Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1875-06-04

TIE CHARACTER or MorLToN.
You see how this whole case i made up
Of a fabric of lies interviewer with each
other by ingenious artists. But II has 50
been appointed in the providence Of God
;hat the devices of knayery fail, and none
more sirnaily than the one has in this case
for We have the devices, and they the seek
Ing to transfer the parentage of them 70 an
other lie still trusted Moulton. O how
feeble was the reed on which he leaned.
MoGlton PROCESSES to have been a gentleman
OF manners, culture, education even, of some
literary ability, hoSpitable host, man OF
the world. a member of a large commercial
house. and vet this man gravely tells YOU on
tho night Of the Both Of December. the first
time either he or Beecher crossed each 9TH
er's threshold he and Beecher had a confden-
tial CONDENSATION about Beecher's sexual inter-
course with the wife Of Moulton's friend
again on the 3lSt.again on the lst of January,
when Mr.. Beecher was receiving a multitude
Of New-l ear calls; again on the 81 OF
January, on the 9TH, on the 1th, and 50 run
ming on day after day, week after week, and
month after month, and year after year to
lS74: and in all this time. in all their con-
yersations, the clergyman, apparently clean,
not prosumptively dirty, of good manners,
of rood culture, himself the son Of a clergy
man. the husband of a respectable woman,
"A father. grandfather, walks down from
his house on Columbia Heights to No. IA
Livingston street, and the man who started
a gentleman arrives brute, and immediate
" begins tattling to Frank MoultOn about
his sexual intercourse with Mrs. rilton ; and
by one of those odd fatalities by which Pro
vidence enables honest men To distinguish
between truths and lalsehOods uttered by
rorues. almost in every instance OF his
first report of the conversation
he represents Mr.. Beeeher As saying My
intercourse with Mrs. TiltOn-my sexual in
tercourse with Mrs. Tilton." Now. You will
bear in mind, gentlemen, that during all
this period Mr.. Beecher and Mr.. Moulton
were writing TO each otter-at least Mr..
Beecher supposed Moulton was writing to
him; he was merely copying the letters that
Theodore Tilton wrote through him. But
they had not the cllontery even in one OF
those letters TO utter one word of the crime
of adultery, Of sexual intercourse and,
while these were confidential notes, to he
seen. a. Mr. Bcecher had right to sup
pose, by nobody but the man TO whom they
were sent, vet in all Of them there Is the
language Of a pure, humble, faithful, Chris
tian clergyman, and he is writing Frank
Moulton in the language Of gentleman and
a clergyman but the moment he goes down
to his roof he begins to talk TO him IN Ian
cuace such rs is never heard under res
pectabe roof, even if there are no ladies'.
why. if on that night Henry Ward Beeeher
had confessed adultery, do You think he
would not suppose that Frank Moulton
would believe it withou. his repeating it
again and again and again every time he
went beneath that roof? Why, gentlemen,
wOull two libertines talk together in that
way? And yet this is the story, garnished
by the art of Iilton, and the treaehery of
Moulton. and the skill Of Butler. until at
one period one-hali of mankind believed that
these lies had some truth beneath them,
which shows that, though there is great
power in falsehOod, there is mightler
power in truth. which rises above it. LET
truth and falsehood grapple; who ever knew
truth to come to the worst in free and
open encounter?' to quote once more the
language Of John Milton
This man-Francis D. Moulton-who pro-
fcsses to have believed Henry Ward Beeeher
was an adulterer, hypocrite, and de-
bauchee, liar and a libertine-tlIis man he
/ takes into his own house as Il bosom COM
panion, he tells To his own wife the story
| of Beecher's imfamy, and tells her that he
thinks it will promote her social position ii
( she can only be hail fellow well met with n
clerical debauchec he has Henry Ward
Beecher's portrait taken from the walls OF
! the pretended cuckold, and carried down to
Clinton street and hung in his parlor before
yirtuous woman; in sight of his only boy
to be seen there by Theodore Tilton, who
! looks at the man who dishonored him every
time he enters the room. Nay, more, he
commits this man to the charge Of his wife
( when he must leave, and gives the adulterer
access to her bed-chamber. He permits an