Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-06-11

put it to you that it is a moral improba-
biiity of the highest grade that Theodore
lIlton has suffered this disgrace in his lami-
ly. lie Is a man of large intelligence he is
man of active doubts and fears and sus-
Yicions be is a man not inexpert in the
wicked ways OF the world he had had
year after year, an Incubation into his mind
that Mr. Beecher was a dangerous visitor in
the families Of pure-minded women OF Brook
lyn and he has encouraged, has observed
has been pleased with the visits of Mr.
Bcecher lie has seen his wife by night and
by day he has seen her in that privacy
which the law says that even the great in
terest- OF justice never shall invade. He
has seen into her soul he has looked into
her eyes, with love or hate. with suspicion
or fear. during these many years of alleged
seduction and adultery. lie has watched
Mr.. Beecher in his comings in and his 90
ingS out he has talked in restaurants about
his want Of faith in Beecher, and has set
other people to watching and 10 suspecting
and now IN two households such as Mr..
Beecher'S and Mr.. Iiton's, in two houses
such as theirs, in the relations possibly more
public than when covered by these roofs,
there has not come one fact in evidence
against them. and there did not enter one
doubt. one thought, one fear in Theodore
Tilton's mind or heart. Well, | do not
think you viii te able to find anything, for
if he cogld not, nobody else could. | don I
believe it. Why, gentlemen, consider what
it Is to have had such fierce yindictiye,
perseyeriug, intrepid, audacious hunt OF
trained hunters after man, then TO see the
petty, trivial, contemplate, external eyi-
dence produced as proof positive OF guilt.
GHE THEORY on the Plaintiff.
The theory Of the plaintiff is this That
up to the breaking out of this matter of diff
ference between him and Mr.. Beecher OF up
to date of some six months preceding, his
wife and he held such relations TO each other
and to their children and to the family a.
were properly described as an Ideally happy
home that the only intrusion, the only
rupture, the only discord, the only diss0n-
ance, came from the intrusion of the seduc-
er ; that under circumstances of grave i'm
port in the affairs of Mr.. Tilton unconnect-
ed with this disturbance of domestic happi-
ness-l mean the disasters which ne came to
As between him and his employer, which
have no relation 10 the Intervention of Mr..
Beecher-in connection with that it became
suitable, in protection Of the good name OF
his wife and the fair name of his children
that he should come INTO relations with Mr..
Beecner to guard against the casualty OF
controversy between Mr.. Beecher and Mr.
Bowen, insensibly and fautlessly drawing
into it this aspersion and this disgrace to his
fla+ fkavaurnn oil tho al
all the interviews was to secure that result
of secrecy. So you have thereafter, when
the secret is known to these persons, on their
own theory, the most ponderous system Of
machinery to keep it secret, the most extern
sive and elaborate reduction of it TO writing
apology and defense, accusation and argu-
ment and reasoning, all put into the atiirna-
tive form of writing, and then Il judiciOus
communication by Mr.. Tilton to handful of
friends, those who he thought ought to know
about 1t, in order TO secure the secret that
then there came to be a necessity OF sup
pressing, of humoring, to the result of pre-
vention of any hostile PRONUNCIATION of this
secret, in the interest OF the opposite opin-
ions OF society and religion-that then there
came to be prolonged, manifold, intricate
series of condolences, plots. falsehoods, to
keep the secret that had thus been commu-
nicated, and had run down the streets like
wafer; that now there came TO be the ne
cessity of a compulsory association by Mr..
Tilton, by Mr.. Moulton as his coadjutor, and
by Mrs. Moulton as his wife, with persons
whose association, as it runs through the
evidence as produced by the plaintiff, is de-
nounced by him and his witnesses as dis
creditable in very high degree that that
policy had failed, and there came an out
burst of the Woodruff and threatened pro-
mitigation in the end Of 1872 that then it
was necessary to have new devices, and new
conferences to put the secret back again
where it was before the enginery for its sa;
preston, ending in the result Of its explo-
sion, was thus constructed that this sup
preston as it approached success was again
frustrated, and, finally, duty compelled Mr..
Tilton to reverse the policy of saving his
wife and children, and commence their de-
struction +; that all the while Mr.. Beecher,
as he ran along as party to these conf
dences, these conferences, and these plans,
was leading life of action and conduct