The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-05-20
THE SCANDAL.
Summing Up for the Defence.
Beginning of Judge POrter's Ar
gUment.

There was crowdlng IN the corridors OUTSIDE
and the greatest anxiety manifested to gam
admission, but the crowds were not the same,
and there was no rudeness or unseemly
struggling. They were respectable class OF
people who came to- day, ladies and gentle
men who love to hear brilliant and effective
speeches and enjoy them with all the intona-
tons accessories which no report can con-
vey. For about forty minutes before the ar
rival of the judge, every seat being filled, the
| audience discussed in low tones the qualities
| of the leading counsel and the likelihood OF
| the iury arriving at verdict for either side.
| The most disinterested people seem to be en-
| tirely at loss what to expect II not DIS
agreement of the jury.
AT the opening of the court. ex-Judge
Porter began to sum up for the defence. He
set out by speaking of the long duration of
the trial, and Of the dramatic and artistic
skill with which the prosecution was gotten
up. If it rested there, he said, not one juror
but would say that the action never ought to
have been brought. Now however, the jury
will be prepared to say this case stands alone
with the great Tichborne case, as the two
greatest impostures in the history of the
| jurisprudence of the nineteenth century.
He said it was one of the features of the
| old English law that every man was to be
tried by those who knew him. There was in
| favor of the defendant the unanimous voice
| of vicinage, the confidence of wife, children
and grandchildren, and the unbounded conf
dence of 5000 worshippers in Plymouth
church, the merchant princes OF Brooklyn
and New York, the mechanics, artisans and
laborers,-those who look up TO him with
grateful and reverend regard,-even the clus-
tering of hearts of young children, who love
his name and will live to bless his memory
when Jury and counsel are Wondering in the
dust; nay, more, the larger young men and
| women who love and honor him when Tilton
and Moulton's perjury are proclaimed. He
| enjoys moreover the confidence almost unan-
| imously of his professional brethren, not
only of his own denomination but of every
other denomination in Christendom.
False accusations are frequently made. He
who said thousand of years ago, "Thou shalt
not bear false witness against thy neighbor,"
| knew the weakness of men. Envy, malice,
| greed and revenge often seek and breed con-
tagion but in tribunal of justice, innocence is
| secured, truth is strong, next to almighty.
| She needs no strategems. These are shifts
that error resorts to. Erratic men, like Tilton,
cunning men like Moulton, think truth is that
which is boldly asserted and stoutly main
tanned The first obstacle these men accus-
| ing an aged and honored clergyman meet is
the shield which is placed by the legal pre-
| sumption of innocence. That shield meets
| them at every stage of the case that shield is
| a protection which the law extends to every
man and woman not proved to be guilty. The
second obstacle they meet is the
| defendants oath of his innocence,
| the oath of an honest man, of man who
was never foresworn. That oath is absolute
| ly conclusive in his favor, coupled with the
presumption of innocence, unless overborne
by overwhelming evidence of guilt. The
third obstacle they meet is the unblemisked
character and unspotted purity of life of the
woman up to the very day when the accusa-
| ton was made. The fourth is, that Moulton
and Tilton for four years after their pretend
ed knowledge of crime, in private and in
public, by words and actions, orally and
in writing falsifed the accusations
that they now make, and that Tilton slept
with an alleged adulteress as pure and
virtuous woman for years after the alleged
adultery was discovered, and that he and
Moulton maintained with her social and
family relations for these four years. They
meet the sixth obstacle in the fact that they
admit they are here with an oath on their
lips, in bitter and malignant hostility. They
encounter the seventh obstacle in the fact
that they are compelled to swear
that in respect to the transaction
in which they are now accusers they lied for
years. The eighth is that they are overborne
by the testimony of witnesses of the highest
character some of them ladies of pure life,
and some of them leading merchants of New
York and Brooklyn. The ninth is presented
in the incoherent incredibility of fine accusa-
ton in view of the surroundings.
There is an old maxim. that witnesses are
to be weighed. In one scale you have Beech
er and his witnesses, and in the other Hilton
and his witnesses. No number of dishonest
men can by their joint accusations make
truth One honest man speaking what is the
truth will make that impression that the jury
will be able to see and comprehend it, We
judge of the truth by the probability of the
the thing spoken, by the experience of
its ordinary probability of human things.
The counsel then delivered glowing eulogy
of the defendant, and then spoke of the i'm
probability that such man, so well-known
to every one could pursue an amour in
the open day that he should be living a year
and half in debauchery, and it could be car
ried on through year and half; and the
first woman on earth to tell it is Mrs. Tilton,
and the first man she told it to was Theodore
Tilton. That interview was with Henry
Ward Beecher, the last man on earth that
could have been guilty, looking at the proba-
bilities.
With reference to the woman (Mrs. Tilton)
sne was welded twenty years ago to man
whom she loved to idolatry. She was
woman who had many domestic troubles, but
yet was faithful to her husband, faithful to
her children and her church; who labored so
much to bring back her husband to the faith
of his youth. This woman, with all her fee
bleness, had her heart full of gensrous and
noble sentiments. She was woman so pure
that the very man who to strike Beecher
would have sent lance through her heart
stands before the jury with an oath on his
lips, and tells them she is as pure as an
angel. A woman, truthful and intelligent
and loyal in every relation, and
yet without passion, fresh from
the grave of her little child, walking up to
her house and committing adultery! Why,
the thing is monstrous, and yet that was
what the jury had given five months OF their
lives to hear and pass upon. They were told
that this woman, without passion, pure and
devout, sinned with minister of God, who
had invoked the blessing of heaven upon her
marriage; that the woman who could write
such letters as she wrote could be deceived
as to the nature of sin, and the language they
put into his mouth to Sustain, this foul &C.
cusation was that which Tilton used when
he put his hand into Bessie Turner's neck,
when he visited her in her chamber suppose
that monstrous, incredible thing did occur that
the man who had all his life been teaching the
precepts of his master was at three score
transformed into an adulterer and lady pure,
benevolent, generous, faithful to God and her
husband and children and the poor had sinned.
If that occurred, if they were reasonable and
intelligent people he knew he lived in the
blaze of noon day. She knew il, yet they lay
the scene of the crime in house frequente at
all time, frequented by defendants children
and grandchildren, household of purity and
peace. Why the idea that Beecher could be
guilty Of such a crime as taking mistress De
meath his roof where his children and grand
children and servants might see her and for
year and a half committing a crime in his
house and in hers, in two houses where no
door is locked and every servant can look
into every room and ever child has free access
that is monstrous. The story is told that in
these houses for year and a half Henry Ward
Beecher was debauching Mrs. Tilton. In their
monstrous story it was told that when these
God fearing people thought it time to stop,
defendant went down to Mrs. Tilton, took her
out of bed and they knelt down and prayed,
their arms probably encircling each other, and
then the monstrous story is related that Tilton
enquired of Beecher as to the paternity of the
white haired boy, Ralph enquired when this
sacrilege was committed, and defendant ans
wers, why really made no record of trans
actions 'She tells me-" Tilton said, lit
commenced the 10th of October" and defend
1l,v hoIf hot vunG m