
Shreveport, La.......... 030.312 Total............53,299,201 
Thus ended in failure a most promising plan 
to aid the Negro race. The various causes lead- 
ing to this failure have been discussed at length 
and may be summed up as follows: Poor business 
management; neglect of duty by the more honest 
and capable trustees; the failure of Congress to 
make an investigation in time; the general de- 
pression of business in 1873; hostility to the 
bank as a race institution and as a connection 
of the Freedmen’s Bureau; dishonesty and in- 
competency in the branches; and finally and 
fundamentally the careless and corrupt use of its 
funds by the “ring” of District of Columbia 
trustees and officials. 
The Freedmen’s Bank had a fine field and 
according to expert opinion could have survived 
all other troubles had it not been for the lack of 
honesty on the part of those who for a time 
controlled its management at Washington. Like 
so many other enterprises throughout the United 
States during that period it fell a prey to the 
general corruption that prevailed during the 
Reconstruction period.? 
* Bruce Report, pp. 248, 249, 273, 274; Douglas Report, p. 17; 
Cong. Record, April 22 (1876), p. 2707. See Oberholtzer, Jay Cooke, 
passim, as to banking conditions in the 1870%.