The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-10-31

! WIS nEtttA tLau NQIRpV1. IL CROWDED HaW-
thorne's Scarlet Letter - very hard. He told
US all about sundry emotions Of his-caused by q
certain Consciousness OF uncertain things which
he bad done 10 Theodoyc-his dread, his agony.
his remorse and all about his sitting on the
ragged edge Of several Of these emotions-leaying
it 70 his friends and enemies to spell out what il
all meant, according to their own prejudices. All
that he really said ought to have been expressed
IN thirty lines, but Mr.. Beecher is too much Of q
talker for that. On the witness stand q brutal
counselor would have cut short his pathetic de-
scription of the snow-storm, and steered him to
the point at issue. But when Beecher made one
statement be disclosed the loss of another, namely,
Mrs. Tilton's retrsction. This be had Voluntarily
handed over to MoultoD. who called one evening,
and pulled out a pistol and laid it down, and said
he was going TO have that 81 statement not
that Beecher was afraid OF the pistol, but Just to
show his confidence in the admirable Moulton.
Still, Nr. Beecher limited at enough to enable his
friends to guess what be meant and put it in
English, and enough to eEeite Moulton TO make
another statement, in which he not only tells all
be PROCESSES to know, but gives copies of all the
letters that all Mr.. Beeehers eccentric relatives
and some other people have ever written on the
subject. or course such evidence is very strong.
for If a man is accused of a crime, and his brothers
and sisters think il is just like him TO have COM
mitted 1t, what more IS to be said? As to the
pistol, MIoulton " scorns the haction,' but as
nearly as We can get at il, it seems to convey the
idea that the weapon was heavy, and he took il
out TO rest himself. In respect to the only mate
rial point in Moulton's statement, namely, his
allegation that Beecher had repeatedly confessed
his crime to him., the :" witness !" does not give a
word of the language used, nor is he cross-exam-
med upon the subject! Now all this time nearly
every prominent man and woman in the country
was solicited to tell what he or she didn't know
on the subject, and every visitor at TiltOn's house
was implored to give an opinion as to the proba-
bilities of the matter, but all in vain. They
would not do it unless compelled In a court of
law, and contented themselves with disclosing
what they knew to the newspaper reporters. At
length the committee made their report, and as
there was one lawyer in their body and there did
not happen to be any legal evidence against Mr..
Beecher, they were discreet enough to acquit him.
As a matter of course, Plymouth Church held an
ELUSIVE meeting, and gloried in their indicated
pastor. And Moulton-mutual friend, short
hand reporter of confidential communications,
healer of wounded sensibiIities, and disinterested
receiver of Beecher's money to repay Moulton's
loans to Tilton-Moulton was in attendance for
the purpose of making q statement after verdict,
and because the audience would not hear him,
like Stiggins vowed the peetin' was drunk"
And now the whole country is racked with anx-
iety because Moulton and TiIson are threatening
further &c statements"
Now, to a mind trained to legal modes of INQUIRY
and legal habits of thought, all this is midsummer
madness. If a lawyer should go to sleep on his
back and have a dreadful nightmare, he would
dream of a trial conducted in just this fashion,
and what a blessed sense of relief he would ex-
perience on waking to find it was but a dream
When we read these proceedings we seem to be
a moot court held by the inmates of a
lunatic asylum. And on such 90 evidence " a
judicial tribunal is expected to base an intelligent
judgment, and a reasoning community is called
on to be satisfied with the finding! We repeat,
this may do for the church, but it will not answer
for the community.
There are some other legal aspects of this
1t is remarkable that in the estimation
Of many OF the newspapers, Mr.. Beecher and Mrs.
Tilton, being Z" the parties incuIpated, ought to
prove their innocence by something more than
their bare denial.' IF this were a trial in a
court OF law, we presume that no one would
think of advancing such an idea. 1t is rather
1ifhcult to conceive what more the parties could
10. No one else was present at the times in
except Tilton himself on one occasion.
Ind we cannot understand what other witness
han themselves could be m to speak of
he matter. 1t would, indeed, be consistent with
he conduct of the trial to subpoena Tom, Dick
md Harry to state that they never heard of such
thing and didn't believe it, and very likely such
violence would satisfy the uneasy minds of the
lewspaper writer's who have their suspicious on
he point, but 1t would hardly satisfy a LAWYERS
mind. The fact that such ground is taken shows
he impolicy of these Irregular Investigations.
very rule of evidence is disregarded. and the
urden of proof is shifted from the accuser to the
ccused. /
Again, this trial exhibits in a striking light the
character Of admissions and confessions
I general. Mrs. Tilton confessed her guilt, to l
lease her husband. Then she retracted it, to
lease Mr.. Beecher. Then Mr.. Beecher carelessly [
gins some memoranda of his own conversation :
ken down by the def Moulton, which are sus- e
eptible of being construed as a confession of his .
nilt, to please Tilton. Then the seryant-girl. to '
lease Mr.. TiltOn, confessed in writing that her h
.ports of Tlton's abuse of his wife were false, and Il
)w says the confession was false. Then Moulton. +
please Mr.. Beecher, wrote him that " when the G.
hole case is out you can stand" And Moulton q
Id Tilton for years invariably told everybody IL
at all that Mr.. Beecher had been guilty of was Il
little playful familiarity with Mrs. Tilton. o
here is this difference, however, to be noted
tween the admissions Of the three male actors in q
Q drama. Mr.. Beecher insists that his confess 81
IN did not mean what it seems; in other words, ca
at it is not false. But Moulton and TiIton p
NIT that their reiterated admissions were lies III
uttered to screen the man who had been their oil
end, they say, but still none the less lies. And "
cap the climax, Tilton, to please Beecher, who ar
d sedueed his wife and wrought his pecuniary IN
IN, as he believed, sends him in writing the pt
lder message, "grace, mercy and peace" Re- pI
y, when We read the report of all these things tn
seem to be wandering in a sphere outside our tn
n, and inhabited by beings of a different nature ex
m ours. But we again insist that the writers To
evidence are correct when they say that adj 20
sslons and confessions are the most untrust- eY'
rthy kind of evidence. Pr
One more reflection and we have done. and we pi
Ill put 1T in the form of a question.-Does any
yer soberly think that the prosecution have tn
de out any case that would avail for an instant all
4 court OF law? We speak of what has been The
not of what might possibly be divuIged a {
l trial of law. Let Tilton and Moulton swear the
what they now state, and let Mr.. Beecher and the
Tilton do the same, and can a lawyer sup tue
e that a jury would need to leave the box? mi
idea is too absurd for a moments federation In
4 yet the result of this gossipy investigation CIR,
been TO convince a great many people, especi- -
in the West, if we may judge from the news
that Mr.. Beecher is really guilty. We
ret this, because some of this class are good ~
pie. OF course, every vile man in the country NJ
believes Mr.. Beeeher guilty. Every