selves as usual, should you have considered it a similar case to the present ?* DEA. T. I should have considered it entirely different. Nothing was farther from my heart than to interfere with the amusements in Judge W.'s family.† JUDGE W. Why did you attend the caucus at Dea. Means'? DEA. T. I don't know. I regret that I did not walk right over to Mrs. W.'s as soon as I heard of the invitation. JUDGE W. I don't think you are particularly censurable for delay. DEA. T. I am not conscious of undue haste. I did not see Mrs. W. the first or second time I called. D. WILLIAMS. Should you have called upon Mrs. W., had it not been for the meeting at Mr. Means'? DEA. T. I don't know as I should. I think I might have gone, or got some one else to have gone. JUDGE W. You told Mrs. W. with some indignation, that you were not influenced by any one in the slightest degree that you acted entirely of your own accord. She afterwards noticed your using the expression-"I told them I could talk with Mrs. Weston"-which slipped from you, and the meaning of it never occurred to her until after the discovery of the caucus. DEA. T. I don't recollect that form of expression. I have not detailed all the conversation. I was interrupted in a way that displeased me, I am free to acknowledge. I don't know as I can recollect accurately anything farther relevant to the case. This harping upon the "party," and the invitation "to dance," is astonishing when it is considered that the real facts in the case were well known. See remarks, and references, pages 67 and 68. Facts can control the belief, but not always the tongue. Was this man sane? He was not going to interfere with the amusements in Judge W.'s family; and yet Mrs. W. was not to be allowed to invite children to dance!!! How this man DARED to say this, after he had complained of Mr. Weston and Mrs. Fuller, for playing on the violin and piano for children to dance, in Judge Weston's house, and when the third specification against Mr. Weston was that he protested that the report on dancing was not obligatory, is difficult to explain on any known system of morals. C. DOLE thought the church could judge of the "relevancy" of the testimony. DEA. T. She said this was all got up by new-comers and meddlers.* C. DOLE. I perceive by Mrs. W.'s answer, and the withdrawal, that she and her husband think differently as to the cause of the difficulty. They speak of the act: you speak of the quo animo. Did you present to her the essence of the difficulty?† DEA. T. I endeavored to present the conduct and spirit as in opposition to the views of the church. C. DOLE. When was the "neutralization"—at the beginning or latter part of your interview? DEA. T. One of the last things she said was that she would not be dictated to; and that I was grieved without cause. D. WILLIAMS. Did you controvert the conduct? DEA. T. I can't separate the conduct from the spirit. I represented, as clearly as I could, that it was the spirit of which I complained. She said she would be ground to powder before she would be dictated to. *This was, we believe, the third time he had repeated that expression; and it was the fourth time he had been called upon to testify, notwithstanding he had repeatedly declared that he had nothing more to offer. Mrs. W.'s answer was read nearly three months before. If she had misapprehended the "essence of the difficulty," why did he not set that point right the moment it was read? Why did he not then say—why here is a mistake. Mrs. W. thinks Dea. T. demanded something which never entered his thoughts. And yet he did not do it. After that paper was read, Judge W. argued the case on the ground that dancing was an innocent amusement, and that the church had therefore no right to forbid it. And at the next meeting, Parson T., so far from having perceived any misunderstanding, came into the vestry with a written document (see page 89 and onward) in which he asserted that the "Spirit of God was preaching" against dancing-that an "infinitely higher Power" than himself, had put a stop to it in a great measure—and that it was one of the "sinful pleasures of the world." And he asserts that the church may discipline for a breach of the report—see page 95, third paragraph. See the whole of Mr. T.'s paper, and how utterly irreconcilable it is with what is now pretended. JUDGE W. And will say it a hundred times more. The firmness she manifested was on the point of what she would allow in her family. All she said had reference to the right of allowing dancing if she pleased. She is most cruelly misrepresented if anything other than this is stated. She never understood that her "spirit" was complained of. J. J. KILBURN. This point may be settled very easily by putting a single question to Mr. Daniel Weston. D. C. W. Please to put it. J. J. KILBURN. Did not