Plymouth Church and its pastor; or, Henry Ward Beecher and his accusers ...

Front matter

ODOlSlflHfl'n

Shelffcl J

UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.

Preface To The First Edition

It was not without many misgivings that the undersigned accepted a commission from the publisher to prepare a history of the great religious scandal that for so many months has excited a nation, caused Christians to blush for the cause of religion, and unbelievers to scoff and rejoice that the light of the most brilliant star in the pulpit firmament was likely to be extinguished, and his usefulness terminated for all time. The compilation of a work of this magnitude under ordinary circumstances would be a perplexing and thankless task, but when the reputations of two of the first men of the country, and a modest, christian wife and mother are involved, the task becomes more difficult and painful. It is more so in a case like this where no competent tribunal has been organized to compel witnesses to testify under oath, that all the facts may be elicited. In the compilation of the work, the undersigned has endeavored conscientiously to present the case as fairly as possible for all the parties to the unfortunate difficulty. Care has been taken to exclude all matter irrelevant to the issue, except such as may be calculated to preserve the thread of the narrative. Another difficulty — and, perhaps, the most stupendous of all — was to avoid all disgusting details likely to shock tho refined sensibilities of the reader. In this particular the compiler may have partially failed. His apology is that had he shorn the testimony and documents of all these objectionable passages the reader would be unable to understand the charac-

VI PREFACE.

ter of the offences charged. Yet he recollects that the religious as well as the secular press have opened their columns for the admission of the deplorable story, and that in an interview with a representative, of a Chicago journal, Eev. Dr, Beecher, of that city, is credited with the use of more indelicate language than any that will be found in this compilation -^language that the undersigned has carefully refrained from reproducing. With no bias in the matter, and unacquainted with the parties to the scandal, the undersigned does not desire to express any individual opinion as to the guilt or innocence of the distinguished Pastor of Plymouth Church ; and should time vindicate him no one will rejoice more than he will. Whether or not that vindication ever comes, the American people can never forget the great services Mr. Beecher has rendered his country and they will ever retain for him the same feelings of affection and love that his congregation does in this hour of trial. In the compilation of the biographies the undersigned has availed himself of extracts from a work by Mr. Leon Oliver, published in Chicago, to whom he presents his acknowledgments. J. E. P. Doyle.

New York, August, 1874*

Chapter I

The Original charges made by Mrs. Victoria Woodhull — How Mr. Beecher's Secret came into Her Possession through Mrs. PaulinaWright Davis — Mrs. Stanton and Mr. Beecher's own Sister mixed up in the Scandal as circulators of it — The Scene in Mr. Tilton's House when he discovered his Wife's Infidelity, as Woodhull alleges Tilton described it to her 13

Chapter II

"The Republic Threatened — The Beecher Tilton Scandal and the Beecher-Bowen-Comstock Conspiracy — The Seal broken at Last — Woodhull's " lies " and Theodore Tilton's " True Story "—The Account Horrible at Best— "No Obscenity" but God's Naked Truth— The Thunderbolt shatters a bad crowd and ploughs the whole ground." 46

Chapter III

Trenchant Review of the " True Story " and Mr. Clark's errors by the Woodhull — The Poem " Sir Marmaduke's Musings," which, it is alleged is intended to refer to Theodore — How it was written in Boston, when Tilton had discovered his wife's fall, with a pistol before him, and preparatory to committing suicide — Mrs. Paulina Wright Davis' Letter — " The more I think of this mass of Beecher corruption the more I desire its opening." 78

CHAP P ER IV.

Developments during the Summer and Fall of 1873 — Plymouth Church charges Mr. Tilton with slandering Mr. Beecher. — Mr. Tilton's defence summarized — The action of the Church — Mr. Beecher's declaration that he had no complaint to make against Mr. Tilton — Action of the sister churches through Rev. Dr's. Storrs and Budington — The correspondence between them and Mr. Beecher — That led to the assembling of

the Congregational Council 113

VI ' CONTENTS.

Chapter V

The assembling of the Council of Congregational Churches — The invitation to Plymouth Church to explain its action in dropping Mr. Tilton's name from the rolls — The Declaration of Plymouth church of its independence — The verdict of the council and a review by Rev. Dr.

