, 1874-08-30
Gl)& Gbmagu Grb}u7ae,
Sunday Morning, August 30, 1874.



MR. BEECHER's FUTURE.
We have pernsed the report Of Mr. Beecher'
Investigating Committee with Us farvcnt desir
to deal with it charitably as is consistent witt
Justice in this stage Of this affair. The Com
mittee was composed Of the bosom friends O.
tho person on trial. -Four lawyers CONSTANT.
attended it for the defense, aud none for the
Investigation or tho prosecution. 1t begAt
it's SESSIONS without tha knowledge Of the pros
ccuto1 or the public, aud continued them with
out Inviting the prosecutor to be present except
as witness. These fscts raise presumption
merely that ,ho Committee was in no sense
Judicial or truth-seeking. The Committee
fails to ask the attendance Of bliss Anthony
and Mrs Stanton, through whom tho very
scandal they arc Investigating was made public,
It permits both Carpenter and Houlton. who
purport to be the direct Witnesses to alr. Beech
er's confessions OF adultery, to go unexamined
It ignores the public statement Of Mr. Moulton.
1t does not wait for that Of DR.. Patton These
facts look Ike concealmeut and suppression, not
Investigation. There is much testimony which
the Committee has declined to SEQ or hear.
What they have obtained has not been handled
judicia1ly. They have not observed III their re-
port, th&t Mou1ton's good character is so au-
thoritatiye1y vouched for BY Beechcz
that to charge Moulton with being
q man Of inferior character is to
convict Beecher Of being = man Of
inferior discernment, which he certainly is not.
The Committee blame Beecher for not taking
church members into his confidence instead OF
Ion1ton. Had his course been as pure US he
now sayE, he could not reasonably have done
otherwise. But, if his oEense were adultery.
would Plymouth Church members have made
good confidential agents? We may hope not.
The Committee do not do Justice to the hun
dreds Of fearful sentences in Mr.. Beecher'. let
ters indicating that be held his position, IS
minister and man, by the mere su1feranca Of
T1ton, by reason OF some great unpublished
wrong which he Lad committed against the lat
ter. and which the latter Was Liable hourly to di-
vulgc- Take the following, in bis letter to Moul-
ton Of July s, 1872:
II ny obstruction would place him (nean1ng TIL
tou} I'll right, that shall not stand in the way I nm
willing 10 step down and ont. No CHI otter more
than thzt. That do offer. Sacrifice me withou.
hesitation you clearly your way his safcty
snd happEeAa thereby. do not think there is any
thing to ba gained by IT, z. (neaning Mrs. Tilton>
and tho children would havo their future clouded
Tho above occurs, not in the famous "apol-
ogy," but in Beecher's Own handwriting. By
stepping down and out, what does Deecher
mean il not that retirement from the pulpit
which Tlton year earlier. on Dec. 26. 1870, had
demanded? Does Bcecher fulfill his offer to
stop down and OUT? On tho contrary, does
he not now sacrifice Mr.. and Mrs. Ti1ton to eaye
himself as freely IS he then offered to sacrifice
himself to save them? And how would Mrs.
Tilton and her children have their future clouded
by reason of Beecher'a destruction unless
that destruction consisted in the public proof Of
his adultery with Mrs. T1lton7
Again; remembering that Mrs. Morse, Mrs.
Tilton's mother, has steadily fought her daueh-
1c<e babble, as she understood it, and that had
Beecher's II o1ense consisted in advising Mrs.
Titon to leave her husband, it would have been
exactly in accord with Mrs. Morse's own iudg-
naent, what do We make Of the following in her
letter Of upbraiding to Beecher, q fac siuiIe of
which, rs Of all the letters in this controversy.
appeared in the Graphic Of the 22d inst Speak
ing Of other troubles, she says Of her daughter:
This hhe could endure and thrive under. but tha
{JiEnn tn f1,tc
" az trouble is what's taken tho life out Of her.
Eno" OF twelve persons whom he has told and they in
!rn nave toll oAers. had thought VIC ind rs much
~ ne could live under frorn his neglect and unoa..ro
aoe temper. But this the dcath-blow to ,s both
aad doubt not Florence has lers Do you know.
~neo near ot your cracking your jokes frun Sunday
70 sunday, and think Of the misery you have brought
oon os thiuk. with the FBal1nlss there il no God
"hat "ns the uisory which Beecher had
pfooEh: IN IIton's family SO great that for him
!" spice his sermons with his usual humor
seemed to M1s- Morse to be sufficient evidence
tna1 there could be no God, or He would anita
1oe great preacher into silence? A prerions Ena
~ 410 @ame letter indicatea that the source of
NA1e 1n1seFs was also Mrs. Tilton's sin, She
~fl1ea concerning her daughter:
80 AAa@ aos seen any ona. he SAVE Shn IA ,cnn,,,
nts a.. nef ssn- 80. twenty hours u,,der
nas 'as think. Is snousa 70 ,tons for
ho#eEe. heinous 01 ~1A'-'one A1a'
a.1S- 1alton's letter to hez husband from echo-
nA7'e' and especially her two letter., zr;++e,,
etaooestfnel5 to Mr. Beecber after it had hea,
aereed that communication between thc,, s,on,a
cease, and n two Of which the von, .+nee.
hiding appears, sufficiently show tho natnna =,
the Sin. Two Witnesses who have heard 1rr
Beechar'a plain oral confessions Of guilt ox,.t
bat we're not called BY the Committee or -
called. were permitted to depart substantially
without tes6fyin8.
Bat hah tbs e<ss has ut hesa puhuahsd. nd