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Robert
Green Ingersoll
(1833-1899)
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"Give to every other
human being every right that you claim
for yourself." Robert Ingersoll
"If a man would
follow, today, the teachings of the Old
Testament, he would be a criminal. If he
would follow strictly the teachings of
the New, he would be insane."
Robert Ingersoll |
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Ingersoll, Robert
Green (1833-1899)
American orator and lawyer born on the
shores of Seneca Lake in Dresden, NY, on
August 11, 1833, the youngest of five
children of John and Mary Ingesoll. His
father was by all accounts a stern,
uncompromising Congregationalist
minister who preached the Calvinist
doctrine of man’s innate depravity and
his impending damnation. He believed in
the words of Elbert Hubbard, that "that
which was pleasant was not wholly good".
John Ingersoll preached abolitionist
sermons so fiery that congregation often
dismissed him., Dresden was no
exception; the Ingersolls left this area
when Robert was four months old. Mary
Ingersoll died at thirty-one, when
Robert was one and one-half years of
age. After his wife died, John Ingersoll
dragged his family from one ministerial
post to another, eventually settling in
Illinois.
Robert
had very little formal education. He
last saw the inside of a conventional
schoolroom as a youth of fifteen while
his family was residing in Waukesha,
Wisconsin. Later, he would say that his
real education began while he was
waiting at a cobbler’s shop, when he
chanced to pick up a book of the poetry
of Robert Burns. After the family
settled in Illinois, Robert apprenticed
himself to two lawyers, one after
another, and in that way qualified
himself for the practice of law.
Along with his brother
Ebon, Ingersoll was admitted to the
Illinois bar in 1854 and they
established a law practice in
Shawneetown. In 1857 they moved to
Peoria, where Ebon started his political
career and Robert developed his ability
as a lawyer, speaker, and political
exponent. He took on some high profile
cases such as the Star Route trial, as
well as defending a man arrested in New
Jersey under an archaic blasphemy law.
Though it was one of the few cases he
ever lost, he did point out the
absurdity of such laws, which were
seldom enforced again. He was regarded
as a great lawyer with "a remarkable
power to go straight to the principle of
things." Deeply impress with the
writings of such freethinkers as Volney,
Voltaire, and Paine, he developed
lifelong commitments to rationalism,
humanism, and intellectual freedom.
In 1862, Robert raised
the 11th Cavalry Regiment and
was awarded the rank of Colonel. He
served with distinction in the Union
army during the Civil War where his
regiment fought in the battle of Shiloh.
Soon after Ingersoll was captured, but
as was sometimes done with officers
early in the war, he was paroled:
allowed to go free on condition that he
not fight again.
It was during and
after the war that Ingersoll built his
reputation for oratory. In 1867 Governor
Richard Oglesby , appointed him the
first Attorney General of Illinois, It
was the first and last public office
Ingersoll would ever hold. His own
political ambitions were thwarted by
public disapproval of his attacks on
religion, which he delivered in lectures
all over the country.
Although previously a
Democrat, he emerged from the War a
Republican,( the party of Lincoln) and
in 1876 at the Republican convention he
nominated James G. Blaine for President
in his famous "plumed knight" speech
which contained the following memorable
sentence: "Like an armed warrior, like a
plumed knight, James G. Blaine marched
down the halls of the American Congress
and threw his shining lances full and
fair against the brazen forehead of
every defamer of his country and
malinger of its honor."
After his brother was
elected to Congress in 1879, Ingersoll
moved his law practice to Washington,
D.C., and lived there, and in New York
until his death in 1899.
By the latter part of
the 19th century Robert
Ingersoll was a household name. Though
he was first known as a great patriot,
he eventually became known as "The Great
Agnostic." He stood by the religion of
reason and attacked the superstitions of
orthodox religions in a common sense
style reminiscent of Thomas Paine. A
tall, heavyset man with an electrifying
voice, he lectured to packed houses
across the country, speaking on topics
ranging from Shakespeare and science to
religion and racism. In questioning the
tenets of Christian belief his lecture
were given such titles as "The Gods"
(1872), "Some Mistakes of Moses" (1879),
"Why I Am an Agnostic" (1896), and
"Superstition" (1898) He could command
from $400 to as much as $7,000 (in the
dollars of the day) for a single
evening’s performance. Ingersoll was
admired by people such as Thomas Edison,
Mark Twain, Walt Whitmann, Andrew
Carnegie and Presidents Ulysses S. Grant
and James Garfield, Henry Ward Beecher
acclaimed him as the "most brilliant
speaker of the English tongue of all men
on the globe." 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-American. Though his views
provoke many death threats, he was
undeterred.
He was also praised
for his virtues as a man of family and
fireside. He practiced what he preached.
Opponents frequently despaired of
finding anything to disparage in his
personal life.
He died of heart
failure on July 21, 1899 at Walston, his
son-in-law’s palatial home in Dobbs
Ferry, New York. He was 65 years old.
