The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-04-20
THE BEEcHER.TILToN STINK REVIVED.

All Gotham and the rest of the scandal.
mongcring world was tremendously stirred up
on the appearance III last Monday mornings
New York Herald of the following letter from
Mrs. Theodore Tilton:
SIR Ira H. Wheeler
MY DEAR SIR: 4 few weeks since, after
LONG months of mental anguish, | told, as
YOU know, a few friends whom | had bitterly
deceived, that the charge brought by my
husband of adultery between myself and
the Rev Henry Ward Beecher was true and
that the lie had lived 50 well the last four
years had become intOlcrabIe To me. That
statement now solcmnly reaiiirm, and leave
the truth with God, to whom also | commit
myself, my children, and all who must suffer.
know full well the explanations that will be
sought by many for this acknowledgment \
desire to return to my husband insanity, NAL
ice; everything save the true and only one
my quickened conscience, and the scpse OF
what is due To the cause of truth and justice.
During all the complications of these years
YOU have been my confidential friend, and
therefore | address this letter to you, au,horiz-
ing and requesting you to secure It's publlca'
ton. ELIZABETH X. TlLTON
brooklyn, April -, 1873"
Ira B. Wheeler, to whom this letter is adj.
dressed, is lawyer, a distant relative Of Mrs
Tilton and has acted as her legal adviser for
the last three or four years in the divorce pro
cccdings between her and Mr. Tilton.
The Huuld containing this extraordinary
confession reached Beecher at Waverly, n. Y,
where he lectured on Monday night, and he
Immediately tclcgraphed to the Hcyold the fol.
loving reply;
ITO the editor of the Herald.
SIR: | confront Mrs. Tilton's confession
with explicit and absolute denial The testi-
mOny of her innocence and mine, which for
four years she has made to hundreds, in pri-
vate and in public, before the court, IN writing
and orally, declare to be true And the allie
cations now made in contradiction of her
uniform, solemn, and unvarying statements
hitherto | utterly deny. | declare her to be
innocent of the great tranSgreSSiOn
HENRY WARD BEECuER.
"Waverly, y. Y, Monday Evg, April 10"
1t Is needless to say that this new confession
of Mrs. Tilton and Beecher's prompt denial
leave the question as to Beecher's guilt pre-
cisely where il had stood for the last tour or
five years 1t is to be borne in mind that this
is by no means Mrs. Tilton's first, or even sec.
ond or third confession Of her guilt She con.
fessed it to her husband at the very beginning
of the great scandal, and at the trial indig.
nantly denied it; again she renewed it at her
husbands house and again Indignantly denied
it when she left his house, and afterwards she
confessed it to her children and Mrs. Stanton,
and as often again denied it,
Indeed the woman seems to have been used
as shuttlecock in the matter for years as she
happened to fall under the control of her hus-
band and his friends or Beecher and his friends
Since she separated from Tilton four years
ago she had been living on an income arising
from $4,000 invested IN her behalf by -four
members Of Plymouth church, by whom also
the rent of the house she and her mother occu.
pied at 22S Madison street, Brooklyn, was pad
For several months past she had evidently
been in frequent communication with her hus.
band and as a token that they were about to
be rcconcied Mr. Tilton gave out a month ago
that his wife would soon make a confession
that would crush Beccher Her Plymouth
church friends seem thereupon to have lost
faith in her and lately stopped her income and
notified her that she must vacate the house in
Brooklyn. The woman confesses that since
receiving this notification she has had two in.
tcrviews with Titon; that he has always sup.
ported her children "sumptuously' and had
expressed a willingness to provide for her, 1t
also appears that over week ago he made ar.
rangements for her boarding temporarily with
her mother and children at Warwick, n. V,
and that Tilton has also engaged passage Tor
Mrs T. and her children to Europe. 1t Is very
easy, thus, for the friends of Beecher to say,
that the price of this fifth, or twenty.tifth Gt
may be- confession is the promise Of Tilton to
provide for her, and that fifth (or twenty-ffth)
indignant Republication of it could quite readily
be purchased at the same price by the other
side Upon the whole, itdon't seem to amount
to enough to justify a new stirring up of the
abominable stencil.