Bacon 127

Chapter VI

Mr. Tilton's celebrated reply to Dr. Bacon's criticisms — His declaration that owing to the efforts made by Mr. Beecher's friend- to crush him he felt called upon to show that he was not " the creature of Mr. Beecher's magnanimity "—The letter of Beecher asking Theodore Tilton's forgivness — " I humble myself before him as I would before my God " — The offense committed by Beecher against Tilton which Theodore forbears to name — Tilton spurns a proposition from Beecher's friends to pay his expenses if he will retreat to Europe with his family „ 153

Chapter VII

A scathing review of Tilton's, Beecher's and Woodhull's pernicious doctrines from the pen of Professor V. B. Denslow — " The record of the Three Reformers the out-croppings of uncleanliness " — Tilton's biography of that unblushing Apostle, of prostitution " severely criticised — Tilton's ambition and his martyrdom — His analyzation of Beecher's character — Henry Ward is a voluptuary and very selfish — Tilton being a" Free Lover" could very properly accept an apology from Beecher for invading his house, instead of resorting to the cowhide or Pistol — The inner-life of Plymouth Church 173

Chapter VIII

A Graphic description of Mr. Beecher's first church and reminiscences of his congregation at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and his labors among the colored people of the Cincinnati suburbs — His marriage to the ambitious Eunice Leighton of Hill Farm — Mrs. Beecher's book "From Dawn to Daylight " and the mysterious Ventilation of the Church records — Departure of the Beechers from Lawrenceburg in a buggy — His career in Indianapolis, and how he played the role of Joseph in resisting the advances of the fair Mrs. Potophars of his congregation — A Romance of Theodore — How he secured Beecher's Love — In the role of a governor of a State — " Walking on stilts with his face Heavenward 187

Chapter IX

A visit to the Clafiin Woodhull sisters' Banking Office — A running commentary upon Theodore Tilton, who loves Scotch Ale as he once loved

CONTENTS. Til

the modern Demosthenes — a spicy interview with Victoria Woodhull Her relations to Tilton andBeecher explained — "Theodore was my devoted lover." 211

Chapter X

Tilton's Life of Woodhull, with cutting comments by a friend of H. W. Beecher — The priestess of love and unlimited affection, and the varying phases of the phantasmagoric career fondly photographed — On the housetop conversing with Demosthenes — Her Revelations to Theodore — Her return from the West to vindicate her biographer — An interview and denial of Mr. Tilton's irregularities " at her house — The moment that she first learned of Mr. Beecher's liaison from his sister and Mrs. Stanton 220

Chapter XI

The long-looked-for blow falls at last upon the Pastor — The astounding charges of Mr. Tilton — Oft and repeated acts of " criminal commerce" between Mrs. Tilton and her pastor — Mr. Beecher charged with " nest hiding " — A sad tale of domestic infelicity, a devoted woman's love religious zeal, Platonic affection for her pastor, etc. — Her confession to her husband — How Mr. Beecher wrung a retraction from her to save an exposure 254

Chapter XII

Alleged cross-examination of Mr. Tilton and his denial of the words put into his mouth — Henry Ward Beecher's defense — His relations to Mrs. Tilton only such as could be entertained by a pure minded woman, but he did cause a social catastrophe — Mrs. Tilton's sweeping denial — Her own graphic story of her domestic trouble and her affection for her pastor — Mr. Tilton interviewed — His threat to draw a two-edged sword and his offer to go into court, either a3 plaintiff or defendant — General Butler's advice and a significant Herald editorial — More disgusting charges by Mr. James McDermott in an interview with a reporter 280

CHAPTER XITI.

