The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-02
Why BEEcHER WROTE MS ssWIsH WAS DEAD
LETTER. 1 = -.

WHY BEECHER WROTE HIS WISH WAS DEAD
LETTER. ~.
But if on this first charge Beecher, fol
lowing the delicate instincts of an honor.
able man, felt himself to be absolutely
without excuse, how must his self re.
proach have been intensified by the add
tional thought now presented to him that
he had been the means of beguiling Mrs.
Tilton into an undue affection for himself,
and thus alternating her from her husband
and destroying the home where that hus.
band might otherwise have found refuge
with his ruined fortunes. If this were so,
and the evidence Of what he had himself
seen caused him in his then excited state
to accept Moulton's statement as true,
there was absolutely nothing but this in
excuse or palliation which he could offer
to his own accusing conscience for the
ottense, namely: that he had uninten-
tionally done wrong; that though he
might have been culpably careless, he had
not been censureably guilty of any
conduct tending to encourage
an illegal affection. But such defense
involved the implication that the lady
had conceived the passion also, without
suggestion or any encouragement or his
part, and he was dcbarred from any such
plea by all the instincts Of gentleman,
as by his genuine respect and affection
for the lady herself. Nor would this
plea, even if he could have induced him
self to make it, have been full defense.
It is the solemn duty of a clergyman to
prevent such disasters from arising out
of his associations with his flock. He is
generally in the fault if he fails to see
and to repress the first symptoms Of
dangerous affection for him on the part
of married woman. This, gentlemen,
is the simple and obvious meaning of that
language in Mr.. Beecher's statement
which has been so many times malicious
ly and dishonesty perverted for
the ends of this great conspiracy. Think
for moment of his situation. A charge
the most terrible that could possibly con.
front man in his position-for it would
be easy to show that under the circum-
stances a charge of impure proposals
would be more difficult to meet than one
of actual adultery. Such charge has
been suddenly sprung upon him, like
a thunder clap from clear sky. not
from a gasconade and harlequin who
orders him out of Brooklyn at the muzzle
of shot or commercial note, but on a
paper signed by lady, his friend, his
child almost, one whom he knew to be,
when in her normal condition, pure and
good and truthful. How stunning the
surprise, how terrible the compl:ca-
ton. Is it possible she can have con-
sented to snch an accusation? If so,
what d;abolical Vaccination had led to
it, and what must be the final results {?
He has received from her indeed frank
retraction, with fearful expressions of
regret, and a touching account of
the means by which she was driven to
act, but hardly are these conscling words
cold before he is informed of a re
traction. Then is she indeed broken in
health and distracted in mind, and all
these troubles have been brought upon a
family in former years and still so dear
to him, and he, a minister of the gospel,
who has been to these people a father
the man by whose agency all this ruin
has been brought about. When we con-
slider the swift succession Of images pre-
sented to the man who, in addition to his
remorse for the past, had reason to appre.
bend plunge into public conflict with a
jealous husband, and with no other de-
Tense than his solemn word of honor ::
when we consider all this, do we wonder
that Beecher was deeply agitated and
excited man. But this is not all. The
affection she had manifested for him, and
which had destroyed her domestic peace,
had shattered her mind. That this was
fact we have already shown, and that
Beecher was made fully to believe, and Gid
not this afford more satisfactory expla-
nation of her mysterious charge than his
previous SUPP osition that it was extorted
from her by her husband. Nothing was
more natural than that woman whose
mind was shaken by this cause should
imagine that the object Of her love had
selected her affection. Nothing more
natural t. hat in an hour of remorse and
mental distraction that she should con-
TESS her own passion, and assert that she
only loved but had been loved, for where
is woman living who will freely confess
she had been loved without encourage.
ment and without solicitation. This
supposed fact clears up the whole mys.
terry, explains the whole disaster to the
family, and relieves the husband
rom all suspicion of conspi-
racy sagainst the pastor himself. It
made his defence impossible. so long as
the accusation brought against him was
not coarse or vulgar in its terms. He
was not free from faults. His own con-
science condemned him. All through he
we'll knew that he had never said an i'm.
proper word nor offered an improper
caress. yet he could not deny the charge
of having beguiled the woman's affection
without imputing to her the indelicacy
of forcing her affections upon him in
th0urht This is what hn cold s.bo