The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-06-02

reputable men for fear of public caumpy.
1t was not desirable for it to appear that the
case was put to Bowen you pay or pablfsh,
and therefore they represented that Bowen had
no defence against the claim. Therefore IL
was necessary to 60 into matter disagreeable
to them all, and what appeared. Why, that
this school girl was 10 and was twice as large
as Mrs. Tilton, and then his conduct in the
room and shamelessness in disclosing it might
have made no impression on the jury but the
plaintiff would give all his five months testi-
mony for any testimony of one Journey by
Beecher and Mrs. Tilton and his lying half
dressed in the same bed with her reading Mil
ton. Now perhaps there was nothing in it and
counsel made no serious Imputation on this
Young girl, but he put it to the jury that the
circumstances justified the rumors and TiltOn's
cath on the subject showed him unworthy OF
belief.
en-. Mr.. Evarts said The letter is written and
delivered to messenger, and now Bowen has
Tilton. 1t he hasn't got Beecher he got over
Tilton's signature bold blackmaiing letter.
1t was an open letter, and Tilton says it was
their Joint work, but although the distance to
Beechers house is Short on the way it became
a sealed letter. 1t is presented to Beecher,
who says, "The man mrst be mad" and Bow
en- perceives no self consciousness there. He
knew Beecher was unprepared; that it was an
arrogant grave, deliberate challenge to him for
reasons known to himself, and which, if they
existed, would have brought confusion, tremor
and perp.exty. If you knew you had been
living in adultery sixteen months with Theo-
dore Tilton's wife, and some one brought you a
letter of that character, would it not have made
some impression on you? There is not the
slightest hint that this long guilt had been
known to the injured husband, yet Bowen,
who had been retailing to Tilton Beechers
profligacy and seized on T.'s story of attempt
ed profligacy, studied Beecher's face as he read
that letter and there was nothing in tAe letter
to make This color come or 60, no confusion.
Beecher told his story, and then when Bowen
came on the stand defence watched to see if he
would give different complexion to the con-
versation, whether it would show tremor and
anxiety on Beecher's part. Bowen, who had
closed the letter, to be able to say, 81 don't
know anything about il" thus taking care to
keep his precious head away from the lions
jaws, was not going to put it into the lions
to move Beecher to talk about that letter, and
friend or Otherwise Gould Beecher only
have heard the conversation between Bowen
and Tilton about him before. Bowen, who had
been so sensitive about his honor an hour be-
fore that he could only suggest letter to Beech
er and that he would back up Tilton, is in the
lions den, and when the lion asks him, How
do you come here, is it as friend" "Oh yes.
Beechar says Bowen began to grow more and
more friendly, and Bowen says he didn't grow
because his friendship was even and invarable
from first to last. Those conspirators, Moul-
ton and Titon, Bowen and Triton, acted as If
they thought when they were together that no
ear could ever hear them and that no moral
power governed the world. 1t corroborates the
strength and accuracy CT Beecher's memory
that his narrative of what took place at that
interview is so similar to BOwens.
Counsel referred to the discrepancy as to
where that interview took place. The main
point, however, was that Beecher didn't cafe
that (snapping his fngers) about the letter, and
Bowen came back to his house rubbing his
hands again, fguratively, as having got good
grounds for discharglng Tilton, and ne says TO
Dr. EgglestoH, "Beecher is delighted that Til
ton is discharged, and he is your friend and my
friend, and he has been telling me horrible
stories about Tilton." Counsel put it to the
jury whether the relations of paramour and
mistress could exist for IS months between per-
sons moving Ia such social and religious circles
as Mr. Beecher and Mr.. Tlton, aud then come
to the husbands knowledge by the Wife's con-
fessiou, and leave the paramour to learn the
discovery from somebody else, and that some
body else the injured husband.
If she was guilty and confessed to her bus
band and then deserted him, would she go to
her paramour and pastor and would he turn,
her over to his wfe?-this matron (indlcating
Mrs Beecher) who makes the name OF matron
all the more honorable to her who looked into
Tilton's eyes and Bowen's eyes eleven years
ago and did not encourage them to cross her
threshold. Would Henry Ward Beecher turn
his mistress over to his wife? and would the
shutting up of these two women in private
interview result in Mrs Beecher advising the
separation of that husband and wife,? 1t is
impossible to believe a man would act as
Beecher did when Bowen called on him with
TiltoH's letter if there had been any conscious
ness of guilt. Suppose they try to convict
Beecher on the moral ground that he is an old
offender and cunning.
Is there nothing in saying that men do not
gather grapes from thorns. What better vint-
age was ever poured into the wine watts of the
nation than Henry Ward Beecher poured there
aud is pouring? and yet they would have this
vine thorn, prickly thistle, that every one
approached must have been wounded by. A
life that leads every man and woman to like
him, and every child to trust him, is inconsist-
emit with life OF profigacy. All these mon
strous absurdties that shake our faith in man
and in the lule of God above us, the jury were
called upon to find in order to sustain the tat
tered remnant of oaths of the plaintiff and his
witnesses.
Counsel next came to the first interview be-
tween Beecher and Tilton after December ~,
1870. If any accusation was made ii must
have been made then, and any made must have
No basis but in the Imagination of Tilton.
What did Tilton do as to that interview, He
got something in writing in his wife's writing,
and got it by efforts in her sick room persisted
in day after day against the remonstrance OF
the nurse. Now what would you give to have
that paper 1t was destroyed. Who destroyed
it? Theodore Tilton. Who gave it to him to
destroy? Francis D. Moulton, and they do not
give date but fix it in reference to an event.
They say it was Immediately after the tripar-
tite agreement. And why should Tilton de-
stroy it Immediately after the tripartite agree
ment? for they both swore that there was moth
ing at that interview about destroying papers.
They are condemned out of their own mouth
by their haste to seize an opportunity to de-
stroy that one paper which Beecher would need
more than all the rest, and preserving all the
others.