Applegate sees Beecher as someone who "transcended all the categories we take for granted. He adopted the idea of the unconditional love of God, and he didn't believe in hell. Sometimes his sermons don't read well today, because he often talked off the top of his head. But there are flashes of brilliance and compassion in the sermons, with fantastic ideas couched in persuasive ways.

"But they are disjointed. They're not as persuasive as Daniel Webster's speeches. But (Beecher's) sermons were emotional. The people who listened to Beecher remembered it for the rest of their lives."

If most people today are not familiar with Beecher, it is because "oratory is too transient," Applegate said. In Beecher's time, "The church was the last bastion in America for oratory. There was nothing like someone on the stage — alone. It was a way of engaging people that you don't get from reading."

The major events that defined Beecher's reputation were accusations that he had committed adultery with Elizabeth Tilton, wife of journalist Theodore Tilton — both members of his congregation. It was not the first time Beecher was suspected of having an affair. Even though Theodore Tilton sued Beecher in a Brooklyn civil court, it ended in a hung jury.

"Sometimes," said Applegate, "I would say to myself, 'What a jerk!' It's still impossible to make a 100 percent conclusion about his sexual guilt. If I had been on the jury, I would say he was guilty. But he genuinely liked women and when he was young, he was surrounded by his sisters and the girls who were boarding in his house.

"Although he liked young women, the women with whom he had affairs were not free-thinking, radical types. He liked literary ladies. They liked him because he was sensitive and could talk about his feelings."

During his last years, the scandal still hanging over his head, his sermons lacked some of their fire. But he talked about guilt and transgression, even if he was more guarded. "He made a fortune in the last 10 years of his life as a lecturer. He made two major tours across the country. Easterners were a little more forgiving, but even when crowds would threaten him, he still packed the halls. They wanted to know if he was a libertine or a saint, and in every place he won them over," said Applegate.

Applegate believes that "his place in history would be more secure had it not been for the scandal."

Her goal in writing the book is "to give Beecher back to America. He had large flaws. He was a man of contradictions. But he was charming."

"To not know Henry Ward Beecher is to not know Benjamin Franklin."

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E-mail: dennis@desnews.com