Timeline

Birth

Dresden, New York

Robert Green Ingersoll is born in Dresden, New York, the son of John Ingersoll, an itinerant Congregationalist minister, and Mary Livingston Ingersoll.

Death of His Mother

His mother, Mary Livingston Ingersoll, dies when Robert is just two years old. The family moves frequently as his father preaches across the frontier.

Frontier Boyhood Begins

Wisconsin

After stops in New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the Ingersoll family moves through a string of small midwestern towns. Robert's schooling is irregular; he educates himself in his father's library and from borrowed books.

Settles in Illinois

Illinois

The Ingersoll family settles in Illinois. Robert is largely self-educated, reading voraciously in his father's library and wherever books could be found.

Admitted to the Bar

Shawneetown, Illinois

Ingersoll is admitted to the Illinois Bar, opening a law practice first in Shawneetown and later in Peoria, Illinois. He quickly earns a reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer and orator.

Marriage to Eva Parker

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll marries Eva Amanda Parker. Their marriage is by all accounts deeply loving and egalitarian, a hallmark of his beliefs in human equality. He called her the greatest woman he ever knew.

Runs for Congress

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll, then a Democrat, runs unsuccessfully for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's Fifth District. The defeat closes the chapter on his pre-war Democratic politics; the war and Reconstruction will move him decisively to the Republican Party.

Raises the 11th Illinois Cavalry

Peoria, Illinois

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ingersoll raises and is commissioned Colonel of the 11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment. He served the Union cause with distinction.

Captured at Lexington, Tennessee

Lexington, Tennessee

During Forrest's raid on Grant's supply lines, Ingersoll and his regiment are captured by Confederate forces under General Nathan Bedford Forrest at Lexington, Tennessee. He is later paroled.

Returns to Law Practice

Peoria, Illinois

Following his parole, Ingersoll resigns his military commission and returns to the practice of law in Peoria, Illinois, where he builds one of the state's most successful legal practices.

Elected Illinois Attorney General

Springfield, Illinois

Ingersoll is elected Attorney General of Illinois as a Republican, the highest office he ever holds. During his term he begins to openly espouse freethought ideas that would define his public legacy.

Indianapolis Campaign Speech

Indianapolis, Indiana

Stumping for Grant's first presidential campaign, Ingersoll delivers a celebrated address at Indianapolis. The speech is the first to attract national attention to him outside Illinois and establishes his reputation as the Republican Party's most magnetic orator.

"Humboldt" Oration

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers his celebrated oration on Alexander von Humboldt, praising the great naturalist as a champion of science and human progress. It marks the beginning of his public freethought career.

"Thomas Paine" Oration

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers a powerful defense of Thomas Paine, rescuing that founding father's reputation from those who wished to obscure his deist and freethought beliefs.

"The Gods" Lecture

Fairbury, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers and publishes "The Gods," his first major freethought lecture, arguing that humanity must abandon superstition for reason. The lecture causes a national sensation and establishes him as America's foremost freethinker.

"Individuality" Lecture

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll publishes "Individuality," an extended argument that intellectual freedom and the right to private judgment are the foundation of every other right. The lecture becomes one of his standard road-show pieces for the next decade.

"Heretics and Heresies" Lecture

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll publishes "Heretics and Heresies," a passionate defense of intellectual courage and an attack on religious intolerance throughout history.

"Plumed Knight" Speech at Republican National Convention

Cincinnati, Ohio

At the Republican National Convention in Cincinnati, Ingersoll delivers his famous "Plumed Knight" speech nominating James G. Blaine for President. The speech is considered one of the greatest pieces of political oratory in American history.

Centennial Oration

Peoria, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers the Centennial Oration in Peoria, a Fourth-of-July address on the hundredth birthday of the Republic: "Our fathers retired the gods from politics."

"Hard Times and the Way Out"

Peoria, Illinois

In the depression year following the Panic of 1873, Ingersoll delivers "Hard Times and the Way Out," his clearest economic statement: that prosperity follows from honest labor, sound money, and the dignity of the working person.

"The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child" and Move to Washington D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll publishes "The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child" and moves his family and law practice to Washington D.C., attracted by the opportunities of the nation's capital. His lecture fees make him wealthy.

"Ghosts" Lecture

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll delivers "Ghosts," an examination of superstition and the fear-based origins of religious belief, arguing that religion arose from humanity's ignorