Editing Frederick Douglass (section)

==Final years in Washington, D.C.==
The Freedman's Savings Bank went bankrupt on June 29, 1874, just a few months after Douglass became its president in late March.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 3, 2015 |title=The Freedman's Savings Bank: Good Intentions Were Not Enough; A Noble Experiment Goes Awry |url=https://www.occ.gov/about/what-we-do/history/freedman-savings-bank.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221122602/https://www.occ.gov/about/who-we-are/history/1863-1865/1863-1865-freedmans-savings-bank.html |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |access-date=September 21, 2017 |website=occ.gov}}</ref> During that same economic crisis, his final newspaper, ''The New National Era'', failed in September.<ref>{{cite web |title=Frederick Douglass Chronology – Frederick Douglass National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederick-douglass-chronology.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922101349/https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/frederick-douglass-chronology.htm |archive-date=September 22, 2017 |access-date=September 21, 2017 |website=nps.gov}}</ref> When Republican [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] was elected president, he named Douglass [[United States Marshal]] for the [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]], making him the first person of color to be so named. The [[United States Senate]] voted to confirm him on March 17, 1877.<ref>{{cite web |date=March 18, 2021 |title=On this Day |url=http://links.si.mkt6346.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NDQ2NDc0MTIS1&r=NzQwNDUzNzY2MzMS1&j=MTk2MTUzNjUzMwS2&mt=1&rt=0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413200749/http://links.si.mkt6346.com/servlet/MailView?ms=NDQ2NDc0MTIS1&r=NzQwNDUzNzY2MzMS1&j=MTk2MTUzNjUzMwS2&mt=1&rt=0 |archive-date=April 13, 2021 |access-date=March 18, 2021 |website=Smithsonian magazine}}</ref> Douglass accepted the appointment, which helped assure his family's financial security.<ref name="pbs.org" /> During his tenure, Douglass was urged by his supporters to resign from his commission, since he was never asked to introduce visiting foreign dignitaries to the President, which is one of the usual duties of that post. However, Douglass believed that no [[covert racism]] was implied by the omission and stated that he was always warmly welcomed in presidential circles.<ref>{{cite web |last=Frederick S. Calhoun |title=History – Loyal to their Communities |url=https://www.usmarshals.gov/history/loyal_community.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210320115104/https://www.usmarshals.gov/history/loyal_community.htm |archive-date=March 20, 2021 |access-date=March 18, 2021 |website=US Marshals Service|date=June 15, 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Frederick Douglass |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/frederick-douglass |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321151922/https://www.whitehousehistory.org/frederick-douglass |archive-date=March 21, 2021 |access-date=March 18, 2021 |website=[[The White House Historical Association]]}}</ref>

[[File:Frederick Douglass House.jpg|thumb|''[[Frederick Douglass National Historic Site|Cedar Hill]]'', Douglass's house in the [[Anacostia Historic District|Anacostia]] neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is preserved as a [[List of areas in the United States National Park System#National historic sites|National Historic Site]].]]

In 1877, Douglass visited his former enslaver Thomas Auld on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled. Douglass had met Auld's daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, some years prior. She had requested the meeting and had subsequently attended and cheered one of Douglass's speeches. Her father complimented her for reaching out to Douglass. The visit also appears to have brought closure to Douglass, although some criticized his effort.<ref name="Finkelman2006-105" />

That same year, Douglass bought the house that was to be the family's final home in Washington, D.C., on a hill above the [[Anacostia River]]. He and Anna named it ''Cedar Hill'' (also spelled ''CedarHill''). They expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass purchased adjoining lots and expanded the property to 15&nbsp;acres (61,000&nbsp;m<sup>2</sup>). The home is now preserved as the [[Frederick Douglass National Historic Site]].

In 1881, Douglass published the final edition of his autobiography, ''The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass'', which he updated in 1892. In 1881, he was appointed [[Recorder of Deeds]] for the District of Columbia. His wife Anna Murray Douglass died in 1882, leaving the widower devastated. After a period of mourning, Douglass found new meaning from working with activist [[Ida B. Wells]]. He remarried in 1884, as mentioned above.

Douglass also continued his speaking engagements and travel, both in the United States and abroad. With new wife Helen, Douglass toured the UK<ref name="Wilson2019">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Jen |title=Freedom Music: Wales, Emancipation and Jazz 1850-1950 |year=2019 |publisher=University of Wales Press |isbn=978-1-78683-408-9 |page=72 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48ObDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72}}</ref> including Wales (possibly by invitation from abolitionist [[Jessie Donaldson]]), Ireland, France, Italy, Egypt, and Greece from 1886 to 1887. He became known for advocating [[Irish Home Rule]] and supported [[Charles Stewart Parnell]] in Ireland.

