MR BEECHER'S EXPLANATION.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1887, 5 November 1874, Page 3

MR BEECHER'S EXPLANATION.

In Mr Beecher's statement before the Plymouth Church Investigating Committee, Thursday, after some introductory remarks, in which he refers to his published, statement and renews his absolute denial of all guilty couduct or suggestion toward Mrs Tilton, he takes up his narrative of his intercourse with the Tilton family. He points out that it was very in'.imate; that it became so on Mr Tilton's urgent invitation; that it covered, in some degree, intervals of Mr Tilton's absence from home, aud that it was at these intervals, also, on Mr Tilton's cordial invitation. He expresses a high appreciation of the simplicity and purify of Mrs Tilton's character, and he describes as full of innocent pleasure the friendship he formed with her. In 1866, in consequence of bitter attacks by Tilton in the Independent on Mr Beecher's political course, there was some coolness between them, but no rupture, and the intimacy was continued until the yearlß7o. About that time some articles of Mr Tilton in the Independent on the marriage relation, obtained for him a great deal of severe criticism, which caused Bowen, the proprietor, to contemplate the advisability of removing him. Tilton, at this time,-. 1 occasionally expressed the feeling that Mr Beecher did not help hini in this trouble as he might, and "that Mr Beecher's friends were at the Bottom of the attacks made on him. In the latter part of 1870 Mr Beecher was called on by a young woman, a member of Tilton's household, who asked him to come to see Mrs Tilton, who had left her husband and was theu with her mother. The young woman also stated to Mr Beecher that Tilton had assailed her virtue. Mr Beecher, complying with the request, heard from Mrs Tilton a tale of ill-treatment and bad conduct by her husband, but no .word that jealousy of Mr Beecher was involved in it. He brought his wife to the counsel, and between them they agreed that Mrs Tilton might better not return to her husband. On the 27th of December, Bowen came to Mr Beecher bearing a summons from Mr Tilton that he (vir Beecher) should leave the pulpit and the City of Brooklyn, " for reasons explicitly known to him." Mr Beecher was amazed, and pronounced Tilton crazy. In the interview that followed Bowen related to Mr Beecher many stories of Tilton's immorality, and convinced him of their truth. On the strength of these, and shocked by Tilton's demand for resignation, Mr Beecher advised Bowen to dismiss lilton from his employ. On thinking this over he felt some remorse for his conduct, and accused himself of having helped the ruin of a friend whom he may have wrongfully believed guilty of immorality, and who had long been loved by him. While in this frame of mind, he was visited by MiFrank Moulton, who told him that he must come immediately to see Tilton. He went, and when Moulton had shut them up together, Tilton accused Mr Beecher of having betrayed his friendship, helped on his business ruin, alienated his wife's affections, undertaken to break up his home, and, finally, of having made improper advances to Mrs Tilton, and Mr Tilton produced what he alleged to be a copy—the only one existing, the original having been destroyed—of a confession to this effect by Mrs Tilton. He then tore up this paper, and bade Mr Beecher go to Mrs '1 ilton, at her home. Mr Beecher denies that there was any accusation by Mr Tilton of anything worse than improper advances. Utterly bewildered, he left the house, accompanied by Mr Moulton; saw Mrs Tilton, then vory ill, in her room; obtained from her an admission that she had accused him to her husband of improper conduct; rebuked her; and demanded and received a written retraction. He then went back to Mr Moulton's house, said little, and returned to his home, i bis was on the 30th of December. The next day he was again visited by Moulton, who told him that Tilton knew of the retraction ; that it had been itself in its turn retracted by Mrs Tilton, and that there was no hope of peace or reconciliation but by the surrender of this document. At this interviewMr Moulton showed Mr Beecher a pistol, but does not . seem •to have threatened him with it. Mr Beecher surrendered the retraction made by Mrs Tilton. Subsequent to Mr Moulton's interview and recovery of Mrs Tilton's retraction, Mr Beecher says that he was very much confused and excited by the position in which he found himself. He attributed Mrs Tilton's conduct to undue affection for him. For this he blamed himself and his want of prudence and foresight. " I had a profound feeling," he says, " that I could bear any blame, and take auy punishment, if that poor child could only merge from this cloud and be put back into the happiness from which I had been, if not the cause, yet the occasion of withdrawing her." At this juncture Mr Moulton came again to see him, and succeeded in persuading him that the accusations against Mr Tilton, on which he had based his advice as to a separation and as to his dismissal by Bowen, were false. This point was pressed, until, says Mr Beecher, " I felt convicted of slander in its meanest form." He became the prey of intense remorse" My old fellow-worker had been dispossessed of his eminent place and influence, and I had counselled it. His family had well, nigh been broken up, and I had advised it. His wife had.been long sick and broken in health and body, and I, as I fully believed, had been the cause of all, by continuing that blind heedlessness and friendship which had beguiled her heart, and had roused her husband into a fury of jealousy." He expressed his feelings in the strongest mauner, and Mr Moulton, who claimed to bo seeking an opportunity to bring about a reconciliation, took a memorandum of his language that ho might communicate it to Mr Tilton. This was the origin of what is kuown as Mr Beecher's " confession." lie signod at the bottom a few words stating that the paper was given iu trust to Moulton, but he did not read the paper or hear it read.

We shall not pursue in detail the remainder of Mr Beecher's remarkable statement. We have heretofore pointed out that the letters quoted by Mr Tilton as from Mr Beecher were the only evidence agaiust him, and that they indicated some offeuse toward Mr Tilton, and some cause of anguish and remorse on Mr Betclter's part, that required explanation. Mr Beecher declares tno offence to have been permitting Mrs Tilton to fall in love with him on the one haud, and on the other the advico —based, as he thought when the letters were written, on error— in favour of a separation and in favour of the dismissal of l'iltou by Bowen. Added to this cause of anxiety was subsequently tho dread that Mr 'J'ilton might publicly renew the charge of" improper advances," and ruin him. But Mr Beecher denies, by implication, that he ever cnntemplaleol suicide, and says that his allusions to ex* peeling and desiring death were based on symptoms apoplexy ftud piu'ulps,

which he often had, and which ha accustomed him to regard death as a ll always open door through which to escape from his cares and trouble. This is Mr Beecher's explanation. It does not account for his conduct in a way that men of the world will generally accept as conclusive. It discloses a curious amount of moral cowardice and a great deal of irrational behaviour. It reveals Mr Beecher's character as entirely different from what it has generally beeu supposed to be. But wo believe the impression will be general that, conceding Mr Beecher's character to be what he paints it, his story is not inconsistent with innocence.—Few YorJc Times, August 19.