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 docu- 
ments show that from the beginning the incor- 
porators 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 pro- 
vided 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.,