The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-07-25
Tiltou.

AAltVos
1t grieves us to couple in one sentence
two such names as those of Mrs Victoria
Woodruff and Of DR.. Leonard Bacon put
it is the pleasure of Mr.. Theodore ll a
that we should be compelled to 90 So. 1 .
years ago Mrs. Woodruff pubns1eo MT WI.
Tilton to the world as cnck M'. Two
months ago DR.. Bacon, as MIR. 1llton can
never have done with telling u.s. puphshed
Mr. Tilton to the world as "a dog ana
[nave" And now comes Mr.. Tilton him
self before an investigating committee in
Brooklyn to prove himself a cuckold, with
the shamelessness of dog, and with the
cunning of knave. These are plain
words. Dean Swift would have used them
in less imperative case. But no case
more imperative ever passed beneath the
remorseless scourge of that stern execu-
toner. The statement now made public
by Mr.. Tilton of his domestic life and
troubles is simply an outrage not upon his
own home only, but upon the very idea of
home itself; not upon his own wife only,
but upon womanhood and the marriage
bond. Plain men reading it will be tempt
ed to esteem Daniel K. Sickles in the com
parison with this man gentleman and a
man of honor, and to regard adultery as a
venial offence in comparison with this man s
leprous and loathsome vindication OF his
conjugal rights.
With the nominal subjectlmatter of this
revolving paper we do not propose justnoW
Mrs. Tilton's guilt or innocence and of Mr..
Beecher's guilt or innocence have now for
the first time been distinctly raised by this
statement in such wise as to make it i'm
peratiye that they should be settled But
this, not because Mr.. Tilton now Tor the
first time, after months and years OF dark
innuendo and malignant insinuauon, plainly
charges Mr. Beecher with the seduction of
his wife. First-hand witness to the charge
though he claims to be. Mr.. Triton is a
worthless witness, for Mr.. Titon has writ
ten himself down dog. Nothing can be
entertained, nothing can be believed, moth
ing can be affirmed or denied on the evil
dence of man who exults to show that
with him nothing is sacred, neither his
plighted word nor his protested religion,
nor his self-respect as a man, nor the
nuptial chamber of his welded wife lie
claims, indeed, like Mr. Sickles, to have
wrung from his wife confession of her
guilt-a claim which his wife, be it remem-
bered, most strenuously rebuts and repels
But it is not recorded that MIR. Sickles, af-
ter extracting confession from his wife,
fell upon the neck of her seducer, and with
Christian tears and tenderness forgave aud
embraced him as preliminary topistoling
him suddenly to death in the public streets
on the Sabbath afternoon.
The charge now made against Mr.. Beech
err rests, so far as Mr.. Tiltons statement
enables us to assign to it any foundation at
all, upon the alleged knowledge had Of this
charge and the alleged action taken lncon-
sequence of it by certain third parties, and
notably by Mr.. Moulton, Mr. Carpenter,
and Mr.. Oliver johnson. 1t is but com
monty just, by the wayto say that letter
given in this statement as written by Mr..
Oliver johnson to Mr.. Tilton on this sub
ject is absolutely the one oasis of manli-
ness and right feeling which refresbes this
else desert waste of sentimentalism, pruri
ency, cowardice, and filth. When Mr..
Beecher shall have been confronted with
these third parties, and Mr.. Beecher S tes-
tinony can be weighed with or against
theirs, it will be in order to form final
judument as to the truth or falsehood Of
the charge which, 80 far as it rests on any
thing now within the range Of vision Of
the public, rests alone upon them and up
on their testimony Bus as to Mr.. Tilton
we need no further evidence than his own.
He stands before us now by his own act,
naked, shameless, and unabashed. Or
rather he does not stand for that is the
characteristic attitude of manhood but
squats before us, a leering, obscene shape.
Koprophagous and foul, beslobbering with
tears Of dramatic self adulation the letters
of the woman he had sworn to love, honor,
and spelling out with glceful, gloating em
phisis to the ribald crowd the syllables Of
woman's whispered tenderness, to en-
nance the picture he would paint of his
own magnanimous moral beauty and of
that wretched woman's lapse from loyalty
to him and his great heart. 1t is simply
horrible. " ]. HoJ2d 22d