Year: 1876

REV. HENRY WARD BKxcHER TO FORM


AN IMPARTIAL TRIBUNAL TO Try THE


QUESTION.


HENRY WARD BEEcHER-Sn: If It
were possible without adding TO the
agony with which conscience will tol.
low you on account Of your unfaithful-
ness, false swearing, and adultery; for
| have not yet grown 80 selfish in seek.
ing vindication for the wrongs you
have done me and mine as 10 forget
your past contrition, or TO believe that
notwithstanding your wickedness you
do not suffer great sorrow on account
Of your crimes; but in justice TO society
which you have outraged; to myself,
whom you have wronged; tony family,
whom you have viifed, | must bring
forward an issue, il possible, to deter
mine whether you ought to be in the
pulpit or | ought TO be in prison. II
Is due to social order, the well being
Of the community, and religion, which
Is brought into contempt, that you
should leave the one or ! 20 into the
other.


You have made preirncc, cvSr since
calling together Tho Investigating Com.
mitteo OF your church, that yoa dc.
sired fair and full investigation Of the
charges against you; and yet, know
ing your guilt, you availed yourself OF
every cxpedient that your willy coun-
sci could suggest or your own ingenuity
devise to evadc impartial inquiry and
suppress the facts.


As one of tho instruments OF such
evasion, TO injure my credit as o wit.
ness, you procured by your own per.
jury an indictment against me for libel
upon yourself in a statement which
your counsel, Benjamin F. Tracy, in
your name, begged me TO withhold
from the Investigating Committee, Of
which he was also counsel, and which
/ only published in vindication of my
self from your false charges, afterward
made TO the same committee. This
Indictment you did not dare TO prose-
cute, but procured, through willing
instrument, against my protest and
relteration of charges against you, TO
be taken out of court by nolle pros
equi.


To endeavor to bring the issue be.
tween us to competent tribunal, l
commenced suit against you for mali
cious prosecution, wherein both the ques-
tions of your adultery and perjury
must be in issue before jury Of your
countrymen. Again evading the in
vestigation Of the facts before the only
tribunal known to the laws of your
country, you avoided the trial by de-
murring to my allegations, and admit
ting that if oil said of your adultery
and perjury were true, yet you were
not bound TO answer my complaint, be-
cause Of the success of your legal trick
in getting rid of the indictment which
you had so falsely and maliciously OBJ
tanned for your purpose of evasion.


You demurred to elude investigation,
notwithstanding from your pulpit you
declared your willingness and desire to
be tried before a tribunal that could
compel witnesses, but not before foxes
and wolves, alluding 70 a proposed
council Of ministers. You were talk
ing then to an audience of your own
choice, and for effect. They thought
you brave, and cheered you to the
echo. They believed you. / did not,
and do not now: but l propose to hold
you, il can, to your own declaration.


Being now desirous only Of submit
ting the issue between us TO compe-
tent and impartial tribunal, and de.
termined that you shall do so, or admit
your intention TO avoid and evade it, 1
submit the following propositions


will so amend my complaint that
the issue shall be, if it is not so offered
now, that by your perjury you caused
me to be indicted for libel for saying
that you were an adulterer, you then
well knowing that what said was
true.


Waving all formalities, will go to
trial upon this issue alone, and I will
agree that all witnesses shall be heard,
without technical objection, who know
anything of any tact tending to prove
that issue, either of their own knowl.
edge or by the statement OF either
party concerned in the double crime,
or any other testimony the tribunal
before which the trial is had shall
choose to hear.


As | do not desire to get any money
from you by my suit, which would
perhaps be paid from the funds OF the
church, which ought to be devoted to
better use than indemnifying you
against the consequences OF your crimes,
will ask no damages whatever, save
tho nominal sum Of one dollar, if the
issue is found in my favor.


| will submit this issue to jury
summoned in the ordinary mode, but
if you say it would be impossible to
got an unprejudiced and intelligent jury
in the usual way, ! will consent that
ex.President Woolsey, of Yale College,
shall select the jury, or i will leave its
selection to Geo. G. Robinson Of Brook
lyn, who was elected deacon Of Ply
mouth Church by acclamation, and
whom you declared on oath on the
witness stand TO be 'ono Of the excel
lent OF the earth" or to any man those
gentlemen can agree upon.


If neither Of these propositions is
satisfactory to you, | viii name man
and you can another, and they two
shall agree upon third to act as rel
cree under rule of the court.


If these offers are objected 10 by
you, | am Wiling that Thomas G.
Sherman and your brother Edward
Beecher, shall select SIX men, and |
will name two men to select six others,
neither you nor l, nor our representa-
ives, to object to the men so chosen,
and the verdict OF the majority to bc
accepted by us as the final decision of
the case.


think my propositions are not open
TO any moral objection, and ! challenge
you once moro TO trial that will set
tic the question whether you ought to
be in the pulpit or | in the penitentiary.


You need not ask why do not go
before the commission contrived by
your partisans in and out Of the Ad-
visory Council. The issue now is, did
you commit perjury, or did | and my
wife commit perjury at the trial in the
City Court2 ] and those dearest TO
me have as deep an interest in the
proper decision Of that question as you
have. If my picked friends were TO
institute tribunal to decide it, you
would properly distrust its impartiality
and refuse to 60 before it, Your pick
cd friends have instituted such tri.
bunal, and | as properly distrust its
impartiality and decline its iudymcnt.