92 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
Not to make too long a story, I was, in six weeks after 
my election as president of this bank, convinced that it 
was no longer a safe custodian of the hard earnings of 
my confiding people. This conclusion once reached, I 
could not hesitate as to my duty in the premises, and 
this was, to save as much as possible of the assets held 
by the bank for the benefit of the depositors; and to pre- 
vent their being further squandered in keeping up appear- 
ances, and in paying the salaries of myself and other 
officers in the bank. Fortunately, Congress, from which 
we held our charter, was then in session, and its com- 
mittees on finance were in daily session. I felt it my duty 
to make known as speedily as possible to Hon. John 
Sherman, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, 
and to Senator Scott of Pennsylvania, also of the same 
committee, that I regarded the institution as insolvent 
and irrecoverable, and that I could no longer ask my 
people to deposit money in it. This representation to the 
finance committee subjected me to very bitter opposition 
on the part of the officers of the bank. Its actuary, Mr. 
Stickney, immediately summoned some of its trustees, a 
dozen or so of them, to go before the [Senate] finance 
committee and make a counter statement to that made 
by me; and this they did. Some of them who had assisted 
me by giving me facts showing the insolvency of the bank, 
now made haste to contradict that conclusion and to assure 
the committee that it was, if allowed to go on, abundantly 
able to weather the financial storm and pay dollar for 
dollar to its depositors. 
I was not exactly thunderstruck, but I was much 
amazed by the contradiction. I, however, adhered to my 
statement that the bank ought to stop. The finance com- 
mittee substantially agreed with me and in a few weeks 
so legislated, by appointing three commissioners to take 
charge of its affairs, as to bring this imposing banking 
business to a close. 
This is a fair and unvarnished narration of my connec- 
tion with the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, 
otherwise known as the Freedmen’s Savings Bank, a con- 
nection which has brought upon my head an amount of