Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1874 — Mr. Moulton Publishes Another Statement. [ARTICLE]

Mr. Moulton Publishes Another Statement.

before the coinmittee by Mr. Tilton; and bow he jutAMr. Tracy—Mr. Beecher’s counsel—acted tosether to this end; but owing SO their inability to prevent the meeting of the committee on the e w t ith r reaard n to statement that & December, WO, Mr. Moulton reitaratesnts assertion that the document wax held h£him and returned to Mr. Tilton after thetnMtStte agreement, to be returned to Mrs. TUton fSTshe mirtit destroy it. Mrs. TiUon’s letter requesting this return is again published. With regard to the interview at the time Mr. Beecher g "wsu h i ssas & ssariK. he asked me: ‘What will you do with it if I ■"us??# foS“,'o*2' ’erence to the ich I always the extremity wtopened-Ms e remark, he ‘Jitt.'cjLt for*lhe With regard to Mr. Beecher’s letter of contrition, Mr. Monlton explains at length the circumstances under which it was written. #e says, as Wfore stated, that it was written out according to the dictation df Mr. Beecher, and that the exact langnage Of Mr. Beecher was used in the letter. lie (Moulton) was not in <the habit of using such language; and could hardly have composed the letter in Question. He says: “I should not toyself have used the phrase * Humble myself before him as I do before my God [’l was nomsed'to that kind of expression; nofTbephrase ‘Toward the poor child mng there praying with folded hand*. I never caned a woman of fteiriv forty years old a ‘ gpor child in my life. I did not know that she was ‘ lying anywhere with folded hands. Beecher did, because be; says in his statement to tha, corMhittee ’that ‘She lay there, white ah ma&le, like a statue of the Old World, p#hT'SlF palm,' like one praying,’ thus r«P«@TOg four years afterward almost the idea&sfi&orSee and picture Which he conveyed to me, and'-which I put in the * letter erf contrition.’ r-gpuJJ.not have use«*tha phrase ‘ I have her because I did not know whether he Sad it or not, except as he told me, awdif I had Anted upon my belief in the matter I should he had not. This letter, after being preparedrby me, was readOSy him"before he pat his signature to it. The explanation pfflPfey Beecher in his statement that ‘this paper was a mere memorandum of points to be nseKhy bint (me) in setting forth My (his) feelings; * * * but "they were put into the sentences by him (me) expressed as he (I) understood them, not as my (his} words, but as hints of my (his) figures and letters, to be used by him mi conversing with Tjlton. * * * "iris' a mere string of hints, Tastily made by an unpracticed writer, as helps to his memory in Representing to Mr. Tilton how I felt toward his family-’ AH this explanation is a mere after-thOTight-made hP we purpose of explanation merely. Beechhr.always treated this letter as his own |n all the after conversations upon the subject with (Mr. Samuel Wilkeson, Mr. Beecher’s friend.*' In a Bxibfieqjient conversation with Mr. Monlton Mr. Beechar had alluded to; the ddcumeuL in question ae-hl* (Beecher’s) letter to Mr. Tilton, and asked M*. M.: “ Can’t we hit upon some plan to break the force of my letter to Tilton?” etc. : , Jr. . M Mr. Moulton again brings forward his proofs that Mr. Beetmer and Mrs. Tilton renewed their intimacy after the cdnfesSidn was made, and after both had given assurance to i’ilton that they would nothneet exoept through him, Afteragain printing Mrs. TUSbtra note to Mr. Beecher, conciudihg with the expression “ Of course, I shouldlike to share With yon my joy,”. Mr. Jf&dlton pro. dncet ’Shoffier lettSTfrom Mr. Beecher to Mrs. Tilton, which is-as follows;

“ The bless idg of God you. Everrl spark of light and warmth in’ your own house will a sun In my dwelling. Your notelproite like spring (sic) upon winter, and gave wfepß inwardjebaund toward life. No one can God. threap what a drears wflderness I have wandered. There was MoanVlginai; there was the barren waste, and there wasthe alternation of hope and despair that marked the pilgrimage of old. If only it might lead to the promised land! . Dr, like Moses, shall I die on the bottler? Your hope and eftarage are alike amazing. Could God inspire you to restore and rebuild at home, and, while doing it, to cheer and sustain outside of it another who sorely needs help in hdartand spirit, it will prove a life so noble ae fewmea. able to live, and in ‘another world the emancipated soui may irtter thanks. If it would be of comfort to you now and then to send me a letter of true inwardness (sic), the outcome