58 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
without number pasted together, balances not 
brought forward . . . original entries do not 
conform to the meaning of the transaction when 
carried to the ledger—credits posted as debits,” 
and so on.” Once when the headquarters office 
had several of the volumes rebound, the binders 
in trimming the edges cut off lines of figures. 
The Douglas Committee in 1876 called the 
attention of Congress to the condition of the 
books. “Their condition,” the committee report 
stated, “indicates a settled purpose, running 
through a series of years, to muddle and confuse 
accounts so as to make them unintelligible. But 
whether through design or not, such is the result. 
If nothing more than an occasional mistake or 
slight irregularity occurred, it might be set down, 
perhaps, to the inexperience of the bookkeepers 
or the want of clerical force to write up the books 
properly, without imputing very great harm to 
anyone. But it is far otherwise. The books are 
mutilated and defaced—leaves cut out in some 
places and firmly pasted together in others— 
without proper indexes to guide and direct the 
searcher into the hidden mysteries—abounding 
in false entries and forced balances, altogether 
exhibiting a labyrinth of winding and never- 
ending perplexities and contradictions that defy 
the scrutiny of the sharpest experts.” 
INCOMPETENT CASHIERS 
Serious troubles were due also to the inexperi- 
7 Bruce Report, pp. 31, 163, 164, 230-233, 243, 244, 246, 250, 256, 
269 (Testimony of A. M. Sperry, O. O. Howard, Stickney, C. A. Fleet- 
wood, Tomkins, Augusta); Reports of Experts, March 7, 1876; Douglass, 
Life and Times, p. 487. 
“8 Ho. Repoe* bo 502, 44 Cong., 1 Sess.