[[File:Illustration of Ohio delegation headquarters during 1888 RNC.jpg|thumb|Illustration depicting a meeting at the [[Ohio]] delegation's headquarters for the [[1888 Republican National Convention]],  featuring Douglass (bottom right) as well as [[Murat Halstead]], [[Benjamin Butterworth]], [[William McKinley]], [[Joseph B. Foraker]]]]
At the [[1888 Republican National Convention]], Douglass became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a [[major party]]'s roll call vote.<ref>{{cite news |date=August 26, 2008 |title=Think You Know Your Democratic Convention Trivia? |website=CNN Politics |url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/25/dems.convention.trivia/index.html |url-status=live |access-date=May 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601080858/http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/08/25/dems.convention.trivia/index.html |archive-date=June 1, 2010}}</ref> That year, Douglass spoke at [[Claflin University|Claflin College]], a [[historically black college]] in [[Orangeburg, South Carolina]], and the state's oldest such institution.<ref>Richard Reid, [http://www.thetandd.com/article_356cbc9e-3e10-11e0-883e-001cc4c03286.html "The Gloria Rackley-Blackwell story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727045943/https://thetandd.com/article_356cbc9e-3e10-11e0-883e-001cc4c03286.html|date=July 27, 2019}} ''The Times and Democrat'' (February 22, 2011). Retrieved June 3, 2011.</ref>

Many African Americans, called [[Exoduster]]s,{{cn|date=September 2024}} escaped the Klan and racially discriminatory laws in the South by moving to [[Kansas]], where some formed all-black towns to have a greater level of freedom and autonomy. Douglass favored neither this nor the [[Back-to-Africa movement]]. He thought the latter resembled the [[American Colonization Society]], which he had opposed in his youth. In 1892, at an Indianapolis conference convened by Bishop [[Henry McNeal Turner]], Douglass spoke out against the separatist movements, urging African Americans to stick it out.<ref name="pbs.org" /> He made similar speeches as early as 1879 and was criticized both by fellow leaders and some audiences, who even booed him for this position.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McFeely |first=William S. |author-link=William S. McFeely |url=https://archive.org/details/frederickdouglas00will_0 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-02823-2 |location=New York |page=300 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Speaking in Baltimore in 1894, Douglass said, "I hope and trust all will come out right in the end, but the immediate future looks dark and troubled. I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me."<ref>[[Wilkerson, Isabel]], ''[[The Warmth of Other Suns]]'' (2010), p. 40.</ref>

President [[Benjamin Harrison|Harrison]] appointed Douglass as the United States's minister resident and [[consul-general]] to the [[Republic of Haiti]] and [[Chargé d'affaires]] for [[Dominican Republic|Santo Domingo]] in 1889,<ref name="sears">{{Cite journal |last=Louis Martin Sears |date=May 1941 |title=Frederick Douglass and the Mission to Haiti, 1889–1891 |journal=The Hispanic American Historical Review |volume=21 |pages=222–238 |doi=10.2307/2507394 |jstor=2507394 |number=2}}</ref> but Douglass resigned the commission in July 1891 when it became apparent that the American President was intent upon gaining permanent access to Haitian territory regardless of that country's desires.<ref>{{cite web |last=Brandon Byrd |date=February 11, 2017 |title=Frederick Douglass, Haiti, and Diplomacy |url=https://www.aaihs.org/frederick-douglass-haiti-and-diplomacy/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311054331/https://www.aaihs.org/frederick-douglass-haiti-and-diplomacy/ |archive-date=March 11, 2021 |access-date=March 18, 2021 |website=Black Perspectives}}</ref> In 1892, Haiti made Douglass a co-commissioner of its pavilion at the [[World's Columbian Exposition]] in Chicago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=David B. Chesebrough |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BHZKP9jEd2EC&q=haiti%20douglass%20columbian&pg=PA78 |title=Frederick Douglass: Oratory from Slavery |date=1998 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-30287-9 |page=78 |access-date=October 9, 2020 |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221122601/https://books.google.com/books?id=BHZKP9jEd2EC&q=haiti+douglass+columbian&pg=PA78 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1892, Douglass constructed rental housing for blacks, now known as [[Douglass Place]], in the [[Fells Point]] area of Baltimore. The complex still exists, and in 2003 was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref>{{NRISref|2008a|dateform=dmy}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=November 21, 2008 |title=Maryland Historical Trust |url={{MHT url|id=764}} |website=Douglass Place, Baltimore City |publisher=Maryland Historical Trust}}</ref>