Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1874 — Mr. Moulton Makes Another Statement. [ARTICLE]

Mr. Moulton Makes Another Statement.

The New York Graphic at the 11th contains another lengthy statement by Mr. Frank I). Monlton relative.to the charges against Mr. Beecher and in reply to the explanation made by the latter before the Plymouth Investigating Committee. Mr. Moulton recounts in detail how strenuously he labored to prevent the exposure being made before the committee by Mr. Tilton; and how he and Mr. Tracy—Mr. Beecher’s counsel—acted together to this end; but owing to their inability to prevent the meeting of the committee on the appointed evening their effort was a failure—Mr. Tilton having promised that if the committee was not prepared to receive his statement on that fmrtlculur evening he would defer making it, at east for the time being. With regard to Mr. Beecher’s statement that the only copy of Mrs. Tilton’s confession was torn in pieces in his own presence on the night of the 80th of December, 1870, Mr. Moulton reiterates his assertion that the document was held by him and returned to Mr. Tilton after the tripartite agreement, to be returned to Mrs. Tilton that she might destroy it. Mrs. Tilton’s letter requesting thiß return is again published. With regard to the interview at the time Mr. Beecher gave up the confession Mr. Moulton sayß: “When I demanded the retraction from him, he asked me: * What will yon do with it if I give it up?’ I answered: * I will keep it as I keep the confession, if you act honorably. I will protect it with my life, as I would protect the other with niy life.' I may be allowed to say here that at this remark I made reference to the pistol in my overcoat pocket, which I always carried in the night, as emphasizing the extremity of my defense of the papers. Yet Mr. Beecher says: ’He made no verbal threats, but opened his overcoat, and with some emphatic remark he showed me a pistol.’ Why misrepresent? Is it possible that he gave his confidence at once to a man who extorted the paper from him with a pistol? Yet Beecher’s committee make a point of this prevarication in their argument for the accused.’*

With regard to Mr. Beecher's letter of contrition, Mr. Moulton explains at length the circumstances under which it was written. Bessys, as before stated, that it was written out according to the dictation of Mr. Beecher, and that the exact language of Mr. Beecher was used in the letter. He (Moulton) was not in the habit of using such language, and could hardly have composed the letter in question. He says: “ I should not the^phrase God.’ I was not need to that kind of expression; nor the phrase, ‘Toward the poor child lying there praying with folded hands." I never called a woman of nearly forty years old a ‘ poor child’ in my life. I did not know that she ‘ was lying’ anywhere with folded hands. Beecher did, because he says in his statement to the committee that ‘She lay there, white as marble, like a statue of the Old World, palm to palm, like one praying,’ thus reproducing four years afterward almost the identical phrase and picture which he conveyed to me, and which I put in the ‘ letter of contri tion.’ I could not have used the phrase ‘ I have her forgiveness,’ because I did not know whether he had tt or not, except as he told me, and if I had acted on my belief in the matter I should suppose that he had not. This letter, after being prepared by me, was read by him before he pnt his signature to it. The explanation put by Beecher in his statement that ‘ this paper was a mere memorandum of points to be used by bind,(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 nsed by him in conversing with Tilton. * * * It is a mere string cf hints, hastily made by an unpracticed writer, as helps to his memory in representing to Mr. Tilton how I felt toward his family.’ All this explanation is a mere afterthought made up for the purpose of explanation merely. Beecher always treated this letter as his own in all the after conversations upon the Subject with Mr. Samuel Wilkesdn, Mr. Beecher’s friend.” In a subsequent conversation with Mr. Moulton Mr. Beecher had alluded to the document in question ns his (Beecher’s) letter to Mr. Tilton, and asked Mr. M.: “ Can twe hit noon some plan to break the force of my letter to Tilton?” etc. Mr. Moulton again brings forward his proofs that Mr. Beecher and Mrs. Tiltou renewed their Intimacy after the confession was made, and after both had given assurance to Tilton that they would not meet except through him. After again printing Mrs. Tiltons note to Mr. Beecher, concluding with the expression “ Of course, I should like to share with you my joy,” Mr. Moulton protluces another letter from Mr. Beecher to Mrs. Tilton, which is as follows:

