74 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
finance doubtful enterprises, and to furnish 
cheap loans. Jay Cooke and Company, the fi- 
nanciers, through their control of the finance 
committee, were able to borrow $500,000 at one 
time paying only 5 per cent interest, while the 
Freedmen’s Bank was paying 6 per cent to 
depositors on the same money.” 
Between 1870 and 1873 the Freedmen’s Bank 
was practically controlled by Jay Cooke and 
Company and the First National Bank. It suf- 
fered much under this control. H. D. Cooke and 
W. S. Huntington, president and cashier respec- 
tively, of the First National Bank of Washing- 
ton, were trustees of the Freedmen’s Bank and 
members of its finance committee. When Cooke’s 
bank made a bad transaction, these men used 
their position and influence to transfer the poor 
securities to the Freedmen’s Bank. They also 
used the latter as a dumping ground for the bad 
private claims of themselves and friends. Hunt- 
ington lived in a house belonging to one R. P. 
Dodge and, in order to get his rent reduced, 
negotiated for Dodge a $13,000 loan from his 
own (the First National) bank. This bank held 
Dodge’s notes until they were due and then 
through Huntington’s influence with Eaton, the 
actuary, transferred the paper to the Freedmen’s 
Bank. After Huntington died Dodge was asked 
to pay but objected on the ground that the 
money from the loan went to Huntington, not 
to himself. Stickney, the actuary who succeeded 
Eaton, said of Huntington, “If he wanted to 
have anything done, it was done.” Trustees 
2 Douglas Report, pp. 8, 11, 12; Bruce Report, p. 179.