The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-26


reason, was any credit to be given. This
publication, as it tended not only to excite
Tilton to defence of his sanity, but also as
coming from the clerk of Plymouth church,
might be supposed to be an authoritative
expression of its pastor, annoyed Beecher
very much, and he wrote the following let
ter, marked "FFF2," which I herewith
produce:
BEEcHER TO MoULToS.
SUNDAY NreHr, March go, 1874.
My Dear Frank-Is there to be no end of
trouble? Is wave to follow wave in endless
succession? | was cut to the heart when
c., showed me that shamful para
graph from the Union. Its cruel
ty is beyond description. 1 felt
lying down and saying, 81 am tired-tired
tired Of living, or of trying to resist the
devil of mischief" ! would rather have
had javeln launched against me hun
dred times than against those who have suf-
fered so much. The shameful indelicacy
of bringing the most sacred relations into
such publicity fills me with horror.
But there are some slight alterations
The paragraph came when the public mind
was engaged with the council and with The
odore's letters. / hope it will pass without
further notice. If it is not taken up by
other papers it will sink out of sight and be
forgotten; whereas, if it be assailed it may
give it a conspicuity that it never would
have had. But / shall write Sherman q
letter and give him my full feeling about it.
l must again (be), as l have heretofore
been, indebted to you for judicious coun-
sci OH this new and fragrant element. My
innermost soul longs for peace and if that
cannot be, for death, that will bring peace
My fervent hope is that this drop of gall
may sink through out of sight and not
prove mortal poison. Yours ever,
III. W. BLEcHER.
/ have written strongly to Sherman.
and hope that he will send letter to T.
unsolicited. I am sick, head, heart and
body, but must move on feel this morn
ing like letting things go by the rum
The letter of retraction, as proposed by
Tilton, not being forthcoming, I felt it my
duty, in his interest, to take such measures
as should result in an apology from Shear
man to Tilton. l accordingly carried to
him copy of the paper having the article
and laid it upon his desk in his office, and
said to him that if the statements in this ar
ticle were not actually made by him he
ought to retract them. Although it lay on
his desk, he said to me that he had not seen
the article, and did not mean to see it. l
told him that he must see it, and if it was
| Hol uuc tHdl he must say SO. he Salu lie
| didn't want to read it, and wouldn't read
it. then lett him.
Afterward l saw Tilton and told him what
I had done, and he said, "We will go up
together" which we did, and met Mr..
Sherman. Mr.. Titon called mis- attention
to the statement in the Brooklyn Union as
having come from him [Shearman] con-
corning himself and his wife, that one was
crazy and the other was subject to medium
istic fits. Said he, "Mr. Shearman. this is
untrue, and il you are not correctly report
ed your simple duty is to say so; and if
you have made such a statement demand
that you retract and apologize. If you do
not shall hold you responsible in any way
l can for such injurious statement"
Shearman then read the paragraph in
the Union, and made an explanation in this
wise; that he might probably have repeated
to somebody n story which Tilton had told
him of the medumistic states of Mrs. Wood
hull, and perhaps have made the mistake of
using Mrs. Tilton's name instead of Mrs.
Woodhulls. Tilton said to him, "Mr
Shearman, you know that you are delber-
ately uttering falsehoods, and l wont allow
you to think even that you can deceive me
by such statement as you are making now
You must make such an explanation of the
statement in the Union as shall be salts
factory to me, or, as said before, shall
hold you responsible"
During the first part of this conversa-
ton Mr.. Sherman called in witness from
his outer Office, but when the conversation
became earnest and Tilton began charging
him with an untruth Shearman bid the wit
ness retire, which he did, Triton and !
then left the Office.
Within few days of this interview Til
ton procured the affidavit of the reporter Of
the Union that the statement that Shear
man had been reported as making he did in
fact make. On March 80 Sherman sent
to me for delivery to Tilton note, of which
produce copy under that date, marked
"GGG." The original was delivered up to
| Sherman afterwards
sHEARMAN TO TILToN.
| BROOKLYN, March 80, 1874.
| Dear Sir-My attention has been called
to newspaper paragraph, which 1 have
not seen, but which, l am told, is to the
| effect that l stated to a reporter that you
| had described Mrs. Tilton as having, in a
| mediumistic or clairvoyant state, made
some extraordinary statements of painful
| nature.
have for some years past made it rule
never to send corrections to newspapers of
anything relating to myself, no matter how
But have no objection to saying to you
personally that this story, if correctly quot.
| ed here, appears to be an erroneous version
| of the one and only statement which had
| from you over n year ago, viz. that Mrs.
Woodruff did exactly the thing here attrib-
| uted to Mrs. Tlton.
do not know that l ever repeated that
| story in the presence of any reporter for
the paper in question, but / have done so
| in the presence of others, and l may, of
| course, by an unconscious mistake, have
| used your wife's name in the place of an
| other and wholly different person. If so,
beg that you will assure Mrs. Tilton of
| my great regret for such an error.
Yours obedienty,
T. G. SHEARMAN.
When took this note to Tilton he re-
| fused to receive it, saying, II will not re-
| ceive any such note from Shearman. He
| knows it contains falsehood, and cannot
take it from him. You may carry it back
to him." | did so, and stated to him Til
tons answer. Afterward he substituted for
that note another. under date of April 2,
1874, which is here produced, marked
"HHH":
sHEARMAN TO TILroN.
BROOKLYN, April 2, 1878.
Dear Sr-Having seen paragraph in
the Brooklyn Union of Saturday last con-
tanning report of a statement alleged to
have been made by me concerning your
family and yourself, desire to assure you
that this report is seriously incorrect, and
that have never authorized such state
ment.
1t is unnecessary to repeat here what |
have actually said upon these subjects, be-
cause am now satisfied that what did
say was erroneous, and that the rumors to
which I gave some credit were without
foundation. l deeply regret having been
misled into an act of unintentional injustice,
and am glad to take the earliest occasion