The cry has been raised in various religious papers that
Plymouth Church was in complicity with crime,--that they were so
captivated with eloquence and genius that they refused to make
competent investigation. The six months' legal investigation was
insufficient; a new trial was needed. Plymouth Church immediately
called a council of ministers and laymen, in number representing
thirty-seven thousand Congregational Christians, to whom Plymouth
Church surrendered her records,--her conduct,--all the facts of the
case, and this great council unanimously supported the church and
ratified her decision; recognizing the fact that, in all the
investigations hitherto, nothing had been proved against my brother.
They at his request, and that of Plymouth Church, appointed a
committee of five to whom within sixty days any one should bring any
facts that they could prove, or else forever after hold their peace.
It is thought now by my brother's friends that this thing must finally
reach a close. But you see why I have not written. This has drawn on
my life--my heart's blood. He is myself; I know you are the kind of
woman to understand me when I say that I felt a blow at him more than
at myself. I, who know his purity, honor, delicacy, know that he has
been from childhood of an ideal purity,--who reverenced his conscience
as his king, whose glory was redressing human wrong, who spake no
slander, no, nor listened to it.
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