The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-08-14
THE RROOKLxN SCANDAL
T'fItOn Bids Beecher's Commit
tee Farewell.

The following correspondence ex'
Iplains itself. The great Brooklyn
scandal will now go TO the courts,
as it seems to be onc-sided affair
before the church committee. This
committee, if we mistake not, have
done themselves no particular credit
in their partial manner of conduct
ing the case. Let the whole affair
be now thoroughly sifted. Tilton
bids them farewell:
BROOKLYN, July 81.
THEODORE TILToN, EsQ-DEAR
SIR IL am instructed by the COM
mittee to state that the letters and
documents referred to in your state
ment presented to US have not been
delivered, notwithstanding your
several promises to furnish them.
AS your statement, in the absence
of the documents, is deprived of its
greatest force, we think you should
| desire to place them in our posses
sion, and 1 desire to impress on you
! the Importance of delivering them
| to us at your earliest possible con-
venience. Very truly yours,
Fl. w. SAGE, Chairman.
BROOKLYN, August 3.
Fl. W. SAGE, CHAIRMAN.-MY
DEAR SIR IL have just received
your note OF July 2lst, four days
after date; unless you accidentally
misdated the communication, it
should have come to me several
days ago. This leads me to recall q
similar delay in the delivery of
your original note first summoning
nae to your committee. which l re-
ceiVed only four hours before was
to appear, and yet the summons
bore the date of the day previous.
But let these tribes pass. Your
note, just received, surprises me by
its contents, for you seem to have
forgotten that on the last day of my
appearance before your committees,
l carried to your meeting not only
all the documents which l quoted in
my sworn statement, Gave those in
Mrs. Moulton's possession) but many
more besides, making q double
handful of interesting and import
ant papers vital TO my case and de-
structive to yours. All these pa
pers l proposed to lay before you,
but no sooner had begun to read
them aloud than one of your attOr-
neys stopped me, and proposed that
[ should save the committees time
by referring these papers to one of
your members, Hon. John Wins
low. l acquiesced in this, and re-
tired from your committee room
with the expectation of a speedy
conference with him. / took it for
granted he would call at my house,
where he would have been a well
come guest. My counsel, to whom
/ have Just shown your note, in
structs me to lay no documents, pa
pers, or remaining testimony before
your committee. / am also advised
not to hold any further communal
cation with you in any form, ex-
cept to send You this final letter
containing the reasons for this step Il
these reasons are:
First. That you arc committee
of Mr.. Beecher's friends, appointed
by himself, expected to act in his
behalf, assisted by attorneys en-
ploved exclusively for his vindica-
ton; holdiag secret sessions mac
cessible to the public; having no
power to compel witnesses; giving
no opportunity for the opposite side
to cross-examine. My own expert
ence goes so far as to your asking
me no questions save such as were
irrelevant to the case, and emitting
to publish in your imperfect and
unjust report of this testimony all
that was most important to my own
side of the controversy.
Second. The daily papers of
Brooklyn and New York have been
artfully fed day by day, with crumbs
of felicitous evidence against my
own character, as if not Mr.. Beech
er, but l alone, was on trial; and
though have little right, perhaps,
to hold your committee responsible
for this daily Misrepresentation
which may have been the malice of
others, yet the result is the same to
me as if you had deliberately de-
signed it.
Third. canuot resist the conYic-
ton, though mean no ofense in
expressing it, that your committee
have come at last to be as little sat-
| isfactory to the public as to myself,
and that your verdict, if you render
one, could not possibly be based
upon the full facts, since you have
no power to compel witnesses to
testify, nor verify their testimony
by oath, nor to sift it by cross-ex-
animation. For these reasons,
which ought to have moved me
earlier, 1 have at last instructed my
counsel to proceed at once, at his
discretion, to carry my case from
your Jurisdiction to n court of law,
and in view e. this instruction, l
have the honor - hid you farewell,
in doing which, allow me to add
that the respect which l am unable
to express for your committee as
tribunal, I cannot help expressing
/ for you each and ali as individuals.
| FN-,,Iy y0urS TuF0n0PR VNTI TON