The Republican journal., 1874-08-06
Let There bo Fair Play.

/ ASS kneGo 40 kaAH 11ay.
The lovers of fair play We're in hopes
that legal proceedings which began with
the arrest Of Theodore Tilton, on Grim
inal charge of libclling Beccher, would
have proceeded until trial could have
been had, Then, with the compulsory
power Of legal process to summon wit
nesses and compel them to speak, the
public would have got at the truth of this
rnvatitiod business. But if the later re-
ports are correct, the Court is inclined to
dismiss the application, and thus throw
the case back where it was before the
complaint This will put it in the hands
Of the church, and consequently in the
secure keeping, tor Beecher's interests, of
those who would smother investigation
They are restricted by no legal OF other
rules hedged in BY no forms: guided by
no presidents, bound by no oaths. The
church and its pastor are their only
is prejudged and fairness is out of the
question All the churches of the land
may bulwark and bi.ttress Mr.. Beechcr,
may throw the weight of their associated
power in the scale, but in the balance of
| public opinion he must kick the beam.
The spectacle Of Tilton fighting this des-
peIate battle singiy and alone against
the hosts of opposers will Of itself win
the public sympathy, which goes always
with the under dog in the fght--laying
aside, tor u moment, the very strong tes-
tinlony and documentary evidence with
which Iilton supports his case, The
sober second thought is inclining the pop
ular heart and judgment towards Mr..
| Tilton Evidence Of this comes from
every direction. One of the strongest
and most suggestive Of these witnesses is
George Alfred Townsend. who gives his
views in letter to the New York Graphic.
Of this we copy portion
Mr.. Beecher has lost no home, no Wife, no
salary. He is rich, gorged with friends, sur
rounded by his legons. The other man has
lost the little home which was his all. His
wife is voluntarily i'll the enemy's camp. He
dare not try again to earn his bread by his pen
lest he be called mere mercenary in this hour
OF the trial Of his honor. If he stand before
lecture audience rs he used 10, he will be
paraded cucl,old All has gone from him-the
pleasant name he earned, the sweet sleep that
ministered 10 him but yestarnight. IN the
hour and beauty of his youth he is dead man
compelled to live. Nature will moi permit his
heart 10 break, but has turned it TO marble.
Fighting there, like the dead Cid in the front Of
10 fnpit 1,.,c fo1lr
hi9 profession and know its trials. l live in
The hope that his dishonored house will be re-
built, and l have q presentiment that, unless
one or the other dies IN this quarrel, that man
and wife will live together and set the Chris
tianitv they have both ahjured, under the in
fuence OF Mr. Beeeher. its suhlimest example
Of forgiveness
For they are both the moral and mental Oh
spring of that deludng priest who has been
twenty wears painting out the austere face and
mangel body of Christ to give us instead a
harlequin representation. Tilton and Mrs. Til
ton We're brought up at Beecher's feet; their
souls We're trained by him. H. in the tinality
OF that vicious teaching, the boy turns out a
socialist and the girl a Magdalene, let the
prayers Of men and women be made for their
return along those wears of seduction to the
spot Of beginning, where they shall lind not
the pastor they Worshipped but the Christ he
BETRAYED
As to Eeecher, | have no sympathy for his
pain. To me the evidence is in. He has led
the happiest life these many years that can be
afforded to q human creature. Universally
praised, idealiEed, almost TRANSPORTED; in alb
solute health; 4 very Cardinal Woscv in beef
and possessions; statesman, moralist, and
churchman in one, he has led frivolous life,
wasted the gifts OF Providence, and helped the
dissipation Of the times, He has been the great
Heine, rolling along from faith to folly, from
sublimity 10 butoonry; and all that facile
genius he possessed for making nothing seem
something will be without a literature or a pu
pill. 1t was in tne destiny of things that this |
career should not proceed TO its end without
teaching its lesson.
But | would call the public attention to the
case Of Mr.. Tilton, whom do not know, and
always looked askant at until his bitter hour
has come. In his capacity of the editor of the
Beecher-Bowen organs he was the working
man of that concern; Beecher was the star that
drew the crowd; Bowen took the money in
many ways, chiefly various. In my view the
only honest man Of the three was Tilton, i'll
this he was not working for mammon under
the religious cloak. Both the others We're.
Beecher was disposing of his Sabbaths, huck
steering out his apologies for the behavior of
God, and Bowen was disposing OF Beecher.
The paper might well have been edited by John
Tetzel, the merchant in indulgences, and while
nominally religious, positive unbeievers did
much Of It's work.
Now, between these two men, earning sal
arv ard no more, was an anxious, ambitious
with Beecher's name that he could not keep his
balance, and, being worse actor than his
exemplar and with less responsibility, he un-
dertook to Guido the latter in radicalism, and
made that amusing journal wild and himself
unpopular. The literary temperament is apt to
be nervous and querulous, and Mr.. Tilton
probably thought more of himself in those
halcYon times than Of his wife. She therefore
withdrew TO the pastoral spring Of consolation
that, like flowing oil we'll, never gave out, and
with her emotional nature she gradually began
to feel home repellent in the eXaltaton of that
great good mans sympathy. Unnatural relations,
more intimate than any prudent pastor would
permit, grew and grew; and she who loves any
man more than her husband has already
wronged him. These were the days, no doubt,
when little family din took the Importance of
ouuages. Besides, there was mother-n-law
In the house.
But all this time, like q bondman yet an ego
fist, the husband was hard at work in that em-
p!oyment OF composition which permits none
to divide his attention. Up to the time Of the
discovery of strange appalling relations be-
| tween his associate and his wife there is every
record that Theodore Tilton was honestly earn
| ing his bread; that his literary style was not
| lowered; that he had gone of into no atrocious
doctrines, and he was even engaged for long
term of years at a high salary to stradde the
| East River and edit for Mr.. Bowen secular
paper in Brooklyn and y religious one in New
York. This was success. 1t was no benefac-
| ton from Mr.. Eeecher 1t was qlliQ pro quo
| from Mi. Bowen. | never heard anybody in
| those years call Theodore Titon anything
| three unprofessional newspaper writer's have of
| late searched themselves to get mud to bedaub
| him. To me his behavior in these perilou5,
wretchcd hours is SO brave that only conscious
injury and a desperate intent for retribution
| have nerTea him
| a remarkable case of circumstantial
|
| The body Of a man named James Nc
Cam, was found on the road with two
bullet holes in the head The police ar
rested one Frank Wagner on suspicion of
being the murderer. The circumstantial
evidence against him was strong He
had been on the road at the time the shots
were heard He bore bad character.
He betrayed signs Of fear when arrested
y