The times., 1898-09-30
THINKS IT Is A SCHEME
The Son of Frederick Douglass
Is Displeased.
DISSERTATION OF GRAVES
In Strong Terms He Denounces
Those Who Propose to Remove
the Remains of the Dead COm-
moner From the Side of His First
Wife-Girls' Reform School Report.

Charles r. Douglass. son of the late
Frederick Douglass, has written to the
District Commissioners, asking them to
oppose Senate bill No. 1882. for the in
corporation of the Frederick Douglass
Memorial and Historical Association.
The bill in question was introduced by
Senator Gallinger by request on July l.
last. and referred TO the Committee on
the District of Columbia the same day
The objects of the bill are: First, to
preserve to posterity the memory of the
heroic character and life of the late
Frederick Douglass; second, TO collect
and preserve an historical record of the
inception, progress. and elimination of
the anti-slavery movement in the United
States of America, and to assemble in
the homestead of the late Frederick
Douglass, which is commonly called Ce-
dar Hill, Anacostia in the District of
Columbia, all other suitable exhibits OF
records or things that illustrate the anti
slavery movement; third, to promote the
American principle of the security of civ
ii liberty, and the establishment of the
absolute social, civil, and political equal
fact in the Republic of the United States
of America.
The incorporators named in the bill are
Helen Douglass, widow OF the deceased
race leader; William II. II. Hart,
Francis ]. Grimke, Sarah Blackall. and
Edward A. Clarke.
The second section of the bill provides
that after the association shall have ac-
quired title in fee simple to whole or a
part of the Cedar Hill property, il shall
forever hold the same sacred to the men,
ory of the late Frederick Douglass and
shall repair, improve, ana adorn IL In
such way and manner as to the said in
corporators or their successors, or a ma
jority of them, may seem meet and
proper.
The ninth section of the bill provides
that the corporation shall cause to be
erected, at some suitable site upon the
homestead a monument TO the memory
of Douglass, this site and monument Ia
be selected by Helen Douglass, the widow,
and that beneath within. or near which
monument, at such time as the said board
of trustees may determine, the remains
of the late Frederick Douglass may be in
tered, and that the remains of no other
person shall. without consent OF Helen
Douglass, widow of the late Frederick
Douglass be inferred within the limits OF
the AFORESAID homestead, except those oil
the widow of the late Frederick Douglass,
by whose devotion and sacrifice this cor
poration became possible.
Ii is 10 this section that objection is
made and the letter received yesterday
from Charles r. Douglass reads as fol-
lows:
My purpose in addressing you is, first,
to ascertain whether this bill comes be-
fore your honorable board for approval
or disapproval, and, If so, to ask in the
name of the children and all the legal
heirs of Mr.. Douglass that it be not APP
proved, for the reason that 1t is be-
lieved by them that this scheme is a
mere ruse to obtain money from the pub
lie to serve personal ends.
THE ninth section of the bill is par
ticularly Objectionable to the heirs of
Frederick Douglass, as ii authorizes The
desecration of the graves of our parents
by the disinterment of my fathers re-
mains from beside those Of his first wife
of Rochester. n. Y, and the reinterment
of them at Cedar Hill, Anacostia, max
ing of that place burial site where the
remains of other persons may be in
TERED at the pleasure of Mrs. Helen Dou-
glass only.
"Of the five persons named as a body
corporate two are nonresident and one
Mrs. Sarah Blackall, of Rochester, n
Y, declares that she is not in sympathy
with the movement and that her name
was used without her knowledge and con-
sent The other nonresident is Edward
| A Clarke, of Ohio