The Trial of the Century of "the most famous man in America,"[Signed Admission Ticket] Admit Bearer To Trial./ Tilton vs. Beecher/ At the City Court Room

[New York], 1875. A near fine copy, slight rubbing.. 1 sheet. 3.5 x 2.5. inches. A rare printed ticket to be used by Roger A. Pryor (1828 -1919), associate counsel of the legal team representing Theodore Tilton who was suing Henry Ward Beecher for alienation of affection of Tilton's wife, Elizabeth. The trial was one of the most sensational of the second half of the 19th century. Beecher was "the most famous preacher in the nation" and perhaps the "the most famous man in America," the title of a 2006 biography of Beecher by Debby Applegate. Beecher was acquited at the end of the six month trial.

Roger A Prior, who served as associate prosecuting counsel for Theodore Tilton, was a Virginian who was released from prison just before the war ended, and unable to find in postwar Virginia, and being indicted for treason, came to the North to find work after the war. Apparently Prior felt remorse over the trail as he was been reported to have said: "Whenever I go to the Borough of Brooklyn and see the statue of Beecher standing under the windows of the court room where we sought to drag his name in the mire, I say to myself, 'How gloriously history has vindicated him and condemned us!"' (Lyman Beecher Stowe Saints Sinners And Beechers Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co. 1934, p 321).

Day tickets to the trial are uncommon, and repeat use passes even more so, especially those of counsel. (Inventory #: 45666)