“The blessing of God rest upon you. Every spark of light and warmth in your own house will be a star and a sun in my dwelling. Your note broke like spring(sic) upon winter, and gave me an inward rebound toward life. No one can ever know, none but God, through what a dreary wilderness I have wandered. There was Mount Sinai; there was the barren waste, and there was the alternation of hope and despair that marked the pilgrim age of old. If only it might lead to the promised land ! Or, like Moses, shall I die on the border? Your hope and courage 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 heart and spirit, it will prove a life so noble as few are able to live, and in another world the emancipated soul may utter thanks. If it would be of comfort to you now and then to send me a letter of true inwardness (sic), the outcome of your inner life, it would be safe, for I am now at home here with my sister, and it is permitted to you (sic) and will be an exceeding refreshment to me, for your heart-ex-periences are often like bread from heaven to the hungry. God has enriched your moral nature - may not others partake ?” “ This," says Mr. Moulton, "is in Mr. Beecher's handwriting, but without direction or signature; hut the note inclosed in pencil tells ustiie 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 joy,’ she being .‘ail right' now. The inclosnre is on a slip of paper marked * O,’ but which I do not produce here, reserving it for presentation before another tribunal. Was there ever a plainer case of renewal of intimacy, 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. c., his wife is away.” Mr. Moulton then gives in detail Beecher's alleged confessions to him of bis adultery with Mrs. Tilton, lie says: “It has been said that, being a man of the world, I drew inferences from his (Beecher's) pure and unguarded expressions which they did not authorize, and therefore as to these letters I have lett inferences to be drawn by those who read them in a light which dates ami facts have 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 between Beecher, Tilton and myself, 1 now proceed to give such portions as are necessary of some few of the conversations in which Beecher made confession of adultery. I have before stated that the first confession was made on the niaht I went for the ‘retraction’ of Mrs. Tilton; that I there told him; ‘Mr. Beecher, you have had criminal intercourse with Mrs. Tilton, and you have done great injury to Tilton otherwise.’ and I say further in my published statement ‘that be confessed aim denied not, but 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 but one legal or literal meaning, even to clergymen. It. however, seems necessary that I should go still furl her. which I do, and I say that on that evening he confessed to me his relations with Mrs. Tilton 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 my love for . her as the words of endearment w hich I addressed to her. There seemed to be nothing in what we did together that I could not justify to myself on the ground of onr love for each other, and I think God will not blame me for my acts with her. I know that at present it would be utterly impossible for me to Justify myself before man.”

Mr. Moulton then calls attention to the assertion made in his former statement that in the presence of himself qnd another witness, whom he still feels reluctant to bring forward (oT course, not Mr. Tilton), both Mrs.... Tilton and Mr. Beecher admitted, in langnage not to be mistaken, the truth of the charges against them, and asked advice as to the course to be taken by them. With regard to the question of blackmail. Mr. Moulton says it has never occurred to him that the procedure ,Hv which money was obtained from Mr. Beecher was an extortion. He (Mvulton) himself, hia business partners and others were, subscribing money toward sustaining the Oolden Age, and he had no thought that Beecher" was doing anything other and disTerent from what the rest were doing, except that be (Beecher) bad, |>erhaps. an additional personal motive to abstain an enterprise which all fjvored ' and the results of which were looked upon as an honor to journalism. A careful examination of Mr. Beecher's statement will show that the suggested payment oi $5,000 first came to him (Moulton) from Mr., Beecher, and was not made bv Mr. Moulton to Mr. Beecher. He (Moulton) told Mr. Beechgr Mr. Tilton would not receive the money if he knew It came from, Mr. 8.. and therefore it was arranged between them that it should be given to .Mr. Tilton ifa small turns, at coming from Mr. Monlton. The letter

