Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-07-24
MRS. TILTON'S STATEMENT.
"The saddest Act of Her Life -

"IHe Saddest Act Of Her Life"
The following is the statement of Mrs.
Elizabeth II. TIltOn:
To pick up anew the Sorrows of the last
10 years, stings and pains that | had
daily Schooled myself TO bury and forgive.
makes this imperative duty. as called forth
by the malicious statement of my husband.
the saddest act Of my life. Besides. NV
thought offOllOwing tie Master cOntradicts
this act of my pen, and sense Of perver-
s on Of my life, faith almost, compels me
now tOstaud aside till God himself delivers.
Yet | see in this wantOn act an urgent call
and privilege, from which | shrink not. To
reply in detail to the twenty-five articles Of
arraignment shall net attempt at present.
Yet, if called upon to testify 10 each and
all Of them, | shall not hesitate 10 do so.
Suffice it for my purpose that | reply to
one or two of the most glaring charges
touching feigned sorrow for nv husbands
compulsory revelations. l solemnly avow,
that long
Before the woodruff Publication
| knew him by insinuation and direct
statement to have repeated to my very near
est relatives and friends the substance Of
these charges which shock the morals of
LAAS NAillAN NbAAAAAuulbN THIS utAAs 4hdllN
times when hearing that certain persons
had spoken i'll of him, he has sent me 10
chide them for so doing, and then and there
learned he had been before me with his
calUmnies against me, so that | was speech
less. The reiteration in his statement that
he had ''persistently sought to hide" these
so-called facts are
Utterly False,
as his hatred TO Beecher has existed MANY
years. A determination TO ruin Beeche..
has been his one aim of life. The perfidv
with which the holiest love wife ever Of
fered has been recklesSly discovered in this
publication, reaches well nigh to sacrilege,
and added to this, the endeayor, like the
early scandal of MIrs. Woodruff, 10 make
my own words condemn me, has no paral-
lei. Most conspicuOusly, my letter quoting
reading Of
Griffith Gaunt.
Had tiltOn read the true character OF Catle-
rine he would have seen that l lifted myself
beside it as near as any human may OBJECT
an ideal. But il was her character and not
the incidents of fiction surrounding il to
which l referred. Hers was no sin of Grim
inal act or thought. Alike 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 now, not
withstanding all misapprehensions and an
guish of soul, owe to my acquaintance
and friendship with Mr.. Beecher as to no
other human instrumentality that l have
encountered in my mortal life, that
growth toward the divine nature which en-
ableS one 10 walk daily in the living hope
of the love beyond.
The shameless charges in articles Z, 81
and are
FearfuIIy False,
in each and every particular. The letter
referred to in Mr.. TiltOn's tenth paragraph
was obtained from me by importantly and
by representations that it was necessary for
him to use in his then pending difficulties
with Mr.. Bowen. | was then sick nigh
unto death, having suffered a miscarriage
only four DAYS before. | signed whatever
he required without knowing or under
standing its import. The paper | have
never seen and do not know what state
ments it contained.
In charge Is a letter of mine addressed
TO Mr.. Francis MOulton is quoted to prove
that l never desired separation or was ad-
vised bv Mr. or Mrs. Beecher TO leave INV
l reply, the letter was of
Mr.. TiltOn's own cOnceiying, which he in
luced me to copy and sign as my own, an
act which i'm
MY Weakness
and mistake thought to help him as have |
lone too Cflen during these unhappy years.
The implication that the harmony of our |
home was unbrOEen until Mr.. Beecher en-
erred it as a frequent guest and friend, is a |
amentable satire upon household where |
he himself years before laid
The Corner Stone of Free Love,
md desecTated its altars up to the time of |