The Moralist

Henry Bowen, employer of both Theodore Tilton and Beecher, was also a victim of Beecher—his own wife Lucy reportedly had confessed to an affair with their pastor on her deathbed. Bowen signed Moulton’s Tripartite Covenant along with Beecher and Tilton, swearing himself to secrecy. When the scandal broke in Woodhull’s newspaper, Bowen dropped a copy in the mail, thus making Woodhull guilty of smut-peddling, or publishing obscene material that was sent through the mails.