THE TILTON-BEECHER TRIAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4396, 22 April 1875, Page 3

THE TILTON-BEECHER TRIAL.

(From the New YorTc Herald, Feb. 20.) We come to the close of another week of the Beecher trial. The reserve imposed upon all journals in dealing with this extraordinary drama is proper. Without this there would be no justice. But there are phases of it that should not be put aside without comment. It is not merely a trial, but a revelation. As Mr. Tilton sues for money which he does not want and will not accept, and as Mr. Beecher defends a reputation which he has survived, there is less danger in public comments than if Mr. Tilton craved money, or Mr. Beecher hoped to leave the presence of Judge Neilson'With the splendor of his old fame. As the Brooklyn Eayle of last evening says ; —“Every person who has come into relief with it has been blackened. The story has acted like a poison wherever introduced. The sentiment of the country has been debauched by it, and those who have been brought out as its once secret holders figure as persons in whom the power of right thinking and right feeling has ceased. Every witness seems to turn up streaked and disfigured. Yesterday we had a man testifying against his sister —testifying to an incident which no brother of ordinary reticence would have ever whispered.” This testimony cannot be read without a shudder, and tho fact that Mr. Tilton found it necessary to his vindication shows the resolute sincerity with which he fights his case. The evidence of Mrs. Moulton closes practically the case for the prosecution. Mr. Tilton has told his story. The worst is now known. How Mr. Beecher can explain this is a serious problem. But that is not for us to suggest, nor even to express any opinion upon the case until Mr. Beecher has had this opportunity. Mr. Tilton’s story is this : —He received from his wife a confession of a crime. He reserved this confession for several months, when he wrote a letter demanding the withdrawal of Mr. Beecher from Brooklyn, and the consequent downfall of his journal and his church. Shortly after he summoned _ Mr. Beecher to his presence and accused him of a crime. He addressed a letter also to Mr. Bowen, reminding him that ho had accused Mr. Beecher of other crimes. Under the pressure of this letter, and from other reasons which were, no doubt, quite subordinate to it, Mr. Bowen paid Mr. Tilton a claim of seven thousand dollars and signed a “covenant” with Mr. Beecher and Mr. Tilton proclaiming peace. This peace continued and Mr. Tilton founded a newspaper. Mr; Beecher, through Mr. Moulton, contributed five thousand dollars to this project. The paper did not succeed, and Mr. Tilton, driven to the -wall by his own embarrassments, by an unfortunate sympathywith Mrs. Woodhull’s strange, mad fancies, and by tho somewhat reckless rhetoric of Dr. Bacon, turned on Mr. Beecher and dragged him before tho world as the destroyer of his

home, his influence, and his fame. The reasons for this opinion are how at last before the world. Mr. Beecher stand,s charged with adultery, perjury, and falsehood, upon the, evidence of Mr. Tiltqp, . Mr;; kfoultop and jffie, latter gentleman’s wife.: Of these'witnesses, Mrs. Moulton is the most circumstantial. Her evidence* is the most important thus far given. Mr. Tilton’s case has been presented with great ability. His council have sue-' ceeded in gaming every point. ■ The most striking discovery is the relation between husband and wife. If anything has been clear to our minds it is that the marriage, condition is one of sacred confidence. Blessed by God, it is the holiest of human associations; No statute, can interfere with it., This is as it should be. But the Brooklyn trial makes another precedent. According to this the husband may go upon the stand and swear his wife into infamy. Her letters and communications become part of his attack. ‘ But the’ wife can say nothing. In other words, any husband can testify to his fears and his suspicions, to statements, confessions, and narratives going to show that he had been wronged. The wife, who knows in her heart whether she is guilty or innocent, can say nothing. We confess we can see no justice in this law unless we accept the theory that a woman is a bit of property who fills certain dependent offices in the marriage relation, whose honor may be sworn away when it pleases her husband without an opportunity of vindicating herself. Who knows better than Mrs. Tilton whether she is guilty or innocent ? Who has more at stake in this issne ? Who has as much? Her name, her woman’s honor, and the happiness of her children are in peril. Mr. Beecher, if he is convicted, loses his place as a Christian minister, while Mr. Tilton becomes “rehabilitated” and Mr. Moulton is “rehabilitated.” It acquitted, then we learn that Mr. Tilton has all this time been under an hallucination. The issue is, therefore, whether Mr. Beecher shall be degraded and Mr. Tilton “ rehabilitated ” and made the same Theodore that he was before Mr. Beecher drove him into biographical literature. But the woman —what is to become of her ? She can say nothing. She must lie down and be trampled in the dust,, that her husband or her pastor may. be freed from stain, , - Another discovery is that it is possible, upon a simple action involving an, issue that, could be decided in a day, for the law to Tun into an endless waste of time. Any dozen shrewd, common-sense, business men, with the machinery of the law at their command, could take Mr. Beecher, Mr. Tilton, and the two or three essential witnesses into a room, and in a day ascertain the truth or falsehood of this charge. But by the. operation of our law weeks pass on, and no one can say what real progress has been made toward the truth. This is not justice. Suppose the Judge or one of the jurymen should die ? Suppose, as many observers; contend, the jury should disagree ? How could Mr. Tilton sustain a new trial? How could the attorneys go through with it ? Any process of justice which . requires weeks to, examine two . witnesses is false. Still another theory worthy of note is the averment of Mr. Tilton. that a wife can be disloyal to her husband and at the same time “pure”, and “white-souled.” This dogma is more dangerous 'to the, peace of society than any propounded by Mrs. Woodhull; and can never he accepted. It is as fantastic as Mr. Tilton’s somewhat celebrated theory that Mi’s. Woodhull used to sit on the' roof of a Murray Hill house and allow the spirit of Demosthenes to speak through her. It is a sad comment upon the state of morals engendered by Plymouth church. But the great scandal goes on. One instructive point'of Mr. Tilton’s evidence should not be overlooked—namely, that he meant to drive Mr. Beecher out of Brooklyn, and that he will execute that purpose. It did not come out in evidence whether Mr. Moulton had any such purpose. But such a declaration is inconsistent with the generosity and impulsive friendliness of Mr. Moulton’s character. If the truth were known it would probably appear that Mr. Moulton is only waiting for a verdict condemning Mr. Beecher to “rehabilitate”-the’ Plymouth pastor. These are all very, very peculiar people. A husband learns that he has been wronged and says nothing about it for months. He swears that her very crime is an evidence of high religious feeling and not inconsistent with purity of soul. A clergyman seduces one lady member of his church, and will not be comforted until he can find another lady to whom he can confess his sin. Moreover, by the law the husband can swear that his wife is an adulteress, and the clergyman can swear that she bears false witness, but the woman can say nothing. A more unjust law than that which opens the mouth of -Mr. Tilton and closes at the same time the lips of his wife cannot be imagined. But the scandal has become so painful and deplorable that its existence is worse than an Egyptian plague, and we should all pray for the end.