The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-16
THE BEECHER.TILTON SCANDAL.
What the Press Has % say About IL.
fFrou, thu DaiIv Orc nhic

THE BEECHER.TILTON SCANDAL.
What tho Press Ilas 70 say About t.
From the Daily Graphic.l
Mr.. Beecher has plainly determined to
complete silence us to the charges
brought against him. The press throughout
the country, however, has something to say
about the matter. So long as the scandal
consisted merely in charges against Mr..
Beecher's private character, it was properly
a matter in which his own congregation were
alone interested, and they had a clear right
to treat II in such a manner as seemed best
to them. When, however, the members of
Plymouth Church undertake to save their
pastors reputation by making a scapegoat of
another man, the latter Is fully justified in
to the public, and the public be-
comes entitled to demand that the affair be
fairly and fully investigated.
From the Albany Journal
Ii at least becomes the public not to form
a hasty judgment. Mr.. Beecher still declares
his purpose to maintain silence. In that the
general opinion will not agree with him.
From the Troy Times
The subject is an unpleasant one at best,
but ii is now presented in such light that
il can not well be ignored, even by Mr..
of that gentleman will assuredly prove very
damaging to his reputation.
From the Baltimore Gazette.l
His written confession of the sin of which
he has been accused, and his humble and
earnest appeal for silence and forgiveness,
are as touching i'm their sense of self
degradation as they are damaging to his
priestly character and future usefulness.
From the Indianapolis Sentinel
The Sentinel has long been the champion of
his innocence, but it would seem that the
most damning proofs are accommodating His
guilt and subsequent hypocrisy, if estab-
lished, will strike the severest blow that re-
ligion has received within the century.
From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
He has no right to remain silent if he is an
innocent man. 1t is his duty to vindicate
himself now, at any sacrifice of other people,
if such result is possible. u ~ There
must be a final disposition of the subject
now by the accused or he will suffer in pop
ular estimation precisely as he would if he
should admit the truth of the charges.
From the Washington Start
A telegram elsewhere states that Henry
Ward Beecher declares lin regard to the
just-published statement of Theodore Tilton)
that he will not break the silence he has
hitherto observed. Very well, that is Mr.
Beecher's own lookout. In view of the hui
initiating acknowledgements of his letter to
Tilton, quoted by the latter, there can be but
one construction put upon his silence.
From the New Haven Register.
This is the attitude in which Mr.. Tilton's
letter places the pastor of Plymouth Church.
and there is no escape for him in the popular
judgment but to show that there is either nc
such letter, or that, there being one, it is q
forgery, or that the facts and circumstances
attending the writing and delivering of il
were another thing entirely from what they
are 'intimated to be by his accuser. One
horn or the other of this ugly trilemma
must be taken hold of, and that right
speedily, by the Christian church to whose
ecclesiastical supremacy Mr.. Beecher is sub
ject and to whose judgment he is amenable
If he is innocent the world should know it
if he is more sinned against than SHINING
the fact should be shown.
From the Boston Globel
tits due to Mr.. Beecher, and to the religion,
society to which he ministers, that his useful
ness and their credit s,h,ouio ia 1e Unmarried
by silence respecting charges which, if false
ought to be ut once refuted, and, if true, de
mand his dismissal from the position in
which he could no longer be anything but {
detriment and reproach. We do not be
lieve in prejudging this case, and we should
be the last to give credence to these charges
against the distinguished Brooklyn clergy
man until he had been proved guilty, but We
deem it all the more important that he ant
his friends should not weaken their cause b.,
any further action ignoring or disregardinl
these grave imputatiOns.
From the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph
hat ba, oant;,,,ant Of honnl
may have with regard to this scandal they
can certainly feel nothing but contempt fol
Mr.. Theodore Tilton, and when they reflect
who and what Mr.. Beecher is, and who anC
what Mr.. Tilton is, they will be 10th to con
denim the former on no better evidence thar
that presented in the unmanly Statement
that the latter has seen fit to give to the pub
lie. Mr.. Beecher will be dom.
himself, his friends, and the cause of re
lgiOn and manly honor an injustice ii h,
does not now tell the whole story. If he re
fuses to do this, the church of which he i
the pastor can not i'm common decency re
fuse any longer to hold such a public inves
tigation as will finally put an end to thu
scandal in some shape or other.
From the Boston Journal \
Mr.. Bcecher and his friends have now NJ
alternative but to take up this challenge t.
inquiry and meet ii with the utmost fearless
ness The brightest ornament of the Amer
lean pulpit can no longer be furnished b.
this old sickening breath Of suspicion ant
detraction. No merchant, no Statesman
would think of stunning scrutiny on sucl
terms, but in this case Mr.. Beecher is blu
the standard-bearer of the moral and spir
itual welfare of thousands, and the brav,
bearing of his life to the ordeal Of investi
CATION would, under the circumstances, d,
more good than the preaching of innumer
able sermons. We do not think it wort
while to comment upon the apparent fore
and relevancy of different parts of the Tiltol
revelation affecting Mr.. Beecher. The i'm
plications, the direct charges, even the LEI
tcrs quoted, may all be susceptible of ex
PLANTATION, and that without impeaching Til
tons honesty; time alone can solve thes
things. But time must solve them. The ba
of pnblic opinion i'm this country is mex
orable, and when once its mandate has gon
out il is no respecter of persons. Mr.. Beeche
must come into court.
From the Chicago Tribune.l
Mr.. Tilton is no longer on trial. He ha
charges Plymouth Church might max
against him. But in this last offer he ha
placed Mr.. Beecher in position where tn
latter must demand trial or hang his hea'
in shame. The telegraph brings the infoI
nation that Mr.. Beecher declares he viii
not break the silence he has hitherto main
tanned. Then his church must break it TO
him. If not, we shall have the unprecedente.
spectacle of professedly Christian Churcl
nursing scandal, and protecting mar
whose character is now blackened more deep
ly than it would be if the whole truth wer,
known. The matter can not rest where il is
The time has come when Mr.. Tilton's friend
will tell what Mr.. Tilton hesitates to say, !
Plymouth Church fails to probe the sore
carries and lets the world know just how ba,
il is.
Removal OF Army Headquarters.
A Washington dispatch gives the cor