The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-08-02

man decency so insolent, as to be inconcelva-
BILE. Against man who has lived sixty years
of unsullied life full in the public gaze an H.
famous charge is brought There is no direct
evidence of guilt presented; there are only cir.
cumstances and letters to be interpreted. One
Interpretation, which asserts his innocence, is
harmonious with the known character of the
man. and with the recorded facts of expert
ence of men of similar character in all times
and countries. The other theory. that of his
guilt, is necessarily, by the conditions of the
case, so violent and improbable that it involves
an almost unprecedented moral monstroSity,
and adds deeper blackness to the possibilities
OF human guilt. Between those theories the
choice OF every man must be made. 1t is moth
ing to the purpose to say that, if guilty, he is
not the hrSt famous man or preacher who has
fallen in the same way, because, il guilty he is
an unmatched villain, and is not to be classed
with what are called clerical offenders. If
guilty, his conduct throughout shows deprav-
ity so exceptionable as to sequester him from
the human race.
Nor should any collateral conclusions which
may seem to any mind to be established by the
investigation be suffered for a moment to OBJ
scure the fact that Mr.. Beecher has not been
upon trial for credulity, or discretion, or saga.
city, or sentimentality, or wisdom in general.
or for the justice of views that some people
may have entertained of him, but for distinct
and defined crime, of which he is guilty or not
guilty. The ordeal has been tremendous.
He has been made the representative of public
and private hostilities of many kinds, and has
been pursued with an acrimony that showed
the most resolute prejudgment. He has been
preached upon and about with as much pas
sionate warmth as he himself ever preached,
and has been made the text of disquisitions up
on faults of character so many and SO various
that it is astonishing they could be aggregated
in single man. His friends also have been
often, as it seems to us, singularly unwise, and
by the needless excitement of bitter prejudices
have sadly obscured the real and CHASTITY point
at issue. Those who have taken no part in the
contest but that of silent and attentive specta-
tors, and whom the long trial has failed to
persuade that he is guilty, have of course, been
glad that he has not suffered himself to be
driven by any sophistry from the constant and
faithful performance of his public duty, nor
done an act that could be construed into any
admission that the charge was other than the
lie which from the first he affirmed it to be.
His bearing since the day of his open accusa-
tion has been that of man who knew that
the dark shadow in which he moved was that
OF SANDER, not of guilt. The tragedy is that
experience instructs US that such shadow,
once fallen, never wholly passes away. But it
does not change its nature. 1t may remain,
but it is still the shadow of a lie, not of the
truth. He upon whom it has now fallen, and
whom it will henceforth attend, knows that of
him to whom much is given much also is re-
quired of heroic endurance, of lifelong misap-
prehension, of unwearying forgiveness of re-
lentless calumny, of endless patience with sneer-
ing malice and Pharisaic scorn.