Year: 1874

ANh" oNh, Jul uS lOliOW-
ing is the statement of Mrs. Eliza
beth r. Tilton: To pick up anew
the sorrows of the last ten years, the
stings and pains 1 had daily school
ed myself to bury and forgive, makes
this imperative duty, as called forth
by the malicious statement of my
husband, the saddest act of my life.
Besides the thought almost follow.
ing as master contradicts this act of
my pen. My whole life and faith
almost compel me now to stand
aside till God himself delivers. Yet
l see in this wanton act urgent call
and privilege from which l shrink
not, to reply to the twenty-five arti-
.cles OF arraignment. I shall not at,
tempt at present, yet if called upon
to testify to each and all of them I
shall not hesitate to do so. Suffice
if for my purpose now that reply
to one or more of the most glaring
charges touching the feigned sorrow
of my husbands compulsory revela.
tiOns. | solemnly avow that long
before the Woodhull publication l
knew him by insinuation and direct
statement to have repeated to my
very near relatives and friends the
substance of these accusations which
shock the moral sense of the entire
community this day. Many times
when hearing that certain persons
had spoken i'll Of him, he had sent
me to chide them for so doing, and
then and there learned he had been
before me with his calumnies against
myself, so that l was speechless.
His reiteration in his statemenG that
he had persistently striven to hide
SO called facts is utterly false, as his
hatred to Mr.. Beecher has existed
these many years, and the determine
ton to ruin Mr.. Beecher has been
the one aim of his life. Again the
peridy with which the holiest love
wife ever offered has been reckless
ly disclosed in this publication
reaches well nigh to sacrilege, and
added to this, the endeavor, like the
early scandal of Mrs. Woodruff to
make my own words condemn me,
has no parallel. Most conspicuously
my letter, quoting reading Griffith
Gaunt. Had Mr. Tilton read pure
the character of Catherine, be would
have seen that l lifted myself beside
it as near as any human MAY affect
an ideal. But it Was her character,
and not incidents of fiction surround
ing it, to which I referred. Hers
was no sin or criminal act, or
thought. Like her confession with
hers, l had made mine to Mr.. Tilton
in my telling my love to my friends
and pastor one year before, and l
now add that, Notwithstanding all
misrepresentation and anguish of
soul, | owe to my acquaintance and
friendship with Mr.. Beecher, as to
no other human instrumentality, that
encouragement Of my mental life and
that growth toward a divine nature,
which enables me to walk daily in
lively hope of a life beyond the
grave.


The shameless charges in articles
eighteen and nineteen are fearfully
false in each and every particular.
The letter referred to in Tilton's
tenth paragral h was obtained from
me by Importantly, and by represen-
tations that it was necessary for him
to use it in his then pending Difficult.
ties with Mr.. Bowen. l was then
sick, nigh unto death, having suffer-
ed miscarriage only four days be-
fore. l signed whatever he required
without knowing Or understanding
its import. | never have seen and
do not know what statement it con-
tanned. To the charge in that letter
of mine addressed to Mr.. f. Moul-
ton quoted to prove that l had never
desired separation or was advised by
Mr.. or Mrs. Beecher to leave my
husband: | reply that the letter
was Mr.. TlltOn's own. Concocting
it, he induced me to copy and sign
my own act, which, in my weakness
and mistaken thought to help, have
done too often during these unhappy
years. The implication that the
harmony Of our home was unbroken
till Mr.. Beeoher entered it as a fre-
quent guest and friend is lamenta


BILE satire upon the household where
he himself years before laid the cor
ner.stone of free-love and deseorated
its alters up to the time of my de.
parture so that the atmosphere was
not only Goddess but impure for my
children, and in this effort and throe
of agony l would fain lift my daugh-
ters and all womanhood from the
insidious and diabolical teachings of
these latter days. His frequent eff.
forts to prove me insane, weak.mind-
ed, Insignificant, and mean in pres
ence, all rank in the category of
heartlessness, selfishness and false
hood, having its climax in his pres
ent endeavor to convince the world
that am or ever have been unable
to distinguish between innocent and
guilty love. In summing up the
whole matter, l affirm myself before
God to be innocent OF the crimes