The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1939-02-25

watkins harper, Mary Hammond,
Fannie jackson Coppin, M. G. B. Ma
son, etc.
In 1887, I happened to be in Wash
lngton, D. c., and met Miss Nahar at
Rev. Grimke's Presbyterian Church,
where Fred Douglass was making a
talk. 1t seems that Mr.. Douglass had
heard Miss Nahar recite, and wanted
her to call on him and his wife at his
Anacostla Mansion, and it was ar
ranged that Miss Nahar, another lady,
whose name forget, and myself should
visit Mr.. Douglass on the following
Sunday, and thereupon we made the
journey in a vehicle across the long
Anacostia Bridge and up the long hill
until we reached the beautiful green
lawn and spacious grounds of the
grand Colonial Douglass home. We
found Mr.. Douglass and his wife on the
long columned veranda. In rising to
greet us, he revealed he was over six
feet tall, deep chested, broad shoulders,
well built, fine head with gray hair,
and face covered with gray whiskers,
and full mustache over a well-shaped
mouth, from which emulated a reverent
voice full of warmth and rhythm. He
made me think of the young Sioux In
dian tribes-men of the West, and was
about their shade of complexion, look
ing every inch chieftain and a noble
specimen of humanity. His wife was
white lady, medium height and build,
very pleasant to talk to and showing
evidence of deep culture, and much in
terested In and attentive to her hus-
band. Mr.. Douglass and his wife en-
tertalned us most graciously, and show
ed us many relics, spear heads, swords,
muskets, and other memoirs of the
John Brown Harpers Ferry Escapade.
After this, he took down his violin and
gave us several renditions of eye
Olden Times, and I think something
which [ understood to be "Loch La
mon, Arkansas Traveller, and
"Fishers Horn Pipe. We skipped a
little Of the light fantastic and the Vir-
ginia reel with the aid of Mr.. Doug
lass violin performance. perhaps the
talented Joseph Douglass inherited his
musical aptitude from Frederick Doug
lass, his grandfather). I came away
meditating upon the wonderful man
had seen and heard, and what he had
done, for he had been the instrumental
leader in the struggle for Emancipa-
ton in this country, along with CARR
son, Lovejoy, Sumner, Wendell Philips
and others, and it was Douglass, more
than any other person, who kept the
camp fire burning and added fuel to the
flame when things seemed to go down;
and it was he who held "Lincoln's feet
to the fire., as it were, until he got
from him that immortal signature to
the Emancipation Proclamation. I
thought of his being left without a
mother in his early days, and was in
the care of a colored woman who buffet
ted him around, calling him a lazy
good-for-nothing, when he attempted
to dig out few lines in reading from
books. Mrs. Endicott, his young mis-
tress, taught him his alphabet against
the wishes of her husband, his father
being white and leaving him to grow
up wild, as it were, which happily he
failed to do. I thought of his alterca-
ton with the overseer on the Maryland
plantation, in his youth, when he gave
that individual a thrashing, who was
attempting to beat him with a hickory
whip for not going on with his work
while shaking with chills and ague, his
escape, sleeping under a pile of leaves
in the woods, and fed piece-meal by an
other slave friend; Disgusting himself
on the railroad train to get to Balti-
more, and there shipping as a seaman
to New York, where he met sympath-
izers; and thence to New Bedford,
where he met William Lloyd Garrison,
who was alleged to have become jealous
of him as being the best drawing card
at Anti-Slavery meetings; and his later
becoming the greatest oratorical
champion of the freedom of the slaves,
and his trip to England where he was
received by great ovations, and how
the Irishman said to fellow Irishman,
that if Douglass was half negro, what
could a whole Negro do. Be it remem-
bered that Mr.. Lincoln did not go all
the way at first in the fight against
slavery, and was willing to compromise
if he could free the slaves and save the
Union, he would do it that way, if he
could save the Union without freeing
the slaves, he would do it that way, but
Douglass would not submit to this and
insisted that there should be no COM
promise, but that the slaves should be
freed whether the Union was saved or
not saved And after all, the procla-
nation did not free all the slaves but
left still in bondage those who were
held by the Unionist instead of Seces-
sionist around Norfolk, Virginia, and
certain parishes in Louisiana-the slave
owners there being allowed to retain
ownership of their slaves Charles Ed
ward Russell, in his work, is authority
for the statement that Lincoln was OPP