of vour inner life, it would be safe, for I am now at home here with my sister, and it is permitted to yod,(sic) and will be an exceeding refrlshment to me, for your heart-experi; ehcdl are often like "bread from heaven to the hungry. God has enriched your moral nature — mav not others partake?” “This.” says Mr. Moulton, "ism Mr. Beecher’s handwriting, but without direction or signature; but the note inclosed in pencil tells us the direction of it,' as the words ‘ Your note broke like spring upon winter’ tell also to what note it was in reply, because that quotes the words of Mrs. Tilton, * Spring has come,’ asking him to * share her joyr’ she being ‘all right’ now. The inclosure is 6n k slip of paper marked * O,’ but which" I ’do not f reduce here, reserving it for . presentation before another tribunal. Was there ever a plainer cate ofbkneWal orintimaey, to say the least, than this? Mark also, amid the. prayers to God contained in the longer note. Beecher’s suggestion that Elizabeth can write him now with safety, because he is living at home with his sister, i. e., his wife is away.” Mr. Moulton: then gives in detail Beecher’s alleged confessions .to him of his adnlterywith Mrs. Tuton. He sayslt has been said that, being a man of ’the world, I drew inferences from his (Beedber’s) pure and unguarded expressions which they did not authorize, and therefore as to theseMotters I have left inferences to be drawn by those who read them in a light which dates and factwhave now thrown upon them. But to answer this criticism in another direction, and to show the impossibility that I could be mistaken, not seeking to shelter myself under any supposed misunderstanding, but taking all the burden of veracity betwefen Beecher, Tilton and myself, f now proceed to give each portions as are necessqgy of some few of the conversations in which Beecher made confession of adulteiy. I have before stated that the first confession was made on the night I went for the ‘ retraction’ of Mrs. Ttitoa;-raat I there told him: ‘Mr. Beecher, ypu have had criminal intercourse with Mrs. Tilton, and yon have done great injury to TUfon otherwise,’ and I say further in my published statement ‘that he confessed and denied not, bnt confessed,’ as he did not deny this charge so explicitly made by me. Whatever inferences I have made from his words at other times he certainly could not have mistaken mine at this* time. When speaking of the relations of man and woman. ‘ criminal intercourse’ has hat one literal meaning, even to -clergymen. It, however, seems necessary r that 1 should go still further, which I do, and I say that on that evening he confessed to me his relations with Mrs. Tilto* in language so vivid that I could not possibly mistake or forget it. He said: ‘My acts of intercourse with that woman were as natural and sincere in the impression of mv love for her as the words of endearment which I addressed to her. There seemed to be nothing in what we did together that I could not justify to myself cm the ground of ouflove for each other, and 1 think God will not blame me for my acts with her. I know that at present it would be utterly impossible for me to testify myself before man.” Mr. Moulton then calls attention to the assertion made in his former statement that in the presence of himself and another witness, whom he stills feels reluctant to bring forward (of course, not Mr, Tilton), both Mrs. Tilton and Mr. Beecher admitted, in language not to be mistaken, the truth of the charges against them, and asked, advice as to, the course to be taken by them. ’-a With regard to the question of blackmail, Mr. Moulton says it has never beenrred to him that the procedure by which money was obtained from Mr. Beecher was an extortion. He (Monlton) himself, his business partners and others were subscribing money toward sustaining the Golden Age , and he had no thought that Beecher was doing anything other and different from what the rest were doing, except that he (Beecher) had. perhaps, an additional personal motive-to sustain an enterprise whidßaif favored and the results of which were looked npon as an honor to journalism. A careful examination of Mi? Beecher’s statement will show that the suggested payment of $5,000 first came to him (Moulton) *fre nr Mr. Beecber, and was not made by Mr. Monlton to Mr. Beecher. He (Moulton) tola Mr. Beecher Mr. Tilton would not receive the money ff he knew it came from Mr. B„ and therefore it was arranged between Jthem that it should be given taTilton sumsas coming »(Mrs. Tilton’s mother) to Mr. Beecher, in which she addresses him as her son and signs herself, “Mother,” is given in full. After stating her pecuniary difficulties, she writes: “Do come and see me. I will promise that the ‘ secret of her life,’ as she calls it, shall not be mentioned. I know it’s hard to bring it np, as yon must have suffered intenselv, and-we ail will, I fear, until released by death. -Bo yon pray for me? If not, pray do. 