, 1874-08-12

A4tAO WhIOu 81 49, H
which was dictated to Mr.. Moulton under such
extraordin lry circumstances, and which is real
" The keystone of the case. We are certainly
bound to weigh every word of this letter, and
to remember, as our reporters reclte elsewhere,
that they are the hurried Soliloquies, not the
measured statements, of Henry Ward Beecher.
al ask, through you, Theodore Tilron's for
giveness, and I humble myself before him, as [
do before my God" This is a strong sentence,
but it reads Ike the opening of the average
morning prayer Of Plymouth church, and might
refer to an error in paying a bill, or the repeat
ing of some hasty Il-cOnsidered scandal that
one hears 10 the best governed churches. He
would have been a better man in my circum-
stances than | have been" This is simply an
appeal to the mercy Of a young man not free
from vanity, and, it is hoped, open to mef&y,
" can ask nothing except that he will remem'
Der all the other hearts that will ACHE" which
is only another phrase of Beecher' rhetoric.
Such also, in a highly exaggerated form, are
the following Sentences 60 | will not plead for
myself; l even wish TIL It I were dead At
this point the letter as originally quoted by Mr..
TiltOn ended. Now, we come to the suppressed
sentences, which are before US for the hrst
time. "But others must live to suffer. | will
die before any one but myself shall be lnculpat-
ed" There is a pathos in these expressions
WhlOh S'OWo iOHOp @iN OOSChbND P"AH'0AAJ
ineligible when we note the delicate hints of
our reporter that no explanation of Mr.. Beech
er's conduct is complete that does not involve
his own home. How naturally his thoughts
pass from his own household, from those he is
bound to protect even with his own life, to the
others who would suffer in any stain upon his
fame "All my thoughts are running towards
my friends towards the poor child who is lying
there and praying with her folded hands"
Certainly this means a sin, or it would mean q
sin or the knowledge of sin in the minds
of both if we did not read on to this remarkable,
generating and prOvidential sentence =
"She is guiltless, sinned against, bearing the
transgreSSiOn of another" Now, whatever this
may mean, it certainly shows that there was no
crime of adultery in the mind of Mr.. Beecher,
no c~Ontrition for such a crime. When he spoke
of her innocence he meant that tIere had been
no violation of the sacred laws of marriage and
hOme, and the Thought is strengthened by the
succeeding sentence, Her forgiveness [
have" forgiveness" for what If it was
for the crime of adultery, then it is the first time
in the history of language that one who thus
einned had asked pardon from his partner in the
crime.
1t is very clear, then, so clear that it is al
most a traVeSty of logic to follow it any further,
that this famous " letter of contrition' is in fact
an exoneration from the crime of adultery. Yet
this IS the gravamen of Mr.. i ilton's charge.
Upon what then does it rest : In the first
place, upon Mr.. I'll. On's own statements Of
verbal confessions made to him by his wife.
Now, with all respect for Mr.. Tilton, he must
excuse us for saying that in a matter affecting.
not only the honor and virtue Of a woman who is
his wife and the mother of his children, and
whom he only yesterday certified to the world
as a woman Of devOut and blameless character,
but as also affecting the honor of the first clergy
man of his generation = gray in years and infu-
ence and dignity, illustriUuS with the unstained
years of a Christian life, of no less a man than
our incompatible Henry Ward Beecher--in a
matter like this we must have something more
than his averments. This more particularly,
when we hive the evidence of Samuel
.Wilkes0n that these averments arose from a
sense of anger and fancied wrong when we
have the reluctant evidence of Mr.. Bowen that
Mr.. Illton was not incapable of writing a
menaclng letter to Mr.. Beecher-a letter which
would have been the subject of an Indictment
had it reached an intelligent Grand jury
simply to minister to the business interests of
Mr.. Bowen as the proprietor of a rival newspa-
per. 1t may be ungracious to recall these cir
cumstances now, and We would not, perhaps,
were it not that we were dealing with such a
mar as Mr.. Beecher.
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