ORGANIZATION AND EXPANSION 31
Not more than seven per cent was to be allowed
as interest on deposits, and should any interest
remain uncalled for two years after the death of
a depositor it might be applied to the education
of Negro children, and the principal was also to
be so applied if not claimed within seven years.
Persons connected with the institution directly
or indirectly as trustees, officials, or employees
were not to be allowed to borrow from it. None
of the trustees was to receive any compensation
except the president and the vice-presidents, who
were supposed to give active service, and all
salaries and the bonds of the officials were to be
fixed by the trustees. The books of the bank
were at all times to be open to the inspection of
the agents of Congress.
Such were the principal provisions of the
Freedmen’s Bank charter. The law would seem
to confine the business of the bank to the District
of Columbia, and Congress certainly sointended,
as was shown by the discussions in the House
and in the Senate. On the other hand the documents
 show that from the beginning the incorporators
 meant to establish headquarters in New
York City with branch banks in each southern
state. There were in the act no penal clauses to
bind the officials, and nothing definite was provided
 in regard to their bonds. The trustees were
not made liable personally, probably because of
the quasi-charitable nature of their services, and
because of the high character and prominence of
some of the individuals involved. It was not then
3 Acts and Resolutions, 38 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 99; Fleming, Documentary
on o Srronstucticn, 1, 382; Ho. Misc. Doc. No. 16, 43 Cong.,