24 THE FREEDMEN’S SAVINGS BANK 
While connected with the Freedmen’s Bank, 
Alvord was also general superintendent of edu- 
cation for the Freedmen’s Bureau, an institution 
which attracted a great deal of unfavorable 
criticism.® 
After his return to the North from Savannah, 
Alvord and his associates worked out a plan for 
a Negro savings bank which should be conducted 
under the patronage of the United States govern- 
ment, and on January 27, 1865, he secured a 
meeting of interested business men and philan- 
thropists at the National Exchange Bank in 
New York City. To them he explained the pro- 
posed bank and convinced them of the necessity 
for it and of its practicability. Those present at 
the meeting were: Peter Cooper, W. C. Bryant, 
Hiram Barney, Charles Collins, Thomas Denny, 
Walter S. Griffith, William Allen, Abraham 
Baldwin, R. S. Barnes, S. B. Caldwell, R. R. 
Graves, A. S. Hawch, Walter S. Hatch, EF. A. 
Lambert, Roe Lockwood, R. H. Manning, R. W. 
Ropes, A. H. Wallis, George Whipple and Albert 
Woodruff. They adopted plans for the organiza- 
tion of the bank and for its incorporation by 
Congress.’ The action of these prominent men 
would, it seems, endorse the respectability, if 
not the business capacity, of Alvord. 
INCORPORATION OF THE FREEDMEN’S 
SAVINGS BANK 
The next step was to secure a charter from 
8 See Peirce, Freedmen’s Bureau. 
9Bruce Rept., p. 246; Rept. of J. J. Knox, Comptroller of the Cur- 
rency, Feb. 21, 13%. in Sen. Misc. Doc., No. 88, 43 Cong. 2 Sess.