Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-08-06
BEECHER-TILTON.
Further Details of the
Great Scandal.
Beecher's Line of Defense
Foreshadowed.
Hon E. d. Holton of Milwau-
kee Knows Something.
Rev. DR.. Patton of Chicago
States his Views.
BEECHER,S DEFENSE.

l Iuo NoW IOTk OIUpuGC puUtIsH6s
the following as the defense which
Mr.. Beecher proposes to offer in his
coming detailed statement to the
Plymouth Church Investigating
Committee. The Graphic under
stands the case pretty thoroughly,
and tries not to be victimized by
sensational canards:
"The document will be a very
powerful and startling one, and will
make some confessions which will
create as great surprise as did TIL
tons now famous presentation of his
alleged personal grievances. Mr..
Beecher will acknowledge that, since
the beginning of his ministry. he has
been beset by letters addressed to
him from women, expressing great
personal Observation-Disclosures, in
deed-of him as a man and as a min
lister. He will show that communi-
cations of this character are constant.
| ly received by every noted man in
the community, and that it is espec-
tally the fate of clergy men, poets
| and actors 10 be the recipients of
| these abnormable demonstrations
fromwomen who are generally diseas-
ed pbysiologically and psychological
ly.
after thie general statement of
well-known fact, Mr. Beecher will
alude to the case Of Mrs. Tilton, who
it seems, conceived for him a most
extravagant passion. Knowing the
lady from childhood, and having
married her to her husband, and
been on terms of close social relation
ship with them both, he was led by
a strange infatuation to submit to
her Establishments, and an intimacy
was formed which, while it was not
criminal, was reprehensible, or at
least put him in position which
made him seem to do a great wrong
to Theodore Tilton. He will confess
that both he and Mrs. Tilton wore
very emotional, given TO eXaggera-
ton in sentiment and that the cor
respondence between them was not
what it should have been between a
pastor and lady, that lady the wife
of his friend. But the popularity OF
the case was, that Mrs. Tilton COM
planned bitterly Of her husbands self
suficiency and want of kindness to
her, and possible inidelities, and
she looked up to Mr.. Beecher to
give her that affection and sympathy
which she failed to find at home.
Mr.. Beecher will acknowledge that
he toyed with temptation, that he al
lowed kindness and expressions of
sympathetic tenderness from Mrs.
Tilton, and that be reciprocated
them to great degree-so much so
that, while not actually guilty of any
wrong to Theodore Tilton, he so far
compromised himself and the lady
as to render necessary, as it appear
ed to his mind, the letters which be
subsequently, wrote to Mr.. Moulton
and Mr.. Tilton, humbling himself be-
fore the latter as before God for his
extravagant demonstrations of affec-
ton for the vile of his friend.
Hence, while he will declare that
he was guilty Of indecorum; guilty,
perhaps, of leading a wife to love
him more than her husband guilty
possibly, in the depth of his sympa-
thy for her, and in allowing his i'm
pulsive nature to lead him away-he
will insist that his relations with
Mrs. Tilton were no more intricate or
blamable than the religious Irritation
INDUCED by Cathrine Gaunt,' the
fictitious character quoted by Mrs.
Tllton, in which he will find almost
perfect parallel for this CASE
Furthermore, he may be expected to
show that his position has been great
ly embarrassed by the fact that ma
lignant rumor had already been max
ing free with his name, and that, ow-
ing to the unhappy personal pecul-
iarites Of one near and dear to him,
whose ungrounded jealousy was the
baue and torment of his life, stories
have been invented and circulated
which had injured his fair fame and
did him grevous wrong, which, how
ever, he was debarred from denying
by the fact that, in branding those
falsehoods as they deserved, he
would have necessarily been forced
to sacrifice one to whom he was
bound by the tenderest and most
sacred ties which can exist between
man and woman. He will show
that the difficulty in this whole case
was due primarily to the extrava-
CANT jealousy of this inmate of his
family, whose teeming imagination
had conjured up amours upon his
part which had no foundation in fact,
and who was ever ready to apply
theories of her suspicion to the
slightest fgment of apparent fact,
until his whole existence was filled
with apprehension. In this connec-
ton Mr.. Beecher will explain why,
from this cause, he was for years
compelled to abstain from pastoral
visits to the families of his congrega-
ton, and forced to demand the ap-
pointment of Mr.. Halliday to dis
charge this important part of bis
duties simply because he could not
be seen with woman without being
subjected to suspicious which filled
him with anguish.
at is said that Mr.. Beecher's state