[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 46 (Monday, November 20, 2000)]
[Page 2892]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing Legislation To Establish a Memorial and Gardens in 
Honor of Frederick Douglass

November 17, 2000

    I recently signed into law H.R. 5331, a bill ``To authorize the 
Frederick Douglass Gardens, Inc., to establish a memorial and gardens on 
Department of the Interior lands in the District of Columbia or its 
environs in honor and commemoration of Frederick Douglass.''
    It is appropriate that the memorial and gardens be located in 
Washington, DC, the Nation's Capital, as Mr. Douglass' life was a 
testament to the democratic principles upon which the Nation was 
founded. Born into slavery, Frederick Douglass became a renowned 
international spokesman for liberty, the abolition of slavery, and 
social reform. Throughout his life, he was a noted publisher of several 
periodicals and papers in which he discussed the political and social 
disenfranchisement of Americans of African ancestry. As an American 
truly committed to the Nation's progress toward the attainment of 
liberty and justice for all, Frederick Douglass recruited African-
Americans for the Union Army during the Civil War; two of his sons 
served in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was solely comprised of 
African-Americans. Moreover, Frederick Douglass served as the president 
of the Freedmen's National Bank, the U.S. Marshal for the District of 
Columbia, and in several diplomatic positions in Haiti and the Dominican 
Republic. Because of his unyielding faith in and his commitment to the 
fundamental democratic principles of our Nation, I am pleased to approve 
this legislation honoring one of the Nation's great citizens.

 Note: H.R. 5331, approved November 9, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
479.