Robert G. Ingersoll

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Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 � July 21, 1899) was an American political leader and orator, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was prominent during the Golden Age of Freethought. Colonel Bob Mountain in Washington state was named after him by the climbers who discovered the peak in 1893.

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His father, John Ingersoll, was an abolitionist preacher. Ingersoll was born in Dresden, New York, but his family moved frequently because of his father's radical views before finally settling in Peoria, Illinois. Ingersoll apprenticed himself to lawyers there and hung out his shingle.

With the advent of the American Civil War, he raised the 11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment and took command. The regiment fought in the Battle of Shiloh. Ingersoll was later captured, then paroled on his promise that he would not fight again. (This was common practice early in the war.)

After the war, he served as Illinois Attorney General. He was a prominent member of the Republican Party, at that time the more progressive party. Although he never held any office, he was an active participant. His nominating speech for James G. Blaine in 1876 did not result in Blaine's candidacy, but the speech itself, known as the "Plumed Knight" speech, was considered the gold standard for political oratory.

Ingersoll was involved in several prominent trials as an attorney, notably the Star Route trials, a major political scandal in which his clients were acquitted. He also defended a New Jersey man for blasphemy. Although he did not win acquittal, his vigorous defense is considered to have discredited blasphemy laws and few other prosecutions followed.

Ingersoll was most noted as an orator, the most popular of the age, when oratory was public entertainment. He spoke on every subject, from Shakespeare to Reconstruction, but his most popular subjects were atheism and the sanctity and refuge of the family. He committed his speeches to memory although they were sometimes more than three hours long. His audiences were said never to be restless.

His radical views on religion, slavery, woman's suffrage, and other issues of the day effectively prevented him from ever pursuing or holding political offices higher than that of Attorney General.

Many of Ingersoll's speeches advocated freethought and humanism, and often poked fun at religious belief. For this the press often attacked him, but neither his views nor the negative press could stop his rising popularity. At the height of Ingersoll's fame, audiences would pay $1 or more to hear him speak, a giant sum for his day.

Ingersoll died of heart failure at age 65. Soon after his death, Clinton P. Farrell, a brother-in-law, collected copies of Ingersoll's speeches for publication. The 12-volume Dresden Editions kept interest in Ingersoll's ideas alive and preserved his speeches for future generations.

Contents

Quotations from Ingersoll

  • A crime against god is a demonstrated impossibility.
  • A good deed is the best prayer.
  • Age after age, the strong have trampled upon the weak; the crafty and heartless have ensnared and enslaved the simple and innocent, and nowhere, in all the annals of mankind, has any god succored the oppressed.
  • Blasphemy is an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense.
  • Courage without conscience is a wild beast.
  • Every library is an arsenal.
  • The hands that help are better far than the lips that pray.
  • In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences.
  • I admit that reason is a small and feeble flame, a flickering torch by stumblers carried in the star-less night, blown and flared by passion's storm, and yet, it is the only light. Extinguish that, and nought remains.
  • Churches are becoming political organizations.... It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave. All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy -- making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would excite the admiration of mankind. Surely politicians could be better employed than in passing laws to protect the literary reputation of the Jewish God. -- from Ingersoll's Some Mistakes of Moses, Section III., "The Politicians," in Works, Dresden Edition, Volume 2

Quotation about Ingersoll

  • "What an organ human speech is when employed by a master." Mark Twain on Ingersoll.
  • To Mrs. Clemens, in Hartford, 1879: "I've just come to my room, Livy darling, I guess this was the memorable night of my life. By George, I never was so stirred since I was born. I heard [a speech] by that splendid old soul, Col. Bob Ingersoll,--oh, it was just the supremest combination of English words that was ever put together since the world began." Mark Twain

Further Reading

  • Tim Page, editing Robert Green Ingersoll, What's God Got to Do with It? : Robert Ingersoll on Free Thought, Honest Talk and the Separation of Church and State, Random House (August, 2005), trade paperback, ISBN 1586420968
  • Robert G. Ingersoll, The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Dresden (1902), 12 volume set, several sets were offered in 2005 on ABE for about $750.

External links

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