162 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
that a trust company is something more than a bank. It 
implies a great deal, and the Government advised these 
recently emancipated people to put their money in the 
institution, to save it for a rainy day. They had also a 
Freedmen’s Bureau to look after and advise us, and these 
people thought that this was another part of that great 
institution of beneficence to look after their interests. 1 
think that is a good reason why they poured their money 
into that bank. The Government said that their officers 
might go and advise these people where to put their 
money, to tell them to send their receipts to Washington 
and the money would be deposited to their credit, and if 
that does not show some sort of responsibility on the part 
of the Government, with a view to increasing thrift and 
economy among those people, who were then only citizens 
by the emancipation proclamation, I would like to know. 
Statement of Reverend James L. White: 
They were told that every foot of land and every green 
tree in the United States was responsible and therefore it 
could not fail, and the colored people gathered all the 
money that they had earned before the war and the time 
of the Civil War by working at nights and Saturday after- 
noons and intrusted it to this bank on the recommendation 
of the officers of the Government. 
6. LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT 
PUBLIC DOCUMENTS RELATING TO 
THE FREEDMEN’S BANK 
House Executive Documents: No. 70, 39 Congress, 1 ses- 
sion; No. 144, 44 Congress, 1 session. 
House Miscellaneous Documents: No. 16, 43 Congress, 2 
session; No. 18, 49 Congress, 1 session; No. 34, 49 Con- 
gress, 2 session; No. 10, 48 Congress, 1 session; No. 29, 
43 Congress, 2 session; No. 7, 48 Congress, 2 session; 
No. 34, 49 Congress, 2 session; No. 33, 51 Congress, 1 
session; No. 26, 53 Congress, 2 session; No. 33, 53 
Congress, 3 session.