"The Great Agnostic"
Robert Green Ingersoll
(1833-1899)
RobertGreenIngersoll.org
Intimate View
Robert Green Ingersoll is
too little known today. Yet he was the foremost orator and
political speechmaker of late 19th century America --
perhaps the best-known American of the post-Civil War era.
Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York in 1833. His father
was a Presbyterian minister who changed congregations often.
The Ingersolls left Dresden when the baby Robert was less
than four months old. Ingersoll would make his name as a
resident of Peoria, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; and finally
New York City. Yet the house of his birth remains the only
Ingersoll residence that is open to the public as a memorial
to him.
Ingersoll entered public life as a Peoria, Illinois,
attorney. Following distinguished service in the Civil War,
he served as the first Attorney General of Illinois.
Politically, he allied with the Republicans, the party of
Lincoln and in those days the voice of progressivism.
Ingersoll's electrifying speaking voice soon made him the
most sought-after speechmaker on behalf of Republican
candidates and causes. His legal career was also
distinguished. He mounted a successful defense of two men
falsely charged in the Star Route Scandal, perhaps the most
controversial, politically-charged trial of the late 19th
century.
But it was his private speaking career that made him famous.
Tour after tour, he crisscrossed the country and spoke
before packed houses on topics ranging from Shakespeare to
Reconstruction, from science to religion. In an age when
oratory was the dominant form of public entertainment,
Ingersoll was the unchallenged king of American orators.
Ingersoll was the friend of Presidents, literary giants like
Mark Twain, captains of industry like Andrew Carnegie, and
leading figures in the arts. He was also beloved of
reformers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Other Americans
considered themselves his enemies. He bitterly opposed the
Religious Right of his day. He was an early popularizer of
Charles Darwin and a tireless advocate of science and
reason. More, he argued for the rights of women and
African-Americans.
Ingersoll also praised the virtues of family and fireside.
And he practiced what he preached. Contemporary sources say
Ingersoll enjoyed almost idyllic contentment in family life.
Opponents frequently despaired of finding anything to
disparage in his personal life.
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