Here, too, is our legal brother, John H. Cook, colored, following
modestly in the footsteps of his paler-faced brother, Totten. John found
the field open and went in and made a goodly harvest of fees. Ordinarily,
John H. Cook’s clients are of the ten, fifteen, and twenty dollar class.
Here, however, he improved on himself, like Mr. Frederick Douglass. John
H. Cook, a member in good standing at the Washington Bar, never forgets
that he is a friend of “his race.” I would here say, however, that I
am assured by several members of the Washington Bar that Mr. Cook’s
services in behalf of the bank extended over as long a period of time and
were quite as valuable as those rendered by Mr. Totten. A glance at the
list of his charges, published below, will at least convince the reader
that he was more modest in making up his accounts. Why the Commissioners
should have discriminated against color in this remarkable manner is a
question the reader can decide for himself.
There are other attorneys-at-law, plain and colored, who were employed by
the Commissioners, and who got fees to a very considerable amount; but I
nowhere find the name of that eminent patriot and statesman, John Andrew
Jackson Creswell. Indeed he does not seem to have rendered legal or any
other service, notwithstanding General Grant’s assurance that as a lawyer
he would be very useful in winding up the affairs of the bank.
Here is Brother Cook’s account current for legal services. I have omitted
dates:
John H. Cook $2 00
” 59 00
” 155 00
” 15 00
” 325 00
” 44 00
” 7 00
” 15 00
” 132 00
” 110 00
” 115 00
” 246 00
” 45 00
” 170 00
” 106 00
” 864 00
” 340 00
” 160 00
” 154 00
” 95 00
” 21 00
” 95 00
” 10 00
” 200 00
” 29 00
” 130 00
” 73 00
” 50 00
” 25 00
---------
$3,792 00
One of the worst features of this bad case, one which will astonish
and set the intelligent reader to thinking, will be found in the fact
that these Commissioners, whose feelings seem blunted by avarice, again
employed the man G. W. Stickney, and in defiance of law, and I was going
to say decency itself, paid him the salary of a Commissioner. This of
itself should condemn them as unfit for their high trust.
George W. Stickney, the man who brought so much scandal and disgrace
on the bank, again employed and paid the salary of a Commissioner!
Shame! What service this man could render, except explaining his own
irregularities, I am unable to discover.
The Hon. Beverly Douglas, in his report to Congress more than two years
ago, showed us exactly what manner of man this Stickney was. He also
showed us, in language not to be mistaken, how shamefully Stickney had
abused his trust. He showed us that Stickney had not only allowed his
friends to raid on the bank’s funds, but was himself a debtor to it in a
very considerable amount; also that he was responsible for the large and
very bad loans made to what was known as the Washington Ring.[3]
I can only account for Stickney’s employment by the Commissioners on
the theory that the old Washington Ring is still active in controlling
the bank’s officials, and that the Commissioners are more in sympathy
with the men who defrauded the bank, than the men and women who were the
victims of the fraud. In the face of all this the Commissioners tell us
again they have “no knowledge of any improper use of the funds of the
company to which reference is made in the preamble of the resolution”
(Mr. Muller’s) “of the House of Representatives.”
Why, gentlemen Commissioners, this Stickney business has been the scandal
of the town for months, and it is your fault that you have been deaf to
it.
Now mark this strange admission. In a side note on page 87 of the report
made in response to Mr. Muller’s resolution, the Commissioners say,
“Balance due from him (Stickney) as late Actuary Freedmen’s Savings and
Trust Company, being paid by services.” The reader will admit that this
is a new, if not entirely novel, method of allowing a delinquent official
to discharge his indebtedness to a bank for the savings of the poor.