Editing Henry Ward Beecher (section)

==Personal life==
=== Marriage===
[[File:Henry Ward Beecher Chaplain.jpg|thumb|Henry Ward Beecher, circa 1878, the year he was appointed chaplain of the [[New York Army National Guard|New York National Guard]]'s 13th Regiment]]
Beecher married Eunice Bullard in 1837 after a five-year engagement. Their marriage was not a happy one; as Applegate writes, "within a year of their wedding they embarked on the classic marital cycle of neglect and nagging", marked by Henry's prolonged absences from home.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|p=158}} The couple also suffered the deaths of four of their eight children.<ref name=EGS>{{cite web|url=http://www.egs.edu/library/henry-ward-beecher/biography/ |title=Henry Ward Beecher – Biography |publisher=The European Graduate School |access-date=May 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225225345/http://www.egs.edu/library/henry-ward-beecher/biography/ |archive-date=February 25, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Beecher enjoyed the company of women, and rumors of extramarital affairs circulated as early as his Indiana days, when he was believed to have had an affair with a young member of his congregation.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=197–98}} In 1858, the ''[[Brooklyn Eagle]]'' wrote a story accusing him of an affair with another young church member who had later become a prostitute.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=197–98}} The wife of Beecher's patron and editor, Henry Bowen, confessed on her deathbed to her husband of an affair with Beecher; Bowen concealed the incident during his lifetime.{{sfn|McDougall|2009|pp=548–49}}

Several members of Beecher's circle reported that Beecher had had an affair with [[Edna Dean Proctor]], an author with whom he was collaborating on a book of his sermons. The couple's first encounter was the subject of dispute: Beecher reportedly told friends that it had been consensual, while Proctor reportedly told Henry Bowen that Beecher had raped her. Regardless of the initial circumstances, Beecher and Proctor allegedly then carried on their affair for more than a year.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=302–05}} According to historian [[Barry Werth]], "it was standard gossip that 'Beecher preaches to seven or eight of his mistresses every Sunday evening.'"{{sfn|Werth|2009|p=20}}

===The Beecher–Tilton Scandal Case (1875)===
In a highly publicized scandal, Beecher was tried on charges that he had committed adultery with a friend's wife, Elizabeth Tilton. In 1870, Elizabeth had confessed to her husband, [[Theodore Tilton]], that she had had a relationship with Beecher.{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=550}} The charges became public after Theodore told [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and others of his wife's confession. Stanton repeated the story to fellow women's rights leaders [[Victoria Woodhull]] and Isabella Beecher Hooker.{{sfn|Werth|2009|p=19}}

Henry Ward Beecher had publicly denounced Woodhull's advocacy of [[free love]]. Seeing a chance to make his hypocrisy known, she published a story titled "The Beecher–Tilton Scandal Case" in her paper ''Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly'' on November 2, 1872; the article made detailed allegations that America's most renowned clergyman was secretly practicing the free-love doctrines that he denounced from the pulpit. Woodhull was arrested in New York City and imprisoned for sending obscene material through the mail.{{sfn|Werth|2009|pp=60–61}} The scandal split the Beecher siblings; Harriet and others supported Henry, while Isabella publicly supported Woodhull.{{sfn|Werth|2009|p=173}} The first trial was Woodhull's, who was released on a technicality.{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=551}}

Subsequent hearings and trial, in the words of [[Walter A. McDougall]], "drove Reconstruction off the front pages for two and a half years" and became "the most sensational 'he said, she said' in American history".{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=551}} On October 31, 1873, Plymouth Church excommunicated Theodore Tilton for "slandering" Beecher. The Council of Congregational Churches held a board of inquiry from March 9 to 29, 1874, to investigate the disfellowshipping of Tilton, and censured Plymouth Church for acting against Tilton without first examining the charges against Beecher. As of June 27, 1874, Plymouth Church established its own investigating committee which exonerated Beecher.{{sfn|Werth|2009|pp=80–82}} Tilton then sued Beecher on civil charges of adultery.{{sfn|Werth|2009|pp=115–121}} The Beecher–Tilton trial began in January 1875, and ended in July when the jurors deliberated for six days but were unable to reach a verdict.{{sfn|Werth|2009|pp=115–21}} In February 1876, the Congregational church  held a final hearing to exonerate Beecher.{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=552}}

Stanton was outraged by Beecher's repeated exonerations, calling the scandal a "holocaust of womanhood".{{sfn|McDougall|2009|p=552}} French author [[George Sand]] planned a novel about the affair, but died the following year before it could be written.{{sfn|Werth|2009|pp=173–74}}