o. A. J.
Creswell, Robert Purvis, and R. H. T. Leipold. Mr. Creswell was
retained by the United States before the Alabama Claims Commission at
a salary of $10,000 per annum; while Mr. Leipold was a lawyer with
considerable practice. But neither one of these gentlemen ever entered
a court on behalf of the company. In a little more than five years
they used up out of the assets of the company, $40,000 for their
salaries; paid for salaries to agents, $64,000, and $31,000 for
attorneys' fees, aggregating $135,000--nearly one half of the amount
distributed among depositors for the same length of time.

The more the commissioners examined, the greater the liabilities of
the company grew. On the 1st of October, 1875, a dividend of 20 per
cent. was declared; on the 1st of February, 1878, a dividend of 10 per
cent. was declared; on the 21st of August, 1880, they declared another
dividend of 10 per cent.; and on the 14th of April, 1881, a circular
was sent out as a crumb of comfort to the anxious, defrauded, and
outraged depositors. It is not enough for history to pronounce the
failure of this bank an irreparable calamity to the Colored people of
the South; it should be branded as a _crime_! There was no more
necessity for the failure of this bank than for the failure of the
United States Treasury. Its management was criminal; and Congress
should yet seek out and punish the guilty; and the depositors should
be indemnified out of the United States Treasury. Justice and equity
demand it.

The failure of the Freedman's Bank worked great mischief among the
Colored people in the South. But hardy, persistent, earnest, and
hopeful, they turned again to the work of making and saving money.
They have been more prudent than their circumstances, in some
instances, would seem to warrant. In Georgia the Colored people have
made wonderful progress in business matters.

Amount of
Money and Household
No. of Solvent and
Acres of Value of City or Town Debts of Kitchen
Polls. Land. Land. Property. all Kinds. Furniture.
------- ------- ---------- ------------ ---------- ----------
88,522 541,199 $1,348,758 $1,094,435 $73,253 $448,713

Value of all
other Property
Horses, Plantation no