Beecher Tilton Scandal

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On November 2, 1872 Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly published a story reporting that a prominent and well known minister, Henry Ward Beecher, allegedly had an extra marital affair with Elizabeth Tilton, the wife of a well known editor and Beecher’s assistant, Theodore Tilton. Both Tiltons were members of Beecher’s congregation. Victoria Woodhull, supporter of free love and a proponent of women’s suffrage, implied in her article that Beecher, a pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn and an advocate of strong moral values, did not practice what he preached and committed adultery, something he advised against from the pulpit. It is believed that Mrs.Tilton confessed the affair to her husband in 1870 and subsequently retracted her confession under pressure from Beecher as well as Mr. Tilton. Mr. Tilton, apparently seeking to unburden himself, told the story to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a women’s movement activist, who in turn repeated it to Mrs. Woodhull.

While initially the affair was only known to a small group of prominent members of Mr. Beecher’s congregatio...

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