The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-07-24

i haye been ii, accord on questions Of eommo
concern to our eiloW-eitfzens. III am for thi
Il reason impeiIed to acknowledge the aiDso
i Iicitous confidence and regard to which til,
i columns of the Eagle of late bear testimony
i have just returned TO the city to learn tina
i application has been made 20 Mrs. Victorii
Woodruff for letters Of mine, supposed tc
/ contain information respecting certain infa.
nous stories against me. have no objee
ton to have the Eagle state In any way II
deems fit, that Mrs. Woodruff, or any person
| or persons who may have letters of mine in
tbeirp possession, have my cordial consent to
publish them. In this connection and at
this time will only add that the stories and
rumors which have for some time past been
circulated about me are grossly untrue, and
stamp themin general and in particular as
utterly false. Respectfully,
Why MIR. Beecher could not Have Had an
Intrigue.
Any correspondence Of any character be-
tween Mrs. Tilton and Mr.. Beecher Mr.. Til
ton was unable to produce. Letters from
Mrs. Tilton to Mr.. Beecher Of the most az
fectionate character were brought before the
committee by Mrs. Beecber, who has had
charge of all her husbands correspondence
for twenty years. It was found in inVestiga-
ting the matter that it has been Mr. Beecher's
uniform practice TO have all the mai! which
reaches the house opened and prepared for
him by bis wife, she answering or leaving
him to answer, according TO their i'm
portance. The letters which are directed
to the pulpit or his study in the:
church are also opened by subor-
dinate, and the envelopes are removed, the
letters being left open on the desk, and those
which reach the Christian Union Office are
opened there by subordinate. As assistant
editor Of the Independent Mr.. Tilton at one
time opened all the mail matter which Mr..
Beecher received through that address when
acting Us editor. Through all these sources
letters are constantly reaching bin from Wo.
men who are perhaps unaware of his pecu-
liar habits in regard to his correspondence.
It seems to the committee impossible that an
intrigue should have been successfully car
ried on by one who had thus placed all the
sources by which he could beaddressed in
the hands of others.
Mrs. MISUNDERSTANDING Gaunt, Etc.
Iron The New York>W orldJ
A large amount Of evidence bearing upon
the whole question has been submitted to the
committee, and explanations of some parts
of MIR. Tilton's statement, as we'll as of the
documents interviewer in its story, have
been already given by some Of the persons
concerned. The reference made to Catha-
-rine Gaunt in the letter of Mrs. TiIton, pub
lished in the statement, and dated Schoharie,
June 20, 1871, as explained by herself, is
considered to explain the whole circum-
stances on which the charges of Mr.. Tilton
rest. Catharine Gaunt. it will be remem-
bered, was not woman who had
yielded to illicit intercourse, but one who
had allowed the influence of highly
endowed priest to dominate her mind 10 the
exclusion Of her husbands influence, and
this was what had happened in the case of
Mrs. Tilton and Mr. Beecher. She declares
in the most solemn manner that there had
been at no time and at no period any impure
or ignoble thought in the whole Of the inti'
macy, much less any improper advance from
Mir. Beecher. To each of the allegations Of
improper intimacy her evidence gives an
emphatic denial. All which had subsisted
between them was deep intimacy grown of
long acquaintance, dating to her childhood,
and which had grown on her part to quote
the information given tsto spiritual atfec-
ton, which bordered closely on worship"
It was because this was in every man.
ner pure and free from any faint Of impure
thought or feeling that she insisted SO long
on her innocence in the whole matter.
1t was for this reason that she
claimed to be guiltless in all her intercourse
with Mr. Beecher, and it was only when she
read "Grittith Gaunt" that it occurred to
her that TO allow relation,of this character,
pure as it was, to spring up and overshadoW
her regard for her husband was wrong. Like
Catharine Gaunt, she had left her husband
when she ought to have forgiven him, and it
was the feelings induced by this fact which
led to the latter's confessIDg wrong. In re-
gard to other letters Of q more explicit cha
racter and later date, the evidence before
the committee shows that they were written
at time when MIR. Tilton had compelled
her return after temporary separation by
abductiDg her children. Letters Of his
were submitted proving the clandestine
method in which this was done,
and other evidence brought forward to show
that this time she was so entirely under her
husbands power, or Influence, or both, that
in bis. presence she denied statements she
had previously made, and which suDse-
uuently she reiterated, with the explanation
that she was utterly unable to resist the Will
of her husband. Evidence of her husbands
jealousy, of the fact that be has assigned each
of his children on a different father, and has
charged her with frequent and almost con-
tinual infideIities, has also been submitted to
the committee, US well as large mass of IN.
formation as to her character and the high
standard which she has uniformly placed on
the duties Of wife.
What Plymouth Church Thinks.
Thomas G.. Shearman, the clerk of Ply
mouth church, in response to general ques-
ton as to Mr.. Tilton's statement and its Ell
fects, last night said:
"rhis article does not shake the confidence
of the church at all. Mr.. Beecber has just
returned, and will undoubtedly make
prompt statement, in which all these matters
will be placed in their proper light, and Mrs.
Tilton will do the same. The church and It's
officers feel the most entire confidence in Mr.
Beecher, and this statement presents nothing
new to them. believe that understand this
case fully and on every side, and | am per-
fectly convinced in my own mind of Mr.
Beecher's innocence of this and all minor Of
fences charged by Mr. Tilton In relation to
improper advances. As to that believe that
the only basis for such pretence was mere
compliment, half humorous in its nature, paid
by Mr.. Beecher to Mrs. Triton at party, and
about which there never was any conceal
ment. During the very period which Mr..
Triton assigns for the intrigue between his
wife and Mr.. Beecher the latter gave me
personally directions to open letters ad-
dressed to him before they could reach him.
He had no means of keeping up clandes-
T rxyoa