Theodore on the Rack of Cross Examination — He adheres to his stories of Criminal Commerce and describes '• The Ankle Scene" "The Bedroom Meeting," etc — A peculiarly bad Memory — He Gives Mr. Beecher the " Benefit of the Doubt." — " Mutual Friend " Moulton and a History of Elizabeth's Confessions — Dramatic Denials, Fierce Threats and Defiance 299

Vlll CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV

A Week of Intense Excitement — The "Women Suffrage Ravens gather about — Mrs. Stanton declares that Mr. Tilton Admitted lo her that Mr. Beecher had Seduced Mrs. Tilton and that the sin was Confessed by Mrs. Tilton to Susan B. Anthony — Col. Anthony Asserts that his sister told him the same story — Miss Anthony will neither admit nor deny

v the Allegations — Startling Statements by Mr. Carpenter — The case in the Court at last 350

Chapter XV

Mrs Tilton's Cross-Examination — Her Desperate efforts to clear the Character of the Accused Pastor — A Highly Seasoned Picture of Domestic Infelicity and brutal treatment of Elizabeth by Theodore — " Our Mutual Friend " Moulton has a sharp Correspondence with Henry Ward, and finally agrees to make a clean breast of all he knows — Tilton instructs his Counsel to begin an action of damages against Mr. Beecher for the Seduction of his Wife 375

Chapter XIX

Sketch of Theodore Tilton — His career as a Reporter, Editor, Lecturer, Novelist and Poet — His personal appearance — His devoted admiration of the fair sex — A man whose Adonis-like appearance would carry the citadel of any susceptible heart— Mr. Samuel Bowies' sketch of him.. . 419

CONTENTS. IX

Chapter XXIV

Henry C. Bowen, his mercantile career as the senior member of the firm of Bowen, McNamee & Co — His career as an editor and publisher — The charge that he was the first person to circulate charges against the pastor 441

Chapter XXV

Mr. Beecher unbosoms himself to the Committee — His very remarkable explanation of his relations to Tilton and his family, alleges that he was blackmailed by Tilton and Moulton, Denies any criminality with Mrs. Tilton and gives most astounding explanations of the letters confessing some sin in the premises 443

Chapter XXVI

" Mutual Friend Moulton's " crushing manifesto — He tells all he knows — Mr. Beecher and Mrs. Tilton had admitted to him their acts of adultery — Bowen's Machinations — Elizabeth's confession, retraction, and admission that she is incapable of uttering the truth — How Beecher used Moulton to cover his tracks — Isabella Beecher Hooker's Free Love fancies — Rev. Thos. K. Beecher sees no hope for Henry, and exclaims: "Hands off until he is down" — A fearful picture of lying, prevarication, and plotting — The blackmail story exploded — Plymouth Church driven into silence 479

Chapter I

THE ORIGINAL CIIAItGES AS MADE BY MRS. WOODHULL. HOW MR.

beeciier's SECRET CAME INTO HER POSSESSION THROUGH MRS.

PAULINE WRIGHT DAVIS. MRS. STANTON AND MR. BEECIIER'S

OWN SISTER MIXED UP IN THE SCANDAL AS CIRCULATORS OF IT.

THE SCENE IN TILTON'S HOUSE WHEN HE DISCOVERED HIS

WIFE'S INFIDELITY, AS WOODHULL ALLEGES TILTON DESCRIBED IT TO HER.

t~N entering upon the duty of preparing a faithful narrative of -^- this great social sensation of the nineteenth century, the author is not unmindful of the fact that much of the information — in the form of published statements, letters and other documents, ma}' bcfound in the future to be in some particulars inaccurate, but as a faithful historian he proposes to give the entire case as nearby as possible in chronological order. Long before the publication of the original charges against Mr. Beecher in Wooclhull and Claflin's Weekly — an organ devoted to advance ideas of social reform and universal love — rumors of Mr. Beecher's " irregularities " had been circulated not only in the city of Brooklyn, where Plymouth Church is situate, but within various coteries of the women suffragists. Nobody, however, placed much reliance upon the " slanders," as they were very generally designated, until in the issue of Wooclhull and Claflin's Weekly, of November 2d, 1872, there were explicit and detailed charges mq^le. The author proposes to copy the charges in Mrs. Woodhull's own words, the more especially as she signs them as an evidence of their truth and

14 WOODHULL DISCOURSES ON MATRIMONY.

her responsibility in the matter of publication. The following

is her statement : —

" I propose, as the commencement of a series of aggressive moral warfare on the social question, to begin in this article with ventilating one of the most stupendous scandals which has ever occurred in any communit}\ I refer to that which has been whispered broad-cast for the last two or three } T ears through the cities of New York and Brooklyn, touching the character and conduct of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in his relations with the family of Theodore Tilton. I intend that this article shall burst like a bomb-shell into the ranks of the moralistic social camp.

