Assing, who experienced despair and was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer, committed suicide in France in 1884 after listening to of the marriage. His associations with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing, two ladies with whom he was skillfully concerned, brought on recurring speculation and scandals. On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. Aronson AI, Shai Y (February 2001).