LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to her sister Isabella Hooker.
A Stowe Family Letter:
Harriet Writes To Reconcile Her Sister And Half-Brother
In The Wake Of The Tilton-Beecher Scandal
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Autograph letter signed, “Your affectionate / HBS,” to her sister, November 7, 1874.
2 leaves of blank writing paper, folded to make 6 pages, each 5 ¼ x 7 ¼.” In a specially made cloth slipcase.
An uplifting letter from Stowe to her sister Isabella Beecher Hooker, written in the wake of Henry Ward Beecher’s affair with Elizabeth Tilton. Victoria Woodhull broke the Tilton-Beecher scandal in early November 1872, and it reverberated for years. (In some circles, it reverberates still.) In November 1872 Isabella Beecher Hooker wrote to Susan B. Anthony of her efforts to get Henry, her half-brother, and Tilton to acknowledge their affair, an action which knee-capped her in the suffragette and reform communities and which, predictably, poisoned familial relations.
In this missive, Stowe writes to her sister, then traveling in France, of her own trip with Henry to Florida, where they have been for three days at the time of writing. She details the positive effect his recent sermons have had on him, and of his desire for a reconciliation.
In the first two paragraphs Stowe sets the scene with lyrical descriptions of the evening atmosphere, and of the inner peace she feels at having left the world behind to embark on this journey. In the third paragraph she notes that she has brought with her many old letters to reread, among them several by her sister from years previous. The next several pages merit quoting in full, as they touch on issues of regret and regeneration in the face of tremendous loss.
Reading your letters the old love of old days revived & I longed that we should be all again as we used to be. If all the miserable mistakes & tensions & misunderstandings of the past three or four years could sink out of sight and the love of old times return. Sure am I there is nothing in my heart but love—& love can hurt nobody. As to Henry, I have been with him in the [ ] this summer and know that the peace of perfect love possesses his soul. There is no impatience with any one—no hard feeling nothing but perfect kindness. In the last ride I had with him he spoke of you tenderly. A great deal of this peace is the peace which comes when the soul is utterly detached from Earth. It is the feeling which a scholar has when ones trunk is packed and one is only waiting for the carriage to take one home. He looks on life as one that has done with it—& whom it can vex no more. I suppose no possible crisis could have been found heavier to bear—but he has accepted it borne it—& bears it. & gives courage patience & hope to all around him.
At the White Mountains this summer he was as usual at the [ ] mountain house & that great houseful of more than a hundred guests became under his loving peaceful influence as one family. Every morning we had prayers with singing & lovely talks about the Bible & Sunday, he preached to thronged and crowded audiences for [ ] more [ ] forty & fifty miles about to bring passengers and over a thousand heard him every Sunday & throughout the strains of thought was so uplifting, so brave so calm & consoling [2nd leaf] it seemed to put strength into every body & I believe more than one will look back to those mountain talks as an uplift & a new era in spiritual life. It was to me, a marked era of spiritual growth. So by this great sorrow he has gained great power to console & strengthen.
In the final paragraph she writes of the “lovely weather” they’re enjoying, expresses wishes that her sister could join them, offers advice on her French travels, and adds, “I suppose you will come home a thorough French scholar.”
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