Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-07-30
SEECHER-
Continued from the Fourth Page.
MRS. TILTON'S ST ATEMENT


ing is the statement of Mrs. Elizabeth
r. Tilton:
To pick up anew the sorrows of the
last ten years, the stings, and pains /
had daily schooled myself to bury and
forgive, make this imperative duty,
as called forth by the malicious state
ment of my husband, the saddest act
of my life. Beside the thought of fol-
lowing the Master contradicts this act
of my pen, and sense OF perversion
of my life faith almost compels me
now to stand aside till God Himself
delivers. Yet ] see in this wanton
act an urgent call and privilege, from
which shrink not. To reply in de-
tail to twenty-five articles Of arraign-
ment shall not attempt at present;
yet if called upon to testify to each
and all of them, | shall not hesitate to
do so. Suffice it for my purpose now
that | reply to one or more of the
MOST GLOWING CHARGES.
Touching the feigned sorrow of my
husbands compulsory revelations, |
solemnly avow that long before the
Woodruff publication | knew him by
inslnuation and direct statement, to
have repeated to my very near rela-
tive and friend the substance of these
accusations which shock the moral
sense of the entire community this
day. Many times, when hearing that
certain persons had spoken i'll of him,
he has sent me TO chide them for so
doing; and then and there | learned
he had been before me with his cal
umnies against myself, so that | was
speechlcss. The reiteration in his
statement that he had "persistentIy
striven TO hide" these so called facts
is utterly false, as
| HIS HATRED TO MIR. BEECHRR
has existed these many years, and
determination to ruin Mr.. Beecher
has been the one aim of his life.
Again: the perfidy with which the
hottest love a wife ever offered has
been recklessly discovered in this pub
LEGATION, reaches well-nigh to sacri-
lege; and added to this the endeavor,
like the early scandal of Mrs Wood.
hull, to make my own words condemn
me, has no parallel. Most conspicu-
ously, my letter quoting the reading OF
Griffith Gaunt." Had Mr.. Tilton
read the pure character of Catharine.
he would have seen that | lifted my
self beside it as near as any human
may affect an ideal. But it was her
character to which 1 referred Hers
was no sin Of criminal act or thought.
A like confession" with hers | had
made to Mr.. Tilton, in telling Of
MY LOVE TO MY FRIEND AND PASTOR.
one year before; and | now add that,
Notwithstanding all misrepresentation
and anguish of soul, | owe to my ac
quaintance and friendship with Mr.
| Beecher, as to no other human instru
mentality, that encouragement in my
mental life and that growth toward
Divine nature which enables me tC
walk daily in lively hope of the life
beyond.
THE SHAMELESS CHARGES
in Arts. Z, s, and 8 are fearfully false
in each and every particular. The
letter referred to in MIR. Tilton's tenth
paragraph was obtained from me by
| opportunity, ana Uy up. ~,,e..tae'V.a
that it was necessary for him to use
in his then pending difficulties with
Mr.. Bowen. | was then sick nigh
unto death, having suffered miscar-
riage only four days before. | signed
whatever he required, without know
ing or understanding its import. The
paper | have never seen, and do not
know what statements it contained.
IN CHARGE EIGHTEEN,
letter of mine, addressed to Mr..
Francis Moulton, quoted to prove that
/ never desired separation, or was
advised by Mr. or Mrs. Beecher to
leave my husband, / reply the letter
was Of Mr. Tilton's own connecting,
which he induced me to copy and sign
as my own; an act which, in my weak
ness and mistaken thought to help him,
I have done TOO often during these
unhappy years.
The implication that the harmony
Of home was unbroken till Mr.. Beech
er entered it as a frequent guest and
| friend is a lamentable satire upon a
household where he himself years be-
| fore laid the
CORNER STONE OF FREE LOVE,
and desecrated its affairs up to the
time of my departure; so that the at.
mosphere was rot only Goddess, but
impure for my children. And in this
effort and throe of agony would fain
lift my daughters and all womanhood
from insidious and diaboical teach
ings ofthese latter days. His frequent
efforts to prove me insane, weak
minded, insignificant, of mean pres
ence,-all rank in the category of
heartlessness, selishness, and false
hood, having it's climax in his present
endeavor to convince the world that /
am, or ever have been, unable to dis
tinguish between an innocent or a
guilty love.
IN SUMMING UP THE WHOLE MATTER,
l affirm myself before God to be in
nocent OF the crimes laid upon me;
that never have / been guilty of adul-
terry with Henry Ward Beecher in
thought or deed; nor has he ever OF
fered to me an indecorous or improper
proposal. To the further charge that
I was led away from my home by
Mr.. Beecher's friends, and by advice
of lawyer whom Mr. Beechcr had
sent to me, and who, in advance of
my appearing before the Committee,
arranged with me the questions and
answers which were to constitute my
testimony in Mr.. Beecher's behalf, |
answer that this is again untrue, hav-
ing never seen the lawyer until intro
duced to him a few moments before
the arrival of the Committee, by my
step-father, Judge Morse; and in fur
ther reply l submit the following state