Year: 1876




pute. Following, an examination vas
had in reference to the tripartite agree.
ment and the council adjourned.


Oliver J0nsou's 1871 Letter.


Private and CONFIDENTIAL


No: l28 EAST TWELFTH STREET, Jan.
I, l87l.-Mr. H. G. Bowen My Dear
SIR: 1t is stated in various newspapers
and confirmed by public rumor, that YOU
have expelled Mr.. Tilton from the editor
ship of The Union. At first stubborn
~ refused to believe the reports, but
after hearing them from so many quar-
ters, l begin to think they must be true.
The statement is also passing from lip to
lip that you refuse to fulfil the pecuniary
obligations assumed in the contract with
Mr.. Tilton, assigning as reason for so
doing your conviction that he is an i'm
moral man, etc. have neither seen Mr..
Tllton nor had communication with him
for more than a week, and in writing
you this letter act


WITHOUT HIS KNOWLEDGE,


in simple obedience to my sense of dutv
as his friend and yours. At the lose Of
the interview at your house on Christmas
day. understood you to pledge your
word that you would do nothing RESPECT
ing MIR. Tilton, and would take
no step in the matter without con-
sulting me. On this point am sure
cannot be mistaken. If, therefore, YOU
have done to Tilton what you are report
ed to have done, have you not broken
your promise? Certainly you have not
consulted me on the subject since that
day, except so far as to inform me that
you had heard fresh reports, putting
matters in worse light. I was expect.
ing from day to day that you would seek
my advice. and therefore, when the news
papers reported that you had summarily
dismissed Mr.. Tilton from the Union, I
contradicted the story among my friends,
believing that it could not possibly be
true. In this matter I claim no rights
beyond those which you voluntarily and
without any solicitation on my part con-
ferred upon me. You took me in your
confidence. have never sought even by
an inquiry or hint to elicit from you
anything beyond what you deliberately
chose to communicate. More than once
or twice did you say to me, II shall keep
still; l will not move without your ad.
vice." What has occurred to change
your purpose in this respect, I do not
know. Of course, understand you to
be acting upon the belief. no doubt sin.
cerely entertained, of the charges made
against him, but even upon that assump.
ton, l frankly confess that your course,
if you have done what rumor declares,
seems to me cruel, especially when con-
trasted with your conduct toward an.
other man whom you say you know to
have been extensively guilty of the same
otfenses. 1t seems to me That you should
not have hardened your heart against
Mr.. Tlton, the same week that you paid
high premium for pew in the church
whose pastor you say,


YOU KNOW TO BE AN ADULTERER.
If your action toward Mr.. Tilton pro.
ceeds only from sincere adherence of
the effenses with which he stands charged,
why do you take different course with
your pastore Ifyou would give the one
a chance to recover himself, why not be
equally forbearing to the other! This
l say on the assumption that Mr.. Tilton
is guilty, but do not myself believe that
he is half as guilty as you suppose. In
short, l know that some of the stories
told against him are false, and that ma
lignant persons are on his track with the
intention of bounding him down, and
think you have been to some extent
victim of their machiuation. Do you not
remember saying to me that in all that
you might do in this case you would be
governed by desire to spare Tilton from
exposure and to give him chance to re.
cover himself, if he was wrong? And yet,
l hear people say on your alleged author
ity that he is so bad man that you can
have nothing to do with him. All, Mr..
Bowen, if Mr.. Bcecher is fit to be your
pastor, Mr.. Tilton cannot be unfit to edit
secular journal! You may say that the
one has repented while the other has not,
but Mr.. Beecher, since he confessed to
you, has repeated his ofense. He may
have convinced you that this is not so;
but, if So, you are the victim Of decep- |
ton. You probably know something |
that do not Of the charges against Mr.. |
Tilton, but also know something that |
you do not of the evidence against Mr.. |
Beecher. If he now denies his guilt in |
the matter whero0f he WAs 0cCuSed in