Washington Sept. 23. 1874

Dear Prof H. A Ward,

I do not forget you and was glad to receive a line from you. I did not need a reference to our voyage on the Tennessee to recall your form features and character. You are better remembered by those who have once seen you than your modesty permits you to believe. I am in sympathy with your efforts to address Wilborforce in the manner you propose and would gladly help you. I feel quite sure that a Cabinet such as you would set up and arrange would be of great value to the students

at Wilborforce and worth a great deal more money than you will charge for that work, but how to get the money is the troublesome question here as elsewhere. If I were able I would gladly make the donation of $1,200 myself, but I am not able. I am a Trustee of Howard University and on the committee for raising monies for the support of that institution, but I am not for that reason, the less interested in the success of Wiborforce and other Colleges open to colored youth. Besides I am acquainted with Bishop Payne and know him as an earnest and faithful worker for the education

and elevation the the colored race of which he is a noble representative. Now in regard to my friend Gerrit Smith who sent me a thousand dollars a few weeks ago in aid of poor students at Harvard University. You know it is the giving men who give, and he is emphatically a giving man, one who lives only to serve and bless the weak oppressed and struggling. It will be entirely proper to call upon him. Set the matter before him in full. You had better call upon him at his home among the Hills of Petersboro. You will have a Charming visit even if you do not

get the means of putting up a cabinet at Wilborfore and you may do this or be put in the way of doing it.

Wishing you evey success in all your efforts to promote science.

Very truly yours,

Fred^k Douglass