Autograph Letter Signed, Washington City, March 31, 1880, to Hon. B.[lanche] K. Bruce, United States Senator and Former Slave, Referencing the Freedman’s Bank

Quarto, one page, separated along horizontal folds, repaired on verso with archival tissue, else in good legible condition.

Clephane, a former manager of the Freedman's Bank" writes to Bruce, a former slave, and current United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, defending himself against an accusation in the press that he was "insolvent."

"Hon. B. K. Bruce

Chairman F. B. Com.

Dear Sir,

I notice in yesterday's "Evening Star" what purports to be a synopsis of the Report of the Senate Com. On "Freedman's Bank" affairs of which you are Chairman the statement that "the living ex-managers are not solvent" as I presume I am classed among the "ex-managers" and as such a statement is calculated to do me serious injury in my business relations, I respectfully desire to be informed if there was any evidence adduced before your committee in regard to my "solvency" or insolvency, and if so, by whom …"

The Freedman's Bank (Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company) was a pivotal yet ultimately failed institution chartered in 1865 to help newly freed African Americans build wealth and economic security after the Civil War, offering a crucial lifeline with deposits from over 100,000 people, but its collapse in 1874 due to mismanagement, fraud, and risky investments betrayed its mission, causing devastating financial losses and lasting distrust. However, its records are an invaluable resource in African American history.

Senator Blanche Bruce of the Select Committee on the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, himself a former slave, wrote in his committee's report in 1880:

"As its name imports, the institution was designed to perform for a particular class of our people the simple but important functions of a savings bank; its declared purpose being "to receive on deposit such sums of money as may from time to time be offered therefor, by or on behalf of persons heretofore held in slavery in the United States or their descendants, and investing the same in the stocks, bonds, treasury notes, or other securities of the United States."

Blanche Kelso Bruce (March 1, 1841 – March 17, 1898) was an American politician who represented Mississippi as a Republican in the United States Senate from 1875 to 1881. Born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia, he went on to become the first elected African American senator to serve a full term (Hiram R. Revels, also of Mississippi, was the first African American to serve in the U.S. Senate but did not complete a full term).

He was appointed as Recorder of Deeds in Washington D.C. during Benjamin Harrison's presidency. His home, the Blanche K. Bruce House, is a National Historic Landmark.

American National Biography, vol. 3, pp., 779-780

Lewis Clephane was an American politician, businessman, and civic leader in 19th-century Washington, D.C. Clephane was an organizer and co-founder of the Republican Party, early abolitionist, and Postmaster of Washington, D.C., appointed by Abraham Lincoln. Lewis Clephane co-founded the National Republican (newspaper) with his company, Lewis Clephane & Co., serving as publisher. He is known as the "Pioneer Washington Republican" and is best known for his 1889 retrospective address titled "The Birth of the Republican Party." He is part of the Clephane family who were early settlers of Washington, D.C. His younger brother, James O. Clephane, is known as "Father of the Linotype" machine and provided instruction and financial backing to Ottmar Mergenthaler for the invention of the typewriter and similar mass-printing inventions. Lewis Clephane was also a co-founder of the Washington, D.C., arm of The Metropolitan Club.