MISMANAGEMENT AND OTHER TROUBLES 67 
deterioration of the governing body. The origi- 
nal board of trustees was composed principally 
of men of high character, several of them noted 
for business ability, and as long as the central 
office was in New York a sufficient number at- 
tended the meetings to keep the business going 
properly. But after the removal of headquarters 
to Washington many trustees found it impossible 
to attend the meetings and thus through non- 
service most of the better members were in time 
eliminated. The honest and eflicient trustees, 
like Ketchum of New York and Stewart of 
Baltimore, were opposed to the management of 
the bank after headquarters were removed to 
Washington, but as they were unable to reform 
it they resigned. Ketchum was one of the last 
of the trustees who took an intelligent and help- 
ful interest in the bank, but he finally resigned 
as a protest against the Seneca loan business.? 
Since it was difficult to fill the vacant places 
on the board of trustees with men of standing 
and experience, it came about that the majority 
of those elected were put in merely to fill up the 
lists. They had slight capacity, frequently no 
business connections, and but little property; 
the main qualification was to have some kind of 
a record as an abolitionist, or as a Freedmen’s 
Bureau official, or as a friend of the freedmen. 
Too many of them took little interest in the 
business. Queer characters were put in as “dum- 
mies,” and it was found later that some of them 
had never read the act of incorporation of the 
bank. 
18See below, p. 77.