THEODORE TILTON - AUTOGRAPH SENTIMENT SIGNED 03/27/1880 - HFSID 274524

THEODORE TILTON
Poet and social reformer enmeshed in the 19th century's most famous sex scandal
Autograph Sentiment signed: "oblige/Theo. Tilton/Louisville,/Mary '27-80", 4½x2¾. Theodore Tilton (1835-1907) was a poet of note, best remembered for the often quoted "Even This Shall Pass Away." An abolitionist and advocate of women's rights, he was editor (1860-1871) of the journal Independent, which was closely associated with Henry Ward Beecher, the nationally famous Congregational Minister and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. In 1872 Victoria Woodhull, a prominent voice for women's suffrage who ran for President that same year (although she could not legally vote), accused Beecher of having an affair with Tilton's wife Elizabeth. Both Beecher and Theodore Tilton at first denied the claim, but later Elizabeth confessed to her husband, and he sued Beecher for "alienation of affection." Beecher's Plymouth Church in Brooklyn exonerated Beecher in two inquiries, and a civil trial ended in a hung jury. The US government arrested and jailed Woodhull two days before the presidential election, claiming that her newsletter accusing Beecher of the affair was pornography sent through the mail. Woodhull's charges against Beecher were said by some to be retaliation for his criticism of her views on women's rights in marriage, which he claimed amounted to "free love." The Beecher/Tilton scandal achieved such prominence in the national press that by some accounts it eclipsed in volume the coverage of President Johnson's impeachment trial. Beecher survived the scandal, although with his prestige much diminished. Woodhull and her husband were bankrupted by it; Theodore Tilton chose to live the rest of his life abroad. Faint date stamp or postmark touches signature. Pinhead-sized hole near signature. Mounting adhesive on verso shows through lightly. Otherwise, fine condition.