The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-08-24
Finale of the Conspiracy.


Finale Of the Conspiracy.
We have looked in vain through the TWEEN
ty columns which Mr.. Moulton has devoted
to statement Of what he represents to be
the truth''-a quotation which he seems
never to tire of repeating the
allegations of Theodore Tilton against Henry
Ward Beecher, for any fact which could shed
new light upon the subject. From the ominous
givings out, with which the public has been
surfeited ever since the scandal was set afoat,
that Moulton SHIELD the key Of the POSITION
a great many people have been led to believe
that he had in his possession some direct and
conclusive testimony touching the guilt or
innocence of the accused But nothing of
the kind has been produced. A voluminous
much of which bears upon the main ques-
ton, but there is not sentence or line in
the whole of it which lends any force to the
original averment. 1t is plain that Mr.. Til
ton cuiled out of this mass of matter the
most damaging passages contained therein,
ment with which the investigation opened.
The first attack was infinitely more deadly
than any of the subsequent assaults have
proved, and the final charge of the enemy is
more remarkable for yerbosity than for
strength.
The story which Moulton tells is the same
which Tilton repeated so often to Mrs. Wood
hull and other intimate friends before he
published it TO the world. He corroborates
his associate, in respect TO all the details of
the eventful days of December, 1870. He re-
lates the incident of the interview in which
he demanded the surrender of the paper con-
tanning Mrs. Titon's recantation quite in the
manner of one who feels as if he had done an
heroic action, but judiciously omits any refer
ence to the exhibition of pistol, which gave
so much dramatic effect to that extraordinary
scene. There il marked discrepancy be-
tween his account and that given by Mr..
Beecher of the circumstances under which
the apology.wa executed. He admits hay
ing written it, but declares that the language
of it was dictated to him by Mr.. Beecher. 1t
will be recollected that Mr.. Beecher repre-
sents that the apology was simply a
gathering together of disjointed fragments of
what he described as a soliloquy rather than
conversation. The Prescriptions are alto
gether in favor Of the latter rendering. If
Mr.. Beecher had intended to make a con-
fession Of actual guilt, he would have hardly
employed an amanuenss for such a purpose.
Init I.kl1 al. r.
Beecher from time to time confided to Mr..
Moulton are of SO confidential a nature that
we-can only account for his making such
disposition of them on the theory that he
thought there was no other depositary in
whom they could be SO absolutely safe. There
are the letters of Mrs. and Mr.. Hooker, Mrs.
Morse and Thomas K. Beecher, which GER
tainly never would have been handed over to
any third party unless there had been the
most implicit faith entertained in the honor
and reliability Of the custodian. The letters
of Mr.. Clafin and Mr.. Perkins are of less
importance, but they, like the others, be-
longed exclusively to the person to whom
they were addressed, and when Mr.. Beecher
peremptorily demanded the return of them,
saying, "they were never placed in your
hands to be held for two parties, nor to be
used in any way; they were to be held for
me-" the Withholding of them by Moulton
was an act of ineffable perfidy and baseness.
Moulton exhibits note from Beecher, dated
18th July, as evidencing the confidence the
latter had in him up to that time. But it
must be borne in mind that Moultons refusal
to give bin back the letters he had entrusted
to him, bears date Aug. 4th. 1t was on that
day that Mr.. Beecher discovered that his
dear Moulton" was false and treacherous.
Until then he had believed in him and opened
his heart to him, although warned repeatedly
and earnestly by his wife and by numerous
friends that he would deceive and betray him.
The conduct of Moulton in this whole af-
fair has been SO detestable that he has no
claim to credibility where his word is contra
dicted. Any mere statement of his, therefore,
unsupported by reliable testimony must be le-
jected, and, nasmuch as his allegations against
MIR. Beecher are wholly unsustained by any
portion of the documentary evidence, we dis
miss them as entirely worthless.
The grave charge of black-mail which Mr..
Beecher introduced into his defense, with
SO much directness and simplicity, so far from
being disputed or palliated by Mouton, is
admitted and defended. He makes up profit
and loss account of the five thousand dollar
extortion, showing the dates and sums of the
payments to Tilton, amounting. to s4,55O,
leaving remainder of $3.50 of the hush money
yet to be dispensed to that individual as the
price of his silence. There is, to be sure, a
shallow pretense that Tilton did not know
whence this money was derived, but when we
come to consider the relations of intimacy
what existed between these two men, the sug-
gestion is too preposterous to be treated seri-
ously. The truth appears to be that the fea-
lures of matchmaking were observable in the
case from the very beginning. Its first form
was the using of Beecher to force a settlement
with Bowen its second, the procuring of
small sums of money, aggregating $4,000, as is
set forth in Mr.. Beecher's statement, and it's
third, the contract executed by Moulton, on
the representation that Monitor could be
bought off finally and forever for the round
sum of $4,000.
The conclusion to which we are irresistibly
brought by patient perusal of this ponder
GUS compilation is, that it develops no new
facts, that it fails completely to shake the
strong foundations of Mr.. Beecher's explana-
ton, that the conspiracy to destroy great
artfully as it was contrived and
relentlessly as it has been pursued, has been
baffled and overthrow, and that all the
actors in it, whether principals or accessories,
have involved themselves in hopeless and
disgrace
Current Notes. Il
The Concord, N. H., Monitor Believes that |
The Republican party has yet great future |
of usefulness and S.aaoSs Lolora e L. s.....