Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-08-01

4
against his moral purity, and wished
to convince him that she could re-
ceive his kindness, and yet resist his
solicitations; and that she could in
spire in him, by her purity and fidel-
ity, an increased respect for the
chaste dignity of womanhood. Pre-
vious to the autumn of 1868, she
maintained with Christian frmness
toward her pastor this position of
resistance, always refusing his am
orous pleas, which were strong and
oft-repeated; and in a letter to her
husband, dated Feb. 8, 1868, she
wrote as follows:
e9To love is praiseworthy, but to
abuse the gift is sin. Here 1 am
strong. No demonstration or fasci-
nations could cause me to yield my
womaDhood.
VII. That the first suspicion that
crossed the mind of Theodore TiltOn
that Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was
abusing, or might abuse, the affee-
tion and reverence which Mrs. Tilton
bore toward her pastor, was an i'm
proper caress given by Beecher to
Mrs. Tilton by the =
while seated by her side on the floor
of his library overlooking engrav-
ings. Tilton, a few hours afterward,
asked of his wife an explanation of
her permission of such liberty,
whereat she at first denied the fact,
but then confessed it, and said that
she had spoken chidingly to Beeeher
concerning it. On another occasion,
Tilton, after leaving his house in the
early morning, returned to it in the
forenoon, and on going to his bed
chamber, found the door locked, and
when, on knocking, the door was
opened by Mrs. Tilton, Beecher was
seen within, apparently much con
fused, and exhibiting a flushed face.
She afterwards made plausible ex-
PLANTATION, which, from the confidence
reposed in her by her husband, was
by him deemed satisfactory.
VIII. That in the spring of 1870,
on Tilton's return from a winters
absence, he noticed in his wife such
evidence of the absorption of her
mind in Beecher, that in short
time an arrangement took place be-
tween her husband and herself, in
consequence of which she went into
the country earlier than usual for
summer sojourn. After an absence
of several weeks she voluntarily re-
turned to her home in Brooklyn. On
the evening of July 8, 1870, when,
and then and there, within few
hours after her arrival, and after ex-
acting from her husband a solemn
promise that he would do Rev. Hen
ry Ward Beecher no harm, nor COM
municate to him what she was about
to say, she made a circumstantial
confession to her husband of the
criminal facts herein before stated,
accompanied by citations from
Beecher's arguments and reasonings
with her to overcome her long main
tanned scrupie against yielding to his
desires, and declaring that she had
committed no wrong to her husband
or her marriage vow, quoting, in
support of this opinion, that her pas
tor had repeatedly assured her that
she was spotless and chaste, which
she believed herself to be. She fur
ther stated that her sexual commerce
with him had never proceeded from
low and vulgar thoughts, either on
her part or his, but always from pure
affection and high religious love.
She stated, furthermore, that
Beecher habitually characterized their
intimacy by the term ''nest-hiding,"
and he would suffer pain and sorrow
if his hidden secret were ever made
known. She said that her mind was
often burdcned by the deceit neces-
sary for her to practice in order to
prevent discovery, and that her con-
science had many times impelled her
to throw of this burden of enforced
falsehood by making a full eonfes-
sion to her husband, so that she
would no longer be living before
him "a perpetual lie. In particular,
she said that she had been on the
point of making this confession
few months previously, during a Sc
we're illness, when she feared she
might die. She affirmed also that
Beeeher had assured her repeatedly
that he loved her better than he ever
loved any other woman, and she felt
justified before God in her intimacy
with him, save the necessary deceit
which accompanied it, and at which
she frequently suffered in her mind.
TX. That after the above named
confession by Mrs. Elizabeth r. Til
ton, she returned to the country to
await such action by her husband as
he might see fit to take; Whereupon,
after many considerations, the chief
of which was that she had not vol
unfairly gone astray, but had been
artfully misled, through religious
reverence for Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher as her spiritual guide, to-
gether also from desire to protect
her family from open shame, Mr..
Tilton condoned the wrong, and he
to his wife such letters of
affection, tenderness, and respect as
he felt would restore her wounded
spirit, and which did partially pro-
duce that result.
X. That in December, 1870, diff
ferences arose between Theodore
Tilton and Henry G. Bowen, which
were augmented by Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher and Mrs. Beecher; in
consequence whereof, and at the
wish of Mrs. Elizabeth r. Tilton,
in writing in a paper put
in the hands of Mr.. Francis d. Moul-
ton, with view to procure harmo-
nious interview between Mr.. Tilton
and Mr.. Beecher, such an interview
was arranged and carried out by Mr..
Moulton at his then residence, on
Clinton street, Mr.. Beecher and Mr..
Tilton meeting and speaking then
and there for the first time since Mrs.
Tilton's confession of six months be-
fore. The paper in Mr.. Mouit3n on,
-