THE COLLAPSE OF THE BANK ~3 
loan. Deposits made after the date of this law 
(June 20, 1874) were to be considered “special” 
and held for the use of the depositor. But if, after 
the report which was to be made by the trustees 
on the condition of the bank, the Secretary of the 
Treasury should pronounce the concern solvent, 
then these last deposits might be turned into the 
general fund and the business go on as before. 
The above provisions were meant in part to 
save appearances and to afford the trustees an 
opportunity to get out of their difficulties if it 
were possible. But as it resulted the real sig- 
nificance of the act was in the section which 
provided that, if the trustees thought it proper, 
they might nominate three commissioners to be 
appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to 
close up the bank and its branches, collect its 
loans, realize on its investments, and pay the 
proceeds to the depositors. 
After the passage of this act there was a faint 
pretense at reorganization. The trustees lowered 
the interest rate on deposits to five per cent, de- 
creased the number of employees and prepared 
to discontinue some of the non-paying branches. 
Douglass himself seems to have been optimistic 
for he issued a circularstating that the bank was 
now on a firm basis and that the $217,000 deficit 
could be diminished under careful management. 
The trouble had been caused, he said, by non- 
paying branches, too high interest rate, ‘“‘sense- 
less runs,” hostility to the Negro race and hence 
to the Negro bank, and general hard times. 
1 Bruce Report, pp. 238, 239 and Appendix; Douglass, Life and 
Times, p. 491. 
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