Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1874-08-22

carry 1t on for awhile; he was sure
that he was to head great revolu.
ton. With returning prosperity he
had apparently no griefs which
could not be covered by his sigma
ture to tho articles Of peace. Yet
the change in that covenant, made
by him before signing it, and repre-
scented to me as necessary merely to
relieve him from the imputatiOn of
having originated and circulated
certain old and shameless sla nders
against me, were really made, as
now appears, to leave him free for
future operations upon me and
against me. So long as he was, or
thought he was, on the road to a
new success, his conduct toward me
was as friendly as he knew how to
make it. His assumption of superb.
GRITTY and magnanimity and his pat
rOnizing manner were trifles at
which | could afford to smile, and
which l bore with the greater hui
mility since 1 still retained the pro-
found impression made upon me, as
explained in the following nara.
tive, that l had been q cause of
overwhelming disaster to him, and
that his complete restoration to pub
lie standing and household happi-
ness was q reparation justly requir.
ed of me, and the only one which 1
could make. But with peculiar
genius for plumbers, he fell almost
at every step into new complications
and difficulties, and in every such
instance his policy was to bring CO.
ercion to bear upon my honor, my
conscience and my affections, for
the purpose of procuring his eXtri-
cation at my expense.
He said again and again to his
friends that if they wished to gain
any influence over me they must
work upon the sympathetic side of
my nature. TO this he has address
ed himself steadily for four years,
using as lever, without scruple,
my attachment to my friends, to my
family, to his own household, and
even my old affection tor himself !;
not blind to his faults, resolved to
look on him as favorably and hope
fully as possible, and, ignorant of
his deeper malice, labored earnestly,
even desperately, for his salvation.
For four years have been trying
to feed the Unsuitable egotism, to
make the man as great as he con-
ceived himself to be, to restore a
prosperity and public confidence to
one who, in the midst of my efforts
in his behalf, patronized disreputa-
BILE people and doctrines, refused,
when l besought him to seperate
himself from them, and ascribed to
my agency the increasing ruin which
he was persistantly bringing upon
himself, and which was doing my
utmost to avert.
1t was hard to do anythi ing for
such a man l might as well have
tried to fill seive with water. In
the latter stage of the history he
actually melted and created difficult
ties, apparently for no other pur-
pose than to drive me to fresh eXer-
tions. l refused to indorse his wild
views and associates. The best l
could do was to speak we'll of him,
which [ still believe him to possess,
in his higher moods, and, keeping 81
lence concerning the evil things
which | was assured, and believed,
had been greatly exaggerated by
public report, l could not think him
so bad as my friends did. trusted
to the germs Of good which !
thought still lived in him, to Mr..
Moulton's apperent power over him
and to the power Of my persistent
self sacrifice.
The above extract from the state
ment will show the tenor of the gen
eral drift of the communication,
namely, that Beecher believed he
was helping TiltOn regain his stand
ing among men; assisting him to
establish a business; that he was
trying to show by his acts that he
was true friend to Til ton, notwith-
standing Tilton had charged him
with being the cause of his remov-
al from the editarial chair of the
Independent and Union papers that
he thought that his and his wife's
advice might have brought discord
in Tilton's family, and hence his en-
deavors to allay the hard feeling
between TiltOn and his wife; that
under the advice of Moulton, a sup
posed friend fully trusted, he had
signed papers and letters without
being fully aware of their conten is,
Moulton pretending that he could
over matters between Tito n
and his wife and bring everything
out right; that Tilton had publ ish-
I'd detached portions of his Beech
els) letters and only such senten-
ces as would serve to sustain his
.Tilton's) charges. If these letters
rom which extracts are made are
cad entire, they are.susceptible Of
very different construction til an
he garbled extracts give them