[454] me, as far as possible, all extraordinary outlays, and to compensate me for my time and labor expended for the institution over and above that reckoned as officially due to the Government. In the statement which they prepared, called “General Howard's account,” of date July 4, 1873, they put down receipts and expenditures and attached a summary which exhibited on the debtor side $17,583, and on the credit side $16,906.18, showing that I had received a balance of only $676.82 in money. The trustees then remarked:
The amount General Howard has actually received over and above what he has given to the university and to destitute students for seven years service is six hundred and seventy-six dollars and eighty-two cents ($676.82). If we recall the investment he made to enhance the realty of the university, the amount of rental in the way of interest has been $2,000 yearly in excess of the rental of his former city house, making in five years of occupancy $10,000. For this interest there is no return except in the increased value of his lot, viz.: $4,434, estimated; deducting this from $10,000 gives $5,566, a forced expenditure for the benefit of the university. This shows that he virtually contributed more than he has received in the sum of $4,889.18.Later, in 1883, by the help of a friend who desired to be anonymous I paid a subscription of $10,000 for the Law Department, and have since been the channel of aid to the amount of $1,500 more. I have been thus particular because it has been claimed by some critics that I made money out of my connection with the university. I did not, however. The day I took my departure from Washington, I was not nearly so well off pecuniarily as when I went there in 1865.