" I am engaged in officering, and in some sense conducting, a social revolution on the marriage question. I have strong convictions to the effect that this institution, as a bond or promise to love another to the end of life, and forego all other loves or passional gratifications, has outlived its da} T of usefulness ; that the most intelligent and realty virtuous of our citizens, especially in the large cities of Christendom, have outgrown it ; are constantly and sj'stematically unfaithful to it ; despise and revolt against it, as a slavey, in their hearts ; and only submit to the semblance of fidelity to it from the dread of a sham public opinion, based on the ideas of the past, and which no longer really represent the convictions of anybocty'. The doctrines of scientific socialism have profoundly penetrated and permeated public opinion. No thought has so rapidly and completely carried the convictions of the thinking portions of the community as stirpiculture. The absurdity is too palpable, when it is pointed out, that we give a hundred times more attention to the laws of breeding as applied to horses and cattle and pigs, and even to our barn-yard fowls, than we do to the same laws as applied to human beings. It is equally obvious, on a little reflection, that stirpiculture, or the scientific propagation and cultivation of the human animal, demands free love or freedom of the varied union of the sexes under the dictates of the highest and best knowledge on the subject, as an essential and precedent condition. These considerations are too palpable to be ignored, and they look to the complete and early supercedure of the old and traditional institution of marriage, by the substitution of some better system for the maintenance of women as mothers, and of children as progeny. All intelligent people know these facts and look for the coming

SHE IS DENOUNCED FOE HER SENTIMENTS. 15

of some wiser and better system of social life. The superceding of marriage in the near future, b} r some kind of socialistic arrangement, is as much a foregone conclusion with all the best thinkers of to-day as was the approaching dissolution of slavery no more than five or ten years before its actual abolition in the late war.

" But, in the meantime, men and women tremble on the brink of the revolution and hesitate to avow their convictions, while yet partly aware of their rights, and urged b}' the legitimate impulses of nature, they act upon the new doctrines while they profess obedience to the old. In this manner an organized hypocrisy has become the tone of our modern society. Poltroonery, cowardice and deception rule the hour. The continuance, for generations, of such utter falsit}-, touching one of the most sacred interests of humanity, will almost eradicate the sense of honesty from the human soul. Every consideration of sound expediency demands that these days be shortened ; that somebody lead the van in announcement of the higher order of life.

" Impelled by such views, I entered the combat with old errors, as I believed them to be, and brought forward, in addition to the wise and powerful words which others have uttered on the subject, the arguments which my own inspiration and reflection suggested. No sooner had I done so than the howl of persecution sounded in nry ears. Instead of replying to my arguments, I was assaulted with shameful abuse. I was young and inexperienced in the business of reform, and astounded to find what, as I have since learned from the veterans in the cause, is the usual fact, that the most persistent and slanderous and foul-mouthed accusations came from precisely those who, as I often happened to know, stood nearest to me in their convictions, and whose lives, privately, were a protest against the very repression which I denounce. It was a paradox which I could not understand, that I was denounced as utterly bad for affirming the right of others, to do as they did ; denounced b}^ the very persons whom nry doctrines could alone justify, and who claimed, at the same time, to be conscientious and good men. My position led, nevertheless, to continuous confidences relating to people's own opinions and lives and the opinions and lives of others. My mind became charged with a whole literature of astoishning disclosures. The lives of almost the whole army of spiritualistic and social reformers, of all the schools, were laid open before me. But the matter

1G SITE HESITATES AS TO HER DUTY.

did not stop there. I found that, to a great extent, the social resolution was as far advanced among leading lights of the business and wealthy circles, and of the various professions, not excluding the clergy and the churches, as among technical reformers.

" It was, nevertheless, from these very quarters that I was most severely assailed. It was vexatious and trying, I confess, forgone of my temper, to stand under the galling fire of personalities from parties who should have been my warmest advocates, or who should, else, have reformed their lives in accordance with a morality which they wished the public to understand they professed. I was sorely and repeatedly tempted to retort, in personalities, to these attacks. But simply as personality or personal defense, or spiteful retort, I have almost wholly abstained during these years of sharp conflict from making any use of the rich resources at my command for that kind of attack.

