The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-03


we doubt if there is any one cruel enough to
wish it continued rather than ended, even in
this unrounded fashion. None can withhold
his mental congratulation from the sOrely
tried jurymen that they are at last discharged
| from their painful onerous, thankless and un-
paid duty, nor fail to sympathze with them in
their experience of the practical tyranny of
| judicial system that takes dozen honest men
from their daily vocations and confiscates
six months of their lives to determine the dis
putes and differences of people in whom they
have little or no direct interest. Out of re-
gard to the jurymen, therefore-the really
innocent sufferers in the case-all will rejoice
that the trial is over. In consideration OF tue
undetermined issue left, however, there will
be other views. Annoyance will of course,
be widely felt and expressed that this jury
has been unable to agree, for the public is
pleased with positive results; but let us do the
/ jury the justice to say that their disagreement
is an evidence OF the fairness with which they
! have been drawn from the community and re-
/ feet its state of mind. No subject ever dis
cussed by the people at large brought up diff
I
this one In the cars, on the steamboats,, in
the hotels, in the domestic oircle-wherever
men meet and chat whether in circles of
three or twenty-opposite views were always
taken on the merits of this case and on the
points as they came up. Our experience has
been never to hear the topic mooted without
the promptest possible appearance, either in
H., & Coo hat
there were people present who thought Mr.
Beecher great sinner and others who
thought him the most grossly maligned and
injured of human creatures. II is at least q
great tribute to great qualities that this man,
good or bad as you may believe HIM, has SO
taken hold upon the heart and affections, the
admiration and sympathies Of the people, that
no little pool of thought can be looked upon
anywhere in the wide limits of this land BUTT
reflects him pleasantly no echo can be
awakened but it has a voice to champion his
cause and declare faith in his purity. Nat
urally it cannot be possible that Mr.. Beecher
should be as widely known as his merits are
debated, and so it is only what all might an
ticipate that there should be people
everywhere ready to be convinced on light
grounds or no grounds at all of his falibility
on that side where men of his temperament
are likely to be fallible; for the censorious,
cynical, not to say malicious element in hui
mainly is apt at times to adopt the guise of a
severe love of truth against distinguished
characters. But that in equally wide limits he
should be sustained with almost the devotion
of personal love is an evidence of the impress
sion he has made on his time and of the gra-
cious and gentle aspect in which he appears
to the people Since there are, therefore,
such deep differences In the way in which the
case is regarded since these differences arise
from the very constitution of the general
mnd-from the fact that no testimony can
shake man like Beecher in some minds, aud
any testimony can shake any man in other
minds-let us give the jury the benefit of the
same consideration given to the people, and
not regard their failure too impatiently
But though the case fails there is in one
sense a result Ii may fairly be said that In an
endeavor spread over one hundred and twenty
days the greatest lawyers of this country
land one Of them, perhaps the acutest living
legal reasoner) have been unable to convince
a jury of twelve commonplace men that
the Plymouth pastor is innocent of the
offence for which he has been on trial. Out
Of all the dust and furry and conflict of this
trial that is the one PLAIN result. Undoubt-
edly it would be more agreeable in the circle
of the many VINO SO naturally admire the
eloquent preacher to have the fact stated the
other way; and, of course, from their point of
view it is true that, despite the equally
extended efforts of lawyers only less capable
than those employed by Mr.. Beecher, the
plaintiff had failed to satisfy the jury that the
offence charged had been committed But
we believe that to reason in accordance with
the presumptions behind the relation of
accuser and accused in case of this nature
the statement Of the result as we have given
it is the fairer of the two Mr.. Beecher is
innocent in the presumption only if the plain
tiff has failed TO make out his case, and if he
were thus innocent in the opinion of the jury
they would have pronounced him not guilty;
but they were unable to give such a verdict
Had the case reached such conclusion Mr.
Beecher must have stood as he did before the
trial, before the charge was made before the
world was taken into the confidence of these
contestants All that had been said and
written against him on the Tilton score would
have been esteemed as rejected-as not
merely doubted, but pronounced false-as
rslegated to the limbo of ISLANDERS that always
arise against the good name of distinguished
men. But that moral rehabilitation could
only flow from the distinct verdict, not from
the failure to find verdict. On the other
hand, Mr.. Beechers case is, as the parties
were placed, the answer to the charge made
/ from the other side, and the result Is the in
dication that the jury esteemed that answer
sufficient to throw doubt on the charges
! sufficient TO discredit them sufficient TO re-