MISMANAGEMENT AND OTHER TROUBLES 83
examiner’s report showed that the institution
had actually been insolvent for a year.# But for
several weeks the conclusions of this report were
not generally known.
When the bank began to show signs of weakness
 the few trustees and officials who had money
on deposit withdrew it, while at the same time
the management tried to evade investigation by
Congress, and to delude the Negroes into making
more deposits. Some of those most interested in
the welfare of the institution, among whom was
Sperry, endeavored in 1873-1874 to secure an
investigation by Congress. But somehow it developed
 that anyone who expressed doubt of the
bank’s policy was suspected of hostility to the
Negro race. President Alvord and the trustees
were also opposed to any investigation. This attitude
 was, on the part of most of them, due
probably to ignorance of actual conditions.
Sperry was of the opinion that an investigation
by Congress, if it had been made in time, would
have saved the bank, but he said, “We could not
get the help from Congress at the time we
needed it.”®
During the runs the trustees neglected the
affairs of the bank; only one of them—Purvis, a
Negro—came in to advise and assist the actuary,
who during the crisis had to act most of the time
on his own responsibility. The clique of speculators
 had resigned in good time and left affairs
to the well-meaning incompetents and the Ne-4
 Douglas Report, p. 180; Meig’s reports in Report of Comptroller
of the Currency, 1873-1874.
% Douglas Report, pp. 254-256; Bruce Report, pp. 178, 179, 238.