" But, in the meantime, the question came to press itself upon my consideration : Had I any right, having assumed the championship of social freedom, to forego the use of half the weapons which the facts no less than the philosophy of the subject placed at my command for conducting the war — through any mere tenderness to those who were virtual traitors to the truth which they knew and were surreptitiously acting upon ? Had not the sacred cause of human rights and human well-being a paramount claim over my own conduct? Was I not, in withholding the facts and conniving at a putrid mass of seething falsehood and Irypocrisy, in some sense a partaker in these crimes ; and was I not, in fact, shrinking from the responsibility of making the exposure more through regard for my own sensitiveness and dislike to be hurt than from anj T true sympathy with those who would be called upon to suffer?

" These questions once before my mind would never be disposed of until the}^ were fairly settled upon their own merits, and apart, so far as I could separate them, from nry own feelings or the feelings of those who were more directly involved. I have come slowly, deliberately, and I may add reluctantly, to nry conclusions. I went back to and studied the history of other reforms. I found that Garrison not only denounced slavery in the abstract, but that he attacked it in the concrete. It was not only ' the sum of all villainies,' but it was the particular villainy of this and that and the other great and influential man, North and South, in the community. Reputations

TO MAKE AN OMELET SOME EGGS MUST BE BROKEN. 17

had to suffer. He bravely and persistently called things by their right names. He pointed out and depicted the individual instances of cruelty. He dragged to the light and scathed and stigmatized the individual offenders. He made them a hissing and a by-word, so far as in him lay. He shocked the public sensibilities by actual and vivid pictures of slaveholding atrocities, and sent spies into the enemies' camp to search out the instances. The world cried shame ! and said it was scandalous, and stopped their ears and blinded their eyes, that their own sensibilities might not be hurt by these horrid revelations. They cast the blanket of their charities and s\~mpathies around the real offenders for their misfortune in being brought to the light, and denounced the informer as a malignant and cruel wretch for not covering up scenes too dreadful to be thought upon ; as if it were not a thousand times more dreadful that they should be enacted. But the brave old C3 r clops ignored alike their criticisms, their protests, and their real and their mock sensibilities, and hammered away at his anvil, forging thunderbolts of the gods ; and nobody now sa}-s he was wrong. A new public opinion had to be created, and he knew that people had to be shocked, and that individual personal feelings had to be hurt. As Bismarck is reported to have said : ' If an omelet has to be made some eggs have to be broken.' Every revolution has its terrific cost, if not in blood and treasure, then still in the less tangible but alike real sentimental injury of thousands of sufferers. The preliminary and paramount question is: Ought the revolution to be made, cost what it may? Is the cost to humanity greater of permitting the standing evil to exist? and if so, then let the cost be incurred, fall where it must. If justice to humanity demand the given expenditure, then accepting the particular enterprise of reform, we accept all its necessary consequences, and enter upon our work, fraught, it may be, with repugnance to ourselves as it is necessarily with repugnance to others.

" I have said that I came slowly, deliberately and reluctantly to the adoption of this method of warfare. I was also hindered and delayed by the fact that if I entered upon it at all I saw no way to avoid making the first onslaught in the most distinguished quarters. It would be cowardice in me to unearth the peccadillos of little men, and to leave untouched the derelictions and offences of the magnates of social and intellectual power and position. How slowly I have moved in this matter, and how reluctantly it may be inferred, will appear from these little points of history.

1 8 SHE P UBLISHED A CARD IN TEE TIMES AND WORLD.

" More than two years ago these two cities — New York and Brooklyn — were rife with rumors of an awful scandal in Plymouth Church. These rumors were whispered and covertly alluded to in almost every circle. But the very enormity of the facts, as the world views such matters, hushed the agitation and prevented exposure. The press, warned by the laws of libel, and by a tacit and in the main honorable consensus to ignore all such rumors until they enter the courts, or become otherwise matters of irrepressible notoriety, abstained from any direct notice of the subject, and the rumors themselves were finally stifled or forgotten. A few persons only knew something directly of the facts, but among them, situated as I was, I happened to be one. Already the question pressed on me whether I ought not to use the event to forward the cause of social freedom, but I only saw clear in the matter to the limited extent of throwing out some feelers to the public on the subject. It was often a matter of long and anxious consultation between me and my cabinet of confidential advisers.

" In June, 1870, Woodhull and Clajlin's Weekly published an article in reply to Henry C. Bowen's attack on n^self in the columns of the Independent, the editorship of which had just been vacated by Theodore Tilton. In this article the following paragraph occurred : ' At this very moment awful and herculean efforts are being made in a neighboring city to suppress the most terrific scandal which has ever astonished and convulsed ai^ community. Clergy, congregation and community will be alike hurled into more than all the consternation which the great explosion in Paris carried to that unfortunate city, if this effort at suppression fail.'

" Subsequently I published a letter in both World and Times, in which was the following sentence : ' I know a clergyman of eminence in Brooklyn who lives in concubinage with the wife of another clergyman of equal eminence.'

" It was generally and well understood among the people of the press especially, that both of these references were to this case of Mr. Beecher's, and it came to be generally suspected that I was better informed regarding the facts of the case than others, and was reserving publicity of my knowledge for a more convenient season. This suspicion was heightened nearly into conviction when it transpired that Theodore Tilton was an earnest and apparently conscientious advocate of many of my radical theories, as appeared in his far-famed biography of me, and in numerous other publications in the

MERITS OF THE IMPENDING EXPOSE!. 19

Golden Age and elsewhere. Mr. Tilton's warmest friends were shocked at his course, and when he added to his remarkable proceedings, his brilliant advocac}^ of my Fourteenth Amendment theoiy, in his letters to Horace Greeley, Chas. Sumner and Mat. Carpenter, they considered him irremediably committed to the most radical of all radicals. Assurance was made doubly sure when he presided at Steinway Hall, when I, for the first time, fully and boldly advanced my free-love doctrines. It was noted, however, that this man who stood before the world so fully committed to the broadest principles of liberty, made it convenient to be conspicuously absent from the convention of the Women Suffragists at Washington last January. All sorts of rumors were thereupon rife. Some said he had ' gone back ' on his advocacy of free-love ; some said that a rupture had taken place between him and the leaders of the suffrage movement, and maivy were the theories brought forward to explain the facts. But the real cause did not transpire until Mr. Tilton was found at Cincinnati urging as a candidate the very man whom he had recentlv so severe^ castigated with his most caustic pen. It was then wisely surmised that political ambition, and the editorial chair of the Tribune, and his life-long personal devotion to Mr. Greeley, were the inducements which had sufficed to turn his head and heart away, temporarily at least, from our movement.

" About this time rumors floated out that Mrs. Woodhull, disgusted at the recent conduct of Mr. Tilton and the advice given him by certain of his friends, was animadverting in not very measured terms upon their conduct. An article specifying matters involving several of these persons, obtained considerable circulation, and with other circumstances, such as the definite statement of facts, with names and places, indicated that the time was at hand, nigh even unto the door, when the things that had remained hidden, should be brought to light, and the whole affair made public.

" Some time in August last there appeared in the Evening Telegram a paragraph which hinted broadly at the nature of the impending expose. About this time, a gentleman from abroad, to whom I had related some of the facts in 1113' possession, repeated them to a member of Mr. Beecher's church, who denounced the whole story as an infamous libel ; but some days later he acknowledged both to his friend and me that he had inquired into the matter and had learned that it was

20 "A NA TION WILL BE BORN IN A DA F."

* a damning fact/ This gentleman occupies a responsible position, and his word is good for all that he utters. Such was the facility with which confirmations were obtained when sought for. When, therefore, those who were conversant with the case, saw in the Boston Herald and other papers that I had made a public statement regarding the whole matter, they were not in the least surprised/ It shows that the press had concluded that it was time to recognize the sensation which, whether they would or not, was destined soon to shake the social structure from its foundation.

" A reporter was then specially detailed to interview me in order, as he said, that the matter might be published in certain of the New York papers. Why that interview has been suppressed is not possible to affirm with certainty, but it is easy to guess. An impecunious reporter can be bought off with a few hundred dollars. And there are those who would readily pay thousands to shut the columns of the press against this exposure. Fortunately I have a nearly verbatim copy of the report, as the interviewer prepared it, and in this shape I shall now present it to the public.