Ingersoll was buried with military
honors in Arlington National Cemetery. A
birthplace museum in his honor is
located in Dresden, NY. Shortly after
his death, his complete works were
collected and published by his
brother-in-law Clinton P. Farrell. This
lavish 12-volumn set was known as the
"Dresden Edition,’ named for the town of
Ingersoll birth. |
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(click
on photo to enlarge) |
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as a
young man |
Four Ingersoll
Souvenir Busts |
cameo portrait |
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Ad for
"The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child"
Lecture |
Ad for
"The Bible"
Lecture |
Ad for
"Which Way"
Lecture |
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Portrait |
Only known photograph of
Ingersoll actually addressing a crowd at a
Thomas Paine rally in New Rochelle, NY |
Portrait |
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Portrait |
Portrait |
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Statue of Ingersoll in
Peoria. IL |
charcoal sketch |
walking stick |
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Creed
(To Listen to "Creed"
(1895) click on the gramophone above)
"While I am opposed to
all orthodox creeds, I have a creed
myself; and my creed is this. Happiness
is the only good. The time to be happy
is now. The place to be happy to be
here. The way to be happy is to make
others so. This creed is somewhat short,
but it is long enough for this life,
strong enough for this world. If there
is another world, when we get there we
can make another creed. But this creed
certainly will do for this life." — 1882
Recording gift of David Thielking
Historic recording re-mastered by Paul
Squire,
Squire Recording Studio,
Buffalo NY |
Hope
(To Listen to "Hope"
(1895) click on the gramophone above)
"The prejudiced priest
and the malicious minister say that I am
trying to take away the hope of a future
life.
I am not trying to
destroy another world, but I am
endeavoring to prevent the theologians
from destroying this.
The hope of another life
was in the heart, long before the "sacred
books" were written, and will remain there
long after all the "sacred books" are
known to be the work of savage and
superstitious men. Hope is the consolation
of the world.
The wanderers hope for
home. — Hope builds the house and plants
the flowers and fills the air with song.
The sick and suffering hope for health. —
Hope gives them health and paints the
roses in their cheeks.
The lonely, the
forsaken, hope for love. — Hope brings the
lover to their arms. They feel the kisses
on their eager lips. The poor in tenements
and huts, in spite of rags and hunger,
hope for wealth. — Hope fills their thin
and trembling hands with gold.
The dying hopes that
death is but another birth, and Love leans
above the pallid face and whispers, "We
shall meet again."
Hope is the consolation
of the world.
Let us hope, if there be
a God, that he is wise and good. Let us
hope that if there be another life that it
will bring peace and joy to all the
children of men.
And let us hope that
this poor earth on which we live, may be a
perfect world — a world without a crime —
without a tear".
From "The Foundations of
Faith," 1895
Gift of Darrin Rasberry;
Remastered by Inquiry Media Productions |
Liberty
(to Listen to "Liberty" (1895) click on the
gramophone above)
O Liberty, thou art the god of my idolatry! In thy
vast and unwalled temple, beneath the roofless dome, gemmed with stars,
luminous with suns, thy worshipers stand erect! They do not cringe, or
????, or kneel, or crawl. The dust has never held the impress of their
lips. Thou askest naught from man except the things that good men hate —
the whip, the chain, the dungeon key. Thou hast no popes, no priests,
who stand between their fellow men and thee. At thy sacred altar virtue
does not tremble, hypocrisy does not crouch, superstition’s feeble
tapers do not burn, but Reason holds aloft the inextinguishable torch
whose holy light at last will one day flood this world.
From "Myth and Miracle," 1895
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Birthplace Museum in
Dresden, NY |
Ingersoll's gravesite in
Arlington National Cemetery |
Ingersoll's
birthplace |
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Joseph
Haworth & Robert Green
Ingersoll |
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On February 19, 1886, Joe
returned to Shakespeare when he appeared
as Orlando in Helene Modjeska’s all-star
As You Like It benefit for Polish
exiles at the Star Theatre. Both Joe and
Louis James, who played Jaques, received
notice and praise. Four days later, Joe
was back in his beloved Boston, playing
Romeo to Margaret Mather’s Juliet. An
important new friend and mentor
enthusiastically attended these
performances. His name was
Colonel Robert Ingersoll:
war hero, renowned freethinker, and
Shakespearian scholar. In heavily
Christian 19th century
America, Robert Ingersoll was a beloved
agnostic. He stood squarely for the
notion that an individual may lead a
moral and productive life without
practicing a religion. He was a popular
speaker on the lecture circuit---one
night in Chicago his audience numbered
50,000. He had seen Joe act, deemed him
a worthy exponent of Shakespearean
thought, and sought his friendship. Joe
became a regular visitor to the
Ingersoll family home in Far Rockaway.
Evenings with Ingersoll and his
family were three-hour symposiums.
Ingersoll could quote entire plays
verbatim. He knew off-hand the
differences between folio editions of
Shakespeare and quarto versions, and he
could elucidate a passage in light of
Elizabethan philosophy. When he spoke
verse himself, it was simple and musical
with the touch of its meaning on every
significant word, and with tones
changing with the changed feeling.
Throughout his career, Joe was
consistently praised for his
"scholarship." It is clear that his
thinking was deepened by the self-taught
genius of Robert Ingersoll. |
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