ORGANIZATION AND EXPANSION 37 
as cashiers. So it came about that for a time 
nearly every bank official wore the uniform of 
the United States; the Bureau offices and the 
branch banks were often in the same rooms; and 
the missionaries and agents of the Bureau regu- 
larly solicited deposits. The effect of its connec- 
tion with the Bureau was to make the depositors 
believe that they were dealing with the United 
States government, and there is no doubt that 
in order to increase the business and extend the 
system this belief was intentionally fostered.” 
There are in the records numerous references 
to the close relationship existing between bank 
and Bureau. Alvord, for example, in a report to 
General Howard in 1866 concerning Bureau 
schools, mentions: “The Savings and Trust Com- 
pany for Freedmen, chartered by Congress last 
winter and placed under your advisement.”’*® 
Later, before the investigating committees, de- 
positors frequently stated that they were made 
to understand that the institution was conducted 
by the United States. Sanders Howell made this 
statement to the Douglas Committee: “Mr. 
Wilson, who was cashier of the bank,” stated 
1 Bruce Report, pp. 180, 246, and Appendix, p. 45; Douglas Report, 
pp. 66, 67; Ho. Misc. Doc. No. 18, 49 Cong., 1 Sess., and No. 34, 49 
Cong,, 2 Sess.; Sen. Misc. Doc. No. 10, 47 Cong. 2 Sess.; Report of 
Alvord, Jan. 1, 1866, in Ho. Ex. Doc. No. 70, 39 Cong., 1 Sess.; Brad- 
ford’s speech in Cong. Record, April 22, 1876; Howard Investigation, pp. 
51, 53, in Ho. Report. No. 121, 41 Cong., 2 Sess.; Banker's Magazine, 
June, 1875; The Nation, April 15, 1875; Douglass, Life and Times, p. 
487; Somers, Southern States since the War, p. 54; Peirce, Freedmen’s 
Bureau, passim; Senate Misc. Doc. No. 88, 43 Cong., 2 Sess.; Committee 
on Banking and Currency, Hearings on Freedmen’s Savings and Trust 
Company, 1910. 
Ho. Ex. Doc. No. 70, 39 Cong., 1 Sess. 
7 The branch bank in Washington.