Dr. T. expressly state to your mother, in your presence, that he had no intention of interfering with dancing in her family? D. C. W. He said nothing of the kind. I recollect perfectly the conversation, and am rejoiced that I was present. J. J. KILBURN. Dr. Tappan, don't you recollect making that remark? DEA. T. I don't know that I do. [Mr. Kilburn then took his seat.] JUDGE W. Dr. Tappan, however harshly I may have spoken, I believe you to be an honest man, and that you fear God; and I wish you to answer my question as you will have to answer at a future day. There have been great misrepresentations, but I hope not designedly. * The reporter asked Judge W., subsequently, how he could speak of Dea. T. in this manner, after all that had passed. His reply was-"I said too much-more than 1 could say again. But he was formerly my family physician, and I have always had a friendly feeling for the man, and supposed him honest, though soured by a solitary life and gloomy religious notions. Even up to the time when I used this language, I could not help thinking that his intentions were good, (as I knew of no personal motive he could have for perverting the truth,) but that there was a moral hallucination upon his mind, and that he was but a tool in the hands of others. I did hope, by this solemn appeal, to elicit the truth, but the influence of his brother triumphed. His answer to my question was inconsistent with his previous testimony, and with all the other evidence in the case; and. am sorry to say, seemed to be based upon no better foundation than the desire to sustain the new issue." Did you tell Mrs. W. that it was the spirit she had manifested of which you complained; and did you understand when she said she would not be dictated to by the church, that she meant she would manifest such a spirit as she pleased in defiance of them? DEA, T. I did so understand it. JUDGE W. Then there has been the most egregious MISAPPREHENSION!! Dr. SNELL. This might have all been prevented if we had been permitted to question Mrs. W.: but Judge W. put a stopper on that in the outset. Here we have been working in the dark.* It would be very easy to set the matter right colloquially. Judge W. has said he thinks Dr. T. an honest man and one who fears God. I think Mrs. W. is a woman of the same spirit. Let her consent to converse. If we can't have this light upon the case, let it hang up till we can. If she won't answer, the bible points out the course to be pursued. C. DOLE. The church is just where it was when we started, with the exception of what head-way we have made to night. I still wish to ask Mrs. W. certain questions. DEA. MEANS. A great portion of this has been a misunderstanding. Won't there be an advantage in appointing a committee to see Mrs. W. JUDGE W. objected. C. DOLE insisted that she must be present or a committee appointed. He wanted to ask whether Mrs. W. understood that her spirit was complained of. JUDGE W. She was complained of for allowing dancing after the church had forbidden it. Nothing was farther from her heart than to show a wanton disregard of the feelings of the church. C. DOLE. If she will say that, I will venture to assert that there has been a misunderstanding, and the gist of the complaint falls to the ground.† *True enough-he was a member of the secret caucus. See Mrs. W.'s answer to the complaint (pages 69 and 70) where she has already said what he now pretends would be sufficient. See also page D. WILLIAMS inquired if it would not be possible to get out all the testimony to night? C. DOLE said it would not. He had more questions to put to Dr. T. similar to those he had asked that evening. D. Č. W. stated his intention of cross examining Dr. T., after Mr. Dole had finished. Adjourned to Friday evening next. CHAPTER XIV. "For Presbyter and Independant At Michael's Term had many a trial, Worse than the Dragon and St. Michael." HUDIBRAS. Friday evening, July 31st. The Pastor opened the proceedings by defending the "social interview" at Dea. M.'s house on the ground, taken by Mr. Dole, that there was a distinction between "personal and public offences." When, said he, public offences are committed-and this, if an offence, was a PUBLIC ONE*-members are not bound to follow Matt. 49 where Dea. T. admits she said all that was now required. It was impossible that the church could have supposed that Mrs. W. intended wantonly to disregard their feelings, because, as will be recollected, this dancing took place at a regular meeting of the "Winter circle," which met once a fortnight, and generally, if not always, engaged in this amusement. * We should have hoped that a Doctor of Divinity would not have followed suit to Mr. Dole and called this a "public offence" in order to excuse the caucus. See note, page 35, which places this in its true light. |