The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-07-08
Ths End at Length.

| At last the Beec her trial has come to a
conclusion. Yesterday morning the jury
informed Judge Nelson of the absolute i'm.
possibility of an agreement and were dis
missed to the homes from which they have
been entirely isolated for nearly eight days,
and to their usual avocations, of which they
have known little for six months. This is
the tame and impotent conclusion of a case
which has attracted the most attention o.
any within the memory of men
now living, absorbed the greater por.
ton OF newspaper space from one
end of the continent TO the
other since January, packed closely large
court room for one hundred and twenty-one
days, been visited by English peers and
United States senators, and been preached
til every child in the land was acquainted
with its veriest details. 1t had even gone
step beyond all this, for so long had the suit
lasted that at the end few could be
found of all those who had felt profound
interest in its result at the time OF
its inception and a breathless ex
element during the days of the great
defendants examination, who could be
brought to regard its conclusion with any
other feeling than that of relief. Everything
connected with the trial was of the same gi-
gantic proportions. The defendant was the
greatest pr eacher of his age. The plaintiff
was a man of no mean abilities as aversifier,
orator and journalist. The counsel embraced
the two leading advocates of the American
bar, a cross ex sminer of extraordinary skill |
in the arts OF verbal fence and lawyer with
most singular history as politician and
soldier in other days and under Southern
suns. The witnesses numbered among them |
people of national repute, princely mer-
chants of the metropolis, and well known
men of letters, as well as a motley array OF
spiritualists, free lovers, communists, men
of long hair, and women with queer notions
and queerer manners. The records of the
case would I'LL out an ordinary library.
Finally the jury delibersted over the YER
diet for an unprecedented length of time and
wore themselves out in vain in their efforts |
to avoid what almost every one else felt was
to be the inevitable result.
There is no apparent recompense for all
this prodigious outlay of time, talent and
money, but they go, like the wealth con-
sumed in the great fires of late years, to
swell the volume Of wasted capt.
tai. Still it may be said
that no one would have been
satisfied if the trial had not taken place
and added that no one is now that it has.
The mouse to which the mountains have Civ
en- birth is a very small mouse indeed.
AS for the disagreement little need be said.
1t will do just what verdict would have
done at this stage of the game, and that is
nothing at all. 1t may even be doubted
whether a verdict within half an hour after
the close of Judge Nelson's charge, would
have changed, by hairs breadth, the opin
ion of any one. The people of the United
States are divided into two vast factions,
which are known, in the barbarous iargon OF
the day, as Beecherites and Tiltonisns. The
members OF each had held their views too
long to be shaken by the mere opinion of
twelve men who had no facilities for judy
ing which were superior to their own. The
disagreement will be claimed by the MEM
bers Of each party as a victory for them
selves, by the friends of Mr.. Tilton with
the more reason, since his opponents had
allowed themselves of late to be
deluded into the belief that
there was no case against their
champion. On some accounts, the failure
of the Jury to arrive at q verdict Is even bet
ter than success would have been, always
provided that no movemant is made Tor d
fuew trial. Neither side can exult with
much justice over the other, and perhaps
the greatest blessing that can come out OF
the trial is that the public shall now see and
hear no more of the scandal or any of its
parties. 1t destiny should be allowed to re
main as cause celebre, to be reviewed at
long intervals by the newspapers OF future
generations, and as a source from which the
orators OF our childrea's children shall