Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-09-15
Members of u former Legislature.
MOULTON'S DEFENCE.
+ From the n. Y. Tribune


ton to which we reluctantly surrender
nearly three pages OF the Tribune this
morning, Mr.. Francis ID. Moulton presents
not one fragment of fresh evidence in sup
port of his former charges, and advances
hardly one new statement. He is by
turns defiant and apologize, lachrymose
aud malicious. Nearly half his address
is an earnest effort to convince the public
that he acted toward Mr.. Beecher the part
of loyal friend, and half the remainder
is trivial examination of certain minor
discrepancies in Mr.. Beecher's testimony
which in no material way affect the main
issue. Towards Mr.. Rosster Raymond,
and some other defenders of Mr.. Beecher.
he betrays childish luminosity, and he la
bors apparently under the delusion that
the world at large is concerned about the
judgments which he and they have formed
of each other Throwing aside all this
miserable rubbish, we can reduce what
Mr.. Moulton really has to say about the
scandal to a very few points. 1. He
gives) Qrom memory the words in which,
as he AYERS, Mr. Beecher confessed to him
his improper relations with Mrs. Tilton.
=. He asserts that the confession has
been made in the hearing of another per-
sou, whose name he does not give but it
is not Tilton. 3. He reproduces the let
tiers which passed between Mr.. Beecher
and Mrs. Tilton, after the alleged confess
sion-thc same letters which were given
to the correspondent of the Chicago Trib-
une and copied into this paper 4. And
finally declares that Mr.. Beecher con.
fessed to him that he had committed
adultery with another woman, mentioned
though not by name in Tilton's threaten
ing letter to Mr.. Bowen. The first and
second allegations rest upon Mr.. Moul-
toms unsupported word, and we have no
hesitation in saying that the language
which he puts into Mr.. Beecher's mouth is
impossible. He represents this Christian
preacher as not only acknowledging his
adultery but declaring that God would
not blame him for it." That overtaxes
credulity. The third point refers to the
so-called clandestine letters. They are
not evidences of guilt Far from it. We
challenge any unprejudiced person to read
them without being impressed by their
deep religious spirit; and if we are to take
them for letters of assighation we must
suppose that this man and woman were in
the habit of saying grace over their sinful
indulgences and mingling all their crimes
with prayer-not in hypocritical pretense
before the world but in the secrecy of
their own guilty intercourse. In the ma
lignant earnestness with which Mouton
tries to twist an evil significance out of
these innocent, albeit gushing sentences,
there is something of the devils own tenn
per.
The fourth point also depends princi-
pally upon Mr.. Moulton's credibiity But
here he brings forward solitary scrap of
what he considers documentary corrobor-
alton. In the letter from Tilton to Bowen
there was reference to an alleged crime
of ravishment. From the lady concerned
in this story letter is printed which Mr..
Moulton would have us believe refers to
Mr.. Beecher's crime. Now we know the
particulars of this case. We know the in
cidents of the trivial quarrel to which the
letter does relate. We know Mr. Moul-
tons charge to be an atrocous calumny
without n shadow Of justification and al
the proper day the truth will be established
by indisputable evidence.
But we shall not waste time and temper
in analysing a statement which will damn
Francis ID. MOuton deeper than any rev.
elation OF baseness and treachery that has
been made by Mr.. Beecher or his friends
1t is about such a document as one might
expect from the man who allows his friend
to make merchandise of his wife's honor.
and acts as broker in the transaction
brutal, cruel, cowardly, infamous. Be-
cause his actions have been misconstrued
forsooth, this Bayard OF Brooklyn must
save his reputation for generosity by
blasting the homes in which he has been
favored guest, pulling out the private let
tiers committed to his honorable keeping,
showing the world what ugly things
brothers and sisters could say of one
another, what sentimental phrases wives
could write in the absence of their hus-
bands, and dragging the reputation Of
ladies whom he has never known and the
happiness of families which have never
wronged him through the reeking filth of
this unparalleled scandal. 1t would not
have been considered nice business for a
gentleman in olden times but we suppose
it is all right in these days when hus-
band undertakes to prove that he is not a
dog by showing that he is cuckold.
1t is time for this abominable business
to he stopped. The accusers have failed
in their case, and every fresh attempt to
accomplish their purpose only makes their
failure more disastrous. The word of
Henry Ward Beecher stands good against
a ten-acre lot full OF Moutons and Til
tons. The world will tolerate no more of
their passionate and unsupported asser-
tons. If they have any proof of what
they allege against the pastor OF Plymouth
Church, let them take it into court of
justice where it can be weighed and
sifted. A suit at law may enable them to
destroy the character Of Mr.. Beecher
though nothing will ever mend their own