The New York herald., 1874-07-07
THE BROOKLYN SORROW.
Another View of the Beecher
and TiltOn Affair.
THE TESTIMONY OF A FRIEND.

Professor Van Buren, Denslow writes as follows
In the Chicago Christian Aduocate:-
These three persons, whose names are now as.
sociated IN the crowning scandal of this age by q
colhciaence o,, more logical than many Will admit,
are AL or nave been Presidents oil the National
Woman's Rights Associations They have all en-
teftained or advocated certain advanced notions
nearly a century ago by Mary wolstonecraft and
CharieS Fourier, and more recently by John Stuart
cleanliness IN the record OF these reiormers Mary
Woistonecraft teaches her sex to abhor marriage
as Iorm OF slavery and not until her third Il
legitimate child brings upon the domlcIe
tion OF a Brush mob does She consent
TO convert her lover into husband-not for the
sake OF decency but that she might obtain ior him
the protection OF the law. Fourier In one sentence
deihes lust IN manner that would have pleased
the crude deyotees OF Isis and Osiris, and In the
next teaches that the the luture progress
lies in enlarging the freedom OF man and woman
tnaf the lact or chastity shall disappear and the
thought OF 1t become ridiculous. disciple of
Fourier, Robert Dale owen, procures as member
"easiest divorce law yet enacted. except in Wis.
consn Titon advocates the Wisconsin law whereby
mere consent OF the parties who make it. MIS-
woodruff scOrns marriage and procures a divorce
tnat e e 1e n 5sa 9 ye in oTa
under the same roof IN that ireer relation which
eaea the h or CON-
Mcfarland to the dying body OF her legal seducer,
the man who yentured TO address @ her as my
darling wife" while she was still living with her
lawful husband, as If the mummery OF the marriage
ceremony could cleanse their guilt. John Stuart
Mill the foremost apostle OF woman's freedom
takes to himself the wife OF another. who had not
even been accused Of unkindness toward her, for
no other reason then that she in her "wOmans
freedom" preferred a metaphysical seducer to
Christian husband.
Doubtless there are thousands of well meaning
ladies in the w0man's rights movement who con-
sclentiousy deny that it has any affinity with IL
centiousness. 1t may tend. perhaps, to correct
this error, when they observe the three publicly
elected eXponents OF the wOman's rights move
ment covering under the burden OF common
shame, the legitimate result OF an erroneous con-
victiOn as to the relation OF the sexes to each
other
Whoever has read Tllton's pamphlet life of Mrs.
Woodruff wherein he extos that unblushlng
apostle OF prostitution as woman the ''spotless
whiteness OF whose character" was above
encomlum. must have become satisfied that
OF the purity Of one who advocates strum-
petty in the name OF freedom, yet Tilton with all
so silly. He could only have done so with any sim
certify by adopting new definition OF purity. This
new definition Mrs. Woodhull's lectures. Ttlton's
articles on divorce and Beecher's example in mar
rying Mrs. Mcfarland to the dying Richardson, all
furnish. 1t Is that that woman is chaste whose re-
latons never violate the course Of her ncIina-
tion. either by continuing with one of whom she
Is tired or BY failing to go to one of whom she is
ew M1 a n Mr. Sep
hberality and Mrs. Woodhulls "chastity" are alike
accounted IOr.
IL
their practice In all this exposure, let not MIR.
Tilton for one moment suppose he is to be vindi-
Gated. Avenged he may be- No more;
He would never have placed IL in the power OF
Mrs. Woodruff to so employ an equivocal and
darkly limited scandal as deeply to a1ect the repu
tatiOn of his own vile had not his own relations
with his revelator been as unguarded as his life Of
Mrs. woodruff and Mrs. WOOdhull's tale OF scandal
combined, compel us TO peheve. There this drama
OF perditOn begins. He has so often taught that If
Cesar's wife must be above suspicion, SO also must
Cornelia's husband that he need feel no surprise
the adventures whom he has publicly commended
to the world OF stainless purity" charges the wife
whom ,1 he knows to be SO, with dshonor. Again,
woman" in its most Odous sense, has been too
sincere to iee and too logical to express that just
lover, would have felt upon being made the victim
OF 50 blasting an infamy as this would have been
marriage * aHe e,
man OF honor would have probably shot Beecher;
certainly would have cowhided and exposed MIN.
But Mr.. Tiiton, as an apostle Of ''free love" and
woman's rights was logically bound to regard the
so-caled "crlme" as an appeal to his wife's SOW
OF his PASTORS sovereign right to believe and prac-
tice wnat Titon taught, VIZ. the purity Of perfect
freedom. Hence the secret written apology OF
Beecher and the long and ''chivalrous" silence Of
Tllton.
Apart from the weak and corrupt views enter
tanned by all these parties concerning the mar
riage relation It's divine sanction and its perpetu
ity, how has this scandal come about?
Eight years ago Theodore Tilton had the finest
position and reputation, for young man, in this
country or age. He Is an orator Of first class
power, poet OF real merit, an editor OF various
husband OF lovely petite, modest, accomplished
wife. Mrs. Tllton Is highly and most honorably
Morse, OF the Supreme Court, conservative on all
moral and religious questions. and who was, we be.
lieve, brother to the eminent Sidney f. Morse and
Professor 5. F. b. Morse. Their children are of
style OF beauty at once spiritual striking and rare.
Whoever In those years had the pleasing fortune to
accept the hospitality OF this brilliant man and Of
his beaUttful wife must have retained
delightful image OF that home. All that could con-
duce to make home lovely was there. Reputation,
converse with noble minds such as fame draws
around the hearthstone OF its fortunate pOssessOr,
a charming companion whose very SOUL kner each
children whose smiles were ike the radiance OF
angels eyes when turned toward the throne OF
God and the rustic OF whose garments were
when bathing in the holy Sabbath dawn, what
more could Theodore Tilton have sought or
wished ?
Yet in his profound egotsm, he sought martyr
dom. The martyrs only were truly great; he
would link his name with some cause today odous,
tomorrow giorihed, and so alter the cross wear
the crown-as did Garrison Wiberorce, Howard,
and the rest. He advocated miscegenation, but
OF having been mobbed In antl-siavery days. Few
remembered that mob. Now, If he could but rem.
laton, by striking. stawart blow for woman's
freedom somebody, he sincerely hoped, wOuld
persecute min hlm and he would be i'm;
now his martyrdom has come all he
ever sought, ana, directly by the means he used,
but OF character far more logical than he ex-
pected. the inexOraDle penalty due to a false doc
trine the eternal cross that bears no crown save
one OF tnOrns. During those years the writer on
one occasion, by chance question turned the
conversation upon Beecher, VINO was then among
the daily visitors at Mr.. Tilton's mouse. "Is Mr..
Beecher's inward life that which 1t seems TO those
who hear hmy have been at loss to conceive
how one whose conscience Is so sensitive as MIR.
Beechers seems should boast himself TO be the
happlest man living. Deep moral sensltiveness
more often makes men sad"
Mr.. TlltoD answered. greatly to the writer's sur
prise :-"Mr. Beecher has a keen intellectual dis
crlminatiOn on moral questions, but he Is person
ally an epicure, q voluptuary, though OF the most
refined Sort who does nothing-nOt even his
only for the pleasure 1t affords him. II happens to
make him happier to preach than to race horses;
but II 1t made him happier to follow any other
form OF amusement he would pursue IL. Doubt
less at the moment when you heard him declare
himself the happest man living, he felt so, but
dor uofro nr