The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1875-09-07
Mr.. Beecher.

Mr.. Beecher guitless Of the crime charg
cd against him, and the result Of the tria
is virtual acquittal. We have no doub
that the prosecution secured all it expect
ed to secure, and was delighted with III
measure Of success. OF this one fac
there can be no doubt, viz, that Mr.
Beechcr is in a better position before the
public than he was when the trial began
His friends are confirmed in their conf
dence in him and his enemies are shaken
while many Of them have been converted
into friends. His lofty influence as q
public teacher of religion is still intact
and the great, all-important fact remains
that those who know him best-who have
known for twenty-five years all his habits
and all his associations, and have been
with him in family, society, and the
chureh--are those who remain most firm
in their faith in him. None but a good
man could have secured and held such
friends as those who have clung to him
through all his troubles. A man capable
of inspiring such affection, such chival.
rous devotion, such loyalty and sacrifice
as have been exhibited by Plymouth
Church toward Mr.. Beecher, can afford
to take some sorrow with his satisfaction
for they furnish the credentials of his
Christian purity. BY the side Of the
word Of such man. and the faith Of such
a people, the adverse testimony that was
given on the trial is too pitilully con.
temptible TO be soberly considered and
we believe that when the American pub
lie shall have retired sufficiently far in
time from this remarkable trial, they will
not only believe this but they will be
ready 10 indorso what Professor Renaud,
Of Heidelberg University, wrote months
ago, as the conviction oil the legal minds
Of Germany, Austria and France, VIZ,
that "the plaintiff had no case whatever.
1t will be remembered that Professor
Renaud went further than this, and said
that it was "a matter OF surprise that,
under the laws of America, he should not
have been nonsuitcd after his evidence
was in"
A year ago, after the statement of
Mr.. Beecher was published. we remarked
concerning the scandal, that ":here never
was any probability in it, We were
eoarsely blamed for this; and now, as
the case has been taken care of, and Mr..
Beecher is neither killed nor harmed,
we recur to this, and propose to say some.
thing more about it. Mr. Beecher will
be quick to learn any lesson that this
matter has in it for him and, meantime,
it will be well for the public to learn
what lesson it bears to them. First,
then we reiterate the statement, that
"there never was any probability in it,"
The credulity with which the charge was
received, the entertainment of it in any
but the worst minds, was shame to the
public and especially to the well-inform.
ed Christian public. That ministers
could be found mean and nasty enough to
leave their business of saving souls for
the purpose of killing Beccher to write
articles and elaborate pamphlets to pre-
judge him. and to spread reports of
shame and sin not proved against him,
is enough to make any proiessedly Chris.
tian man hang his head in shame. For
"there never was any probability in it,"
we say again.
1t is not necessary to claim for Mr.
Beecher any exemption from the tenn.
tations common to men. 1t is Necessary.
simply, to admit that the development of
crime in him would follow the natural
law. For an aged clergyman of great
eminence, Of worldwide renown, of inAu.
ence unexampled, with loyal wife and
loving children in his home, to polute
member of his own church, the wife of
friend to whom he had married her, and
whose children he had baptised, would
be one of the basest deeds IMAGINABLE
1t would be n leap straight from heaven
to hell. In the absence of a process of
demonstrable retrogradation toward it -
it would be utterly improbable. The age
of the man, with its weakened tempta.
tious the spirit of the man, chastencd by
multitudiuous self.crucifxions the con
science Of the man, demonstrably tender,
almost 20 morbidness the piety of the
man, evident in lifelong devotion to
the work Of his Master; the absence OF
all preliminary steps to crime-before
suspected or since proved-all these rem.
der the crime with which he was charged
utterly improbable. Here was a man
who had been climbing for thirty years
climbing up through calumny that could
not fix stain upon him-fghting all the
way for the truth and the right, until he
stood upon the pinnacle of human achieve.
ment, and was recognized the world over
as belonging in the first and highest rank
of men. Was it probable that he would
voluntarily under no youthful stress Of
temptation, but withheld by ten thousand
powerful dissuasives, break from his po.
sition, burst through all that restrained
HIM, and leap for, and land in, the mud
We say again, that it was utterly i'm.
probable, and that the credence given to
the original SANDER was as sepseless as
it was criminally unjust But he icon.
fessed." All ! did he =? Is it the habi,
of men to go around among their friends
confessing their adulteries-to 90 to the
women of their acquaintance doing this
Have people ever thought how utterly in
credible this is-how far down into the
possibilities of stupidity a man must &c
in order to believe ii
Again, there was nothing in the char
acter of the woman whose good name wal
involved in the scandal to mako it prob
able that she would invite the unworthy
approaches OF any man. A pious, pray
ing woman-"white souled," TO use hel
husbands phrase-tenderly devoted t.
her children, and worshiping her hus
band afar of as a superior being, oppress
ed with doubts, and grief, aud cares
looking up to her pastor for direction anC
comfort, and in intimate sympathy will
that pastors wife,-was this the kind o
woman who would probably seek for con
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