Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-01-03
TILrUN.

His ast Card In Answer t. BeeCher-
ReiteratiOn OF the Charges Of Sc
ducliOn and Adultery.
Bee chei's Demand for Particulars Net
Places and pates Of Criminality
GiVeu-Elizaheth'S
Confession.
Theodore Tilton has addressed the fol-
lowing card to tie public concerning the
two trials, the one civil aud the other
criminal, involving his controversy with
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher:
Mr. Beecher's prOnUlcidnljentO in the
Christian Union of this week requires
me to reply as follows:
First-I have charged Rev. Henry
Ward Baecher with seduction and adul-
terry. These charges | have alresdy
proved to the full belief of three-quarters
of the people of this nation, including
almost unanimously the legal prOfes
sion, who, above all other classes, are
most competent to weigh evidence. l
now visit to repeat and sOlemniZe this
proof in a court of law. To this end
two actions are pending in the city court
Of Brooklyn. These are. first, a civil
suit instituted by me against Mr.. Beech
er; second, a criminal Indictment pro-
cured by Mr.. Beecher against me.
The first OF these causes, namely,
mine against him, is continually thwart-
ed by his strange and unexampled de-
mand for catalogue of the particular
dates and places at which he committed
his acts of adultery. What is the prac-
ticsl effect of this demand? The sex
ual intimacy between Mr.. Beecher and
Mrs. Tilton extended according to their
own account of it, from the fall OF 1868,
hrough the whole of 1869, into the
tpring of 1S70-overlapping three sue
cessive years: and yet Mr.. Beecher,
while publicly asking for what he calls
the fullest inves igation, requests me to
dwarf and ahrivel my proof OF this pro-
lOuged criminality to two particular
days, namely, OrtQheE- u end-1Ir1SSS;;
3 limf7ation which his counsel are will
ing to --niaTge, so as TO include an entire
autum0al month, during most of which
Mr.. Beecher was absent from Brooklyn,
sheltered in a safe GliGi beyond an op:
portunity for crime. 1t is an atfrOnt to
ethics and equity, and q miracle impos-
sible, to limit Mr.. BeeCher's fourteen
months of adulteiies to two days. Ac-
cordingly l give the public due notice
that so far as the civil case is concerned
(which is the only one controlled by
me-, l shall go into court on the first
day when | am permitted to carry all
my evidence with me, but never while
must leave nine-tenths of this evidence
outside the door. In other words, to
try Mr.. Beecher for adultery, with the
adultery carefully forbidden to be proved,
is farce at which | am not harlequin
enough to play i'll these sad days.
Second-MeauWhile, since Mr.. Beech
or is seeking to bsffle 1ny case against
him, challenge him to end this by-play
of strife over bill OF particulars by call
ing up his case against me. This he has
power TO do st any moment. What is
this case? On the third of October last,
Mr.. Beecher went before grand jury in
Brooklyn and by his own oath procured
against me an indictment for libel.
This indictment furnishes the best case
to test the real issue between Mr.. Beecher
and me. This real issue is not whether
he shall pay me hundred thousand dol
lars for running my home Though not a
penny of this money would L accept
even if hundred iurles should multiply
it to q milliOn), but simply whether
Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is guilty of
seduction and adultery And whatever
in civ
ton against Mr.. Beecher for damages,
eliciting his ceaseleSs demands for par
ticulars, on the other hand, simplicity
itself is not more simple than MI
Beech er's criminal case against me for
libel, if have sccus him falsely. In
this criminal case shall neither trouble
nim for particulars nor drive him from
the special term to the general, nor drag
him to Albany to the court of appeals,
nor compel him to try his cause with a
mere titbe of his evidence, nor III any
manner impose upon him gOssamer's
weight OF difficulty in Bringing me to
Justice. Moreover, in the criminal case
he will be relieved of his ill-Omened
feals of civil damages; he will have the
attack instead Of the defense; he will be
entitled to the last word TO the jury;
and if have borne false witness against
him he will be able not only to prove
me guilty, but to send me to the peni-
tentiary.
Third am advised and believe that
the cunning managers OF Mr.. Beecher5
safety are seeking to cOntravene the ends
of justice by the following stratagem, to
wit: As soon as Mr.. BeecheT's counsel
shall have restricted me SO as make in
admissible my proofs of his fourteen
mOnths' adultery, thus cutting the very
hearts core out Of the civil suits, their
plan then is to suddenly withdraw the
criminal indictment against me, which
withdrawal is to be explained to the
public by Mr.. Beecher's chief champion
and fellOw-sufferer under a charge of Sc
duction, the editor of the Brooklyn
Eagle, as an act of uneXampIed mag
nanimity shown to me by Mr.. Beecher
By this plan Of Ope atoms / am to be
prevented from trying Mr.. Beecher in
the civil suit; Mr.. Beecher is at the same
time to be saved from the grim necessi-
ty Of trying ME under the criminal in.
dictment; and so, by these two devices,
Mr. Beecher is to escape trial altogether
| respectfully request all fair-minded
persons to unite in determining that
Mr.. Beecher shall not have the moral
support Of the community, either in thus
compelling me to restrict my proof of
his audacities of 1868, 1869, and 1870 to
two days, nor in his scheme of first pro-
Gu ing against me q criminal indictment
for Temporary effect and then withdraw
ing it from subsequent trial.
FOurth-buchlng Mr.. Beeeehr's re-
newed demands for impossible particu-
lars, | here repeat in substance what nv
a0npaol rNraconfad hafOpa the a1,,-k
night ago, in prompt fulfillment of their
pledge TO supply at half hours notice all
the particulars which we possessed.
They are these: That Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher committed acts of adultery with
Mrs. Elizabeth Il. Tilton on the tenth
and seventeenth of October, 1865, and
at intervals thereafter till the spring of
1870; that the said acts were committed
at l24 Columbia street and ia Livings-
Ton street, in the city of BROOKLYN; that
confessions OF these acts were by Mrs.
Tilton on the third OF July, 1870. and at
other times; that similar confessions
were made by Mr.. Beeche- on Decem-
Der so, 1870, and at other times; that the
confessions Of Mrs. Tilton were made to
Mrs. Martha b Bradshaw, Mrs. Emma
h. Moulton, Mrs. Francis ID. Moulton,
myself and others; that the Confessions
VI MI: beScneh were snade TO MIR. and
Mrs Moulton, myselfand others-tosay
nothing of a series of Mr.. Beecher;s Isf-
ters 10y which he makes plain
confessions of his guilt TO ali
who can read aud think. And
| respectfully submit that the state
ment OF particulars, of which the fore
going is digest, aud which was laid by
my counsel before the court and the pub
lie many days ago, is sufficiently ex plic-
it to warrant me in now demanding that
Dir. Beecher shs II either be estOpped by
public opiGien from imposing Ill b card of
restrictions on my evidence in the civil
case, or else that be shall forth with begin
his criminal prosecution Furthermore,
! ask all Just men to join with me i'm