of Mrs. Morse (Mrs. Tilton’s mother) to M* 1 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 up, as yon must have suffered intensely, and we all will, I fear, until released by death. Do yon pray for me? If not. pray do. I never feit more rebellious than now; more need of God’s and human help. Do yon know I think it straßge von should ask me to callyon * son?’ I have told darling I felt if yon conld, in safety to yourself and all concerned, you would be to me all this endearing name. Am I mistaken?” Mr. Monlton then says: “ This letter bears date Oct. 24. I ilx tbc date to be in 1871, because it was at that time that Mrs. Morse had the house for which she was payin gsl ,500 rent, and in the time when Tilton wus 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 ts a call on him for money, which may explain the necessity for mortgaging his house otherwise than by paying $5,000 to me. It is the onlslde family that is always the most onerous to a man. » * » Th e trouble is, Beecher mistakes the persons who blackmailed him. It was Mrs. Morse and Bessie, and nobody else, and they are now repaying him by testifying in his behalf.” If to obtain advantage to oneself by nsing tlfc nnfortunate situation of another is blackmail, then Beecher himself was a blackmailer. lie protected himself from Bowen bynslsg Tilton to get the tripartite covenant ont of him, and yet he puts the facts in a light exactly contrary to the trnth. Beecher, in fact, nsed Tilton’s position with Bowen to extort from him (Bowen), a certificate of good character, after he had preferred several grave charges against him, one of them being described as brutal rape. It was not Tilton’s accusations but Bowen’s that Moulton had in charge, and the real point was to avoid “an appeal to-the church and then to the council.’* Monlton then gives the charge of rape as contained in Tilton's letter, recapitulating Bowen’s cause of offense against Beoebvv, and then significantly asks: “Could an innocent clergyman have allowed such a charge to be made, and more than once reiterated, however guardedly, by a leading member of his church, and rest content until his innocence was fnlly and clearly established, if in no other w ay, in a court of justice?” Mr. Moultoii said that in his former statemcnt.he endeavored to state the facts of that brutal offense with as much delicacy as their wickedness would allow, but that his very reticeireetrert been made the ground of accusation - that he had mistaken the purport of what Mr. Beecher bad said, or that if he were telling the trnth be would give his exact words. He was therefore compelled, in relating the circumstances attending the afi'air, to overstep tiie hounds within which he had set himself in his former statement; and If something was published which ought not to be published, it was not bis fault, but a necessity made by Beecher and his friends for his (Moulton’s) own vindication. Exactly how the matter came about was as follows: He showed to Mr. Beecher the letter of Tilton to Bowen, bearing dale 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? 1 Monlton the truth concerning his adultery with the woman to whom he supposed Bowen referred. Mr. Moulton here gives Beecher’s confession or narrative of the affair, which, in the interest of decency, is here suppressed. He suggested that unless Beecher obtained a retraction of the story from the woman he would some day find himself at Bowen's mercy. Such a paper he obtained on the 10th at January, 1871, hut it was not so direct or satisfactory as the retraction he obtained from 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 continued, as he believed,-but declines to give either her name or copies of her lettcrs“'in his hands, because he did not wish needlessly to involve a reputation which had thus far escaped public mention by any of tlie parties to the controversy. The last episode of crime had been related to him in the presence of witnesses. In relation to Mr. Beecher’s proposed suicide, Mr. Moulton 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 take if ever the story of his crime with Mrs. Tilton should become public. He told me of a visit he had made to a photographer's gallery, when he learned that one of the employes had mistaken a glass of poison for a glass of water, and, having taken and drank it, had fallen dead with scarcely time to drop the "lass. Mr. Beecher said that was what he wanted for himself, and, under the plea of making some photographic experiments, he procured some of this same poisoirfrom the photographer, which he told Moulton he intended to use. if an intimation of his crime should be made, and then he said “it would be simply reported. that Beecher died of apoplexy, but God and you and I will know what caused my death.” If those who blamed [ Moulton "could have looked into Mr. Boecngr’s grief-stricken face and listened to the tones'of his voice in great einergeu, cies, in which he said there was no refuge for him but in death, they would have felt impelled to do as generous and open-hearted a service as he (Moulton) had practiced toward him. It wouldhave taken a harder heart than his, being witness of Mr. Beecher’s sorrows, not to forget his sins. The remainder of the long statement is only interesting—not important—personal matters,.