Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-06-26
REDIVIVUS.
The Beeeher Scandal Agaia-A SeTen-
Column Article fr0m Theodore TIL
ton, Of the Golden age.
The Great Preacher GHilty Of al 0ffense
Not to be Named-Abject and
HumliatiRg Apology.

NEW YORK, June 25.-Theodore Til
ton published in the Golden Age this
evening a seven-eolumn article touching
the Beecher scandal. It is q defense of
Tilton against the charges of Rev.
Leonard Baeon, moderator of the late
Brooklyn council. that Tilton has been
q eOwardly sianderer Of Beecher, whose
magnanimity alone saved him a dis
graceful exposure. Having suffered in
silence for four years, from these and
similar misreprese entatiOns, adToiuy put
before the public by the Plymouth
church, Tilton says that neither pa
tienee nor duty will permit him
longer to conceal the actual facts
from the Tublic. He then goes on to say
that he has never slandt red Henry Ward
Beecher, but on the contrary has sacri-
feed his own reputation to suppress the
truth about him, and that he never has
refused to appear before the church and
answer all questions regarding the scan
dal that might be put to him. 7 ilton
gives his reason for severing his connec-
ton with the church as follows: CATER
| had been tor fifteen years a member
of Plymouth church, and had become
meanwhile an intimate friend of the
pastor, knowledge came to me in 1870
that be had committed against me an
offense, which I fOTbear to name or
characterize. Prompted by my self-re.
spect, Immediately and forever ceassd
my attendance on his ministry" He
publishes the following as an extract
from document signed by Mr.. Beecher:
BROOKLYN, January l, 1S7I.-I ask
Theodore Tilton's forgiveness, and hum
bic myself before him as l do before my
God. He would have been better man
in my circumstances than l have been.
l can ask nothing except that he will
remember all the other breasts that
would ache. | will not plead for N.Y.
self, 1 even wish that i were dead.
IT. W. BEECHER-
Among the documents which Theo-
dore TiltOn, in his long open letter to
Rev. DR.. Leonard Bacon, on what is
commonly known as the Beecher and
TiltOn scandal, is the following under
date of May l, 1874:
Rev. Henry Ward Beeehers
SIR-Mr. +. B. Carpenter mentions to
me your saying to him that under GER
tain conditions involving certain disa-
vOwals by me, certain sum of money
could or would be raised TO send me with
my family to Europe for a term OF years.
The occasion cOmpels me to state ex-
plicitly that so long IS life and sel-fre-
spect continue to exist together in my
breast shall be debarTed from receiving
either directly or indirectly any presents
or other favors from your hands. The
reason for this feeling on my part you
know so well that win spare you the
statement Of it. Yours truly,
THEODORE TILTON.
Tilton follows this with reference to
what he declares a fact, that although
he had received from the clerk of Ply
mouth church on the eighteenth of May
a communication announcing this, his
(Tilton's) offer to appear for trial had
been read by Rev. Mr.. Holiday, assist
ant pastor OF Plymouth church, and sub
mitted TO the examining committee, by
whom IL had been rejected. Mr.. Holli-
day had, some forty days afterward,
emphatically denied to several neWspa-
per reporters that such oiter had ever
been received, and branded the whole
story as a fabrication from beginning to
end. DIR. Bacon having in bis speech
characterized Beecher as the most mag
unanimous of men, and referred to Tilton
as dog and knave, leading the public
to infer that the letter was, in some way,
a creature Of Beecher's bounty, TiltOn
states that he called Beecher's attention
to the Otfensiveness Of the statement,
snd insisted on its correction by either
that gentleman or himself
Tilton closes his letter to Rev. DR..
Bacon, as follows: IF the public have
heretofore considered my sentence as
inexplicable, LEI my sufficient motive be
now seen in the Just fOrbearance which
l felt morally bound TO show to q man
who had sent me written and absolute
apology. But my duty to continue this
forbearance ceased when the spirit OF that
apology was violated, to my injury, by
its author or his agents. These viola
tions have been multitudinous, and they
threaten to multiply IN the future, Fore
ing me to protect myself against them
in advance, particularly against the cum
ming devices Of the clerk of the church,
who, acting as attorney, appears to be
conducting this business against me as
if it were a case at law. Had the fair
spirit, which had a right to expect
from Plymouth church, at least for its
pastors sake, been shown toward me, [
would have continued to rest ~ silence
on Mr.. Beecher's apology, and never
during the remainder of my life would
L have permitted any public word of
ulu5 % AluuS 70 luS OHeuse OF OA6uO-
ers, but injurious measures which the
author Of this apology has since per-
mitted his church to take against me
without protest on his part, involving
gross injury 10 me, which have been
greatly aggravated by your writings,
have put me before my eountrymen in
the character Of a base and bad man, a
character which trust is foreign to my
nature and life. Under the aeeumulat-
ing weight of this odium uDjustly be-
slowed on me, neither patience nor
charity can demand that keep silent. !"
Mr.. Beecher is now on his farm at Peek
skill, and to-day the children, teachers
and friends of Plymouth Sunday. school
go there to congratulate their pastor on
the occurrence OF the sixty-frst anni-
versaIy of his birth.