Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-06-01
NUMBER 40.


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Correspondent Troy Times.
Letter from Washington.
THE PRESIDENTS NFw ,UMuER uoME-uow
TIE CABINET WILL LIvE-TnE FRED
DOUGLASS HuBBrB
WASHINGTON, May 81, 1877
The speedy advent Of the heated term has
caused the people Of Washington to make
arrangements to leave for their Summer
resorts. There will not be as much absen-
teeism this year AZ usual, as the President
and cabinet officers intend to remain during
the entire Summer, taking only occasional
trips to get breath of air.
The President will, some time this week.
| go to the house that has been prepared for
him at the Soldiers Home. 1t is also the
house in which Abraham Lincoln lived dur
ing the heated war summers, when he
scarcely left his post for an hour. There is
not a more beautiful site in the country.
The Soldiers Home is on height fully 800
feet above the valley in which Washington
lies, and three miles out. The difference in the
thermometer between the executive mansion
and the Soldiers Home would at any time
be 10 degrees. The Home" was originally
established out of the ransom money receiy-
by Gen. Scott for saving the city of Mexico.
This fund has been enlarged by constant and
rapid accumulation of soldiers fines, for
FIXTURES and penalties, which Congress by law
has set apart for the uses of Soldiers
Home. The fund now reaches the enormous
sum of 10000, 600, nearly all OF which is
invested in government bonds.
Secretary Evarts has engaged, for the Sum-
mer, a home on Highland Terrace, near that
of Senator Edmunds. 1t is one of the finest
locations within the city. Secretary Thomp-
son will try to live as bachelor at the
Ebbitt House. where Key also lives Attor-
ney General Devens lives in lodgings, and
like the Yankee sshool marm, "boa.ds
around" Deyens is not bachelor, as his
son, who leads the Harvard boat race, could
we'll testify. He is q widower of long stand
ing lie does not appear to have any inten-
tlon of resigning, for he has recently pur-
chased comfortable one-ho-se coupe rock
away" of the kind so much in use here,
and evidently is settling down for the Sum-
mer. A government "landaulet" will never
be charged to him, as he has already started
private establishment from his own funds
Secretary Sherman lives in the house which
he occupied for so many years as senator
1t is situated on X street. fronting the beau
tilul franklin square. lie keeps his own
team, and can be seen in the cool of every
evening seeking rest and breath of air on
the country roads, or in the shaded hooks of
the Soldiers Home park. The President is
his frequent companion on these rides. Sec
retary Schurz lives with a friend temporarily
on Lafayette square, near to the spot where
Sickles shot down his wife'S seducer, Philip
Barton Key.
Tomorrow delegation of business men
and fossilized Bourbons will present to the
President formidable document asking for
the removal of Frederick Douglass from the
United States marshalship of the district
The speech of Douglass was, of course, an
indiscretion, and In many respects, indeed,
untrue, as any speech written years ago by
anybody of any community would now
most likely be in part uatrue. But there
was time when the most of it
was true. There was time when
the crack of the plantation whip could
be heard on the floors of Congress
when the centre of commerce was the slave
pen: when the street Improvements were
restricted to chopping up the weeds between
the stones with case-knives in the hands of
bondsmen when the President used to ride
on horseback from the White House to the
Capitol, because carriage would get stalled
on Pennsylvania avenue; when the courts
were tools of the slave power when the
civilization of kemper county was the ideal
of men prominent in the nations council
The Washington city Of that day well illus
trated most of the things which Douglass
said in his lecture, last week but his lee
ture was only in a very small measure true
to-day. 1t was imprudent in Douglass, as
United States marshall to deliver lecture
which would have have been entirely exeus-
able in Douglass as q private citizen and
professional lecturer.
The questions whether Fred. Douglass was
proper person to be United States mar
shal, and whether he represents his race,
are entirely different considerations. There
are many friends of the administration, of
the colored race, and of Mr.. Douglass. who
would give decided negative answer to
both these interrogatOries. Douglass never
was business man, has little conception of
business duties, and must necessarily almost
entirely depend upon Others for the efficient
discharge Of the duties of his Office. More |
over. it is a matter of great doubt whether |
Fred. Douglass is a typical representative of |
his race. 1t is quite certain that good |
many OF the colored people Of this district
think that he is not, and do not hesitate tn |
express such opinions Fred Douglass is.
of course, removed by his culture from any
very close relationship with the ignorant |
majority OF his race. And the complaint
has frequently been made against him that |
he seeks the society Of white men, rather |
than that of people of his own color. That
has always been the case with him. In the |
principal barber shop here the other day.
where there are 10 intelligent young colored /
men employed. could not find one who was
willing TO admit that Douglass was a iair ex
pGnent Of their class. They all agreed. on
the contrary, that he always rather ignored
his own race as r practical matter, and that
he only treated OF the negro As matter OF
professional philanthropy. have been sur
prised to find so much bitterness against
him among colored people of various classes.
They most all agree that President Hayes
could have found much better representa-
tive of the colored race to fill an important
office than Douglass was. This may surprise
old abolition leaders. 1t serves to show
that, with the era of good feeling, there will
also inevitably come a division among the
blacks, rs there is among the whites.
But these considerations enter by no means
into the Bourbon antipathy to the colored
marshal of this district. The rank and file
OF the old slayeholding class will have none