Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-07-09
REECnER SCANDAL EXPOSED
TiIton Tells His Story in the "GOl-
den Age"..He Alleges the Truth
Of Worst Suspicious.

Of Worst SuspiciOns.
NEW YORK, Juue 24.-Theodore Til
ton publishes in the Golden Age. this
afternoon, a seven column article touch
ing the Beecher scandal. II is de-
fense of Tilton against the charges of
Rev. Leonard Bacon, moderator of the
late Brooklyn council. that Tilton has
been a cowsrdly slanderer of Beecher.
whose magnanimity alone saved him
from disgraceIul exposure. Having
suffered in silence for years, from these
and similar Misrepresentation, adrOitiy
put before the public by Plymouth
Church, Tilton says that neither patti
ence or duty will permit him longer to
conceal the act usl facts from the public.
He then goes on to say that he never
sisndered Henry Ward Beecher, but. on
the contrary, has sacrificed his own re-
putation to suppress the truth abont
him, and that he never refused to ap-
pear before the Church and answer all
questions regarding the scandal that
might be put to him. Tilton gives his
ce1pection with the church, as follows: !:
"After ! had been for fifteen years a
member of Plymouth church, and had
become meanwhile an intimate friend
of the pastor, knowledge came to me,
in 1870, that he had committed against
me an offense which forbear TO men,
ticn or characterize. Prompted by my
self-respect. Immediately and forever
ceased my attendance on his ministry
He publishes the following az an cx-
tract from document signed by Mr..
Beecher:
BROOKLYN, January, l, 1871.
Il ask Theodore Tilton's forgiveness
and humble myself before him. as l do
before my God. He would have been
a better man in my circumstances thaDI
have been. | can ask nothing, except
that be will remember all the other
breasts that would ache. I will not
plead for myself. / even wish that I
were dead.
[Signed "H. W. BEECHER."
NEW YORK, June 25.-Among the
documents which Theodore Tilton in
cludes in his long open letter to Rev.
DR.. Leonard Bacon, on what is COM
monty known as the Beecher and Til
ton scandal is the following under the
date of May 1st, 1874:
Henry Ward Beecher:
S,R-Mr. F. B. Carpenter mentions
10 me that you are saying to him that
under certain conditions involving GER
tain disapprovals by me, a sum of
money would or could be raised to
eend me with my family to Europe for
a term of years. The occasion compels
me to state explicitly that as long as
life and self respect continue to exist
together in my breast l shall be de-
barred from receiving either directly
or indirectly any presents at your hands.
The reason for this feeling on my part
you know so we'll that will spare you
the statement of it. Yours truly.
THEo. TILToN.
Mr.. Tilton follows this with reference
to what he declares the fact that al
though he had received from the clerk
of Plymouth church on the 10th of May,
a communication announcing that his
(Tilton's) offer to appear for trial had
been read by Rev. Mr.. Halliday, assis-
tant pastor of Plymouth Church, and |
submitted to an examining committee,
by whom it had been rejected, Mr.. |
Halliday had some forty days after
wards emphaticall7 denied TO several |
newspaper reporters tina! such an offer |
had ever been received, and branded |
the whole story as false from beginning
to end. Rev. DIR. Bacon having in his
speech characterized Mr.. Beecher as
the most magnanimous OF men and re- |
ferred to Mr.. Tilton as dog and knave,
leading the public to infer that the lat
ter was in some way q creature of
Beecher's bounty, Tilton states he call
ed Beecher's attention to the offensive
ness OF the statement, and insisted on
its correction by either that gentleman
or himself. Tilton closes his letter to
Rev. Bacon as follows: "If the public
have heretofore considered my silence
as implication, let my sufficient mo-
tive be now seen in the just forbear-
ance which / felt morally bound to
show toward the man who had sent
me written AMI absolute apology.
But my duty to continue that forbear-
ance ceases when the spirit of that
apology was violated to my iajury by
its author or his agents. These viola
tions: have been multitudinous,an and they
threaten to multiply in the future,
forcing me 10 protect myself against
them in advance, particularly against
the cunning devices of the C'erk OF the
Church, who, acting as an attorney, APP