'I never felt more rebellions than now; more need of God’s and human help. Do yon know I think it strange yon should ask me te call you ‘ son ?’ I have told darling I felt If you could, in safety to yourself and all concerned, you would be to- me all this endearing name. Am I mistaken f” Mr.Moulton then says: “This letter bears date .Oct. 24. I fix the date to be in 1871, because it was at that time that -Mrs.Morse had the house, for which she was paying sl,soQrent, and in the time when Tilton was allowing his wife S4O per week for household expenses.- This letter was given to me by Beecher as written by Mrs. Morse, Elizabeth’s mother, and is a call on him for money, which may ex-

bJpaJi^r^^ e^me hi It^»theoLt aSaf n °H to o’btaiii advantage &?onf*elf by aßingthe unfortunate situation of another is blackmail, then Beecher himself was a blackmailer. He protected himself from Bowen brnstog Tilton to but Bowen's that Moulton had in charge, and thereal point was to avoid lince leading member of his church, and rest com tent until his innocence waa folly and cleariy esbrutal offense with as much delicacy as their wickedness would allow, but that his very reticence had been made the ground of accusation that he had mistaken the purport of what Mr. Bescber had said, or that if he were telling the former statement; and if someone published which ought not to be ..jpitbllshed, tt was not his fault, bgt a necessity made by Beecher and fqr Ms-(Moulton’s) own xjsidlcv lion. ExacMr how the matter came about was as -m+toWlf-He showed to Mr. Beecher the letter of Tilton to Bowen, bearing date Jan. 1,1871, containing the charges alleged to have been made by Bowen in the presence of Tilton and Oliver Johnson, and Beecher deemed it necessary to tell Monlton the truth concerning his adultery with the woman to whom he supposed Bowen referred, Mr. Moulton here gives Beecher’s con. session or narrative of tge- afhtr, which, in. the interest of decency, is ftfire suppressed. He suggested that unless Beecher obtained a retraction of the story from the wwmattbe would tale day find himself a* Bowen’s mercy. Such a paper he obtained on the 10th of January, 1871, hot It* was not so dkect or satisfactory as the retraction he obtained non Mrs. Tilton. Beecher denied the allegation of rape, but did not deny the fact of adultery. Mr. Moulton also stated that that connection and intimacy was still contHwed, as he believed, but declines to give either hername or copies of her letters in his hand#, because he did not wish needlessly to involve a reputation which had thus far escaped public mention by any of the parties to the controversy. The last episode of crime -had been related to him in the presence of witnesses. , ■ iUffii In relation to Mr. Beecher’s proposed ffaicide, Mr. Monlton states that Mr. Beecher told him, and showed to another in his presence, that he had within reach in bis own study a poison which he would takq, if ever the story of his crinte with Mrs. Tilton should become public. He told him of a visit he had madd to a photographer’s gallery, when he learned that one of the employes had mistaken a glasa-of poison for a glass of water, and, having taken and drank it, bad falleir dead. With scarcely time to drop the glass. Mr. Beecher said that was what be wanted for himself, and, under the plea of making some photographic experiments, he procured some of this same poison-from the photographer, which he told Monlton ne intended to hep if an intimation of his crime should be made, and then he said “ it would he simply reported that Beecher died of apoplexy, but God and you and I will know what caused my death,” If those who blamed.. Monlton - could have - looked into Mr. Bdecher’s grief-stricken face and listened to the tones of his. voice* in great emergencies, in which he said there was no refuge for him but in death, they “Would have felt impelled to do as gerfferou3 and open-hearted a service as he (Moulton) had-practice# toward him. ft wouM bavh taken a harder heart than his, being witness of Mr. Beecher’s sorrows, not to forget his sins. i . - The remainder of the long statement is only interesting—-not important—personal matters.