heodore Tilton was born in New York City to Eusebia Tilton and Silas Tilton, a
cobbler. In 1851 he and Elizabeth Richards were betrothed. In 1853 he graduated
from the Free Academy of New York and began work as a reporter for the New York
Tribune and then for the New York Observer, a Protestant Christian publication.
In the latter position, he was assigned to dictate and publish the sermons of
Henry Ward Beecher, one of America's best known preachers. Beecher presided at
the wedding of Tilton and Richards in 1855.
When Tilton, an abolitionist, left the Observer because of the journal's tepid
stance against slavery, the Congregationalist Independent hired him primarily to
ghostwrite a column for Beecher. The two men developed a close friendship during
these years (1856-1860). In 1861 the Independent's owners hired Beecher as
editor and he promoted Tilton to assistant editor. Two years later Beecher
decided to step aside from managing the paper, so Tilton took over editing
duties, then in 1865 was officially named editor. With Tilton at the helm, the
Independent expanded beyond religious news and opinion to became a leading voice
in American politics and society.
Over the years Tilton worked with William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass,
John Brown, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony to
promote abolition and women's rights. In the early 1860s he delivered popular
lectures on those topics. It was Tilton who saw that Brown's body was returned
to New York after the latter's execution for treason following the unsuccessful
raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry. After the Civil War the
Independent endorsed Radical Reconstruction and was the first newspaper to call
for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. It also criticized former editor
Beecher's more moderate stance on Reconstruction and ceased to carry his weekly
sermons.
Tilton's financial success as a lecturer allowed him to purchase a home in the
exclusive section of Brooklyn Heights, New York. His journalistic achievements
redounded in an offer to edit the Brooklyn Union, which he declined. His
professional and monetary rewards, however, were clouded by turmoil in his
private life. In 1870 his wife Elizabeth confessed that his suspicions about an
affair between her and Beecher were true. Tilton was fired from the Independent
ostensibly because of his radicalism, but in fact because the editor, who had
learned of the affair, feared the paper's reputation would be sullied if the
affair were made public. In 1871 Beecher and Frank Moulton, a friend of Tilton,
provided funds to him to establish a new journal called the Golden Age.
Meanwhile, under pressure from both Beecher and her husband, Elizabeth Tilton,
wrote a letter retracting her confession, then a letter retracting her
retraction.
The Beecher-Tilton affair finally went public when Victorian Woodhull, a leading
women's rights advocate, reported it in the November 2, 1872, issue of her
Woodhull & Caflin's Weekly newspaper. The titillating story of an
extramarital affair between the country's foremost cleric and the wife of a
well-known editor and public speaker created a national sensation. A board of
inquiry at Plymouth Church exonerated Beecher of any moral wrongdoing, but
excommunicated Mr. Tilton in 1873. Press scrutiny and public interest was
exacerbated when Tilton sued Beecher. The trial commenced in January
1875 and ended with a hung jury six months later. The next year a second
committee at Plymouth Church again supported Beecher. Elizabeth Tilton was not
so lucky. Two years later, when she again confessed to the affair, the church
excommunicated her. Beecher continued in his role as an evangelist of national
influence. Tilton was unable to make a living in America, so in 1883 he moved to
Paris, where he died in poverty in 1907. Henry Ward Beecher died in 1887.
Elizabeth Tilton died in Brooklyn in 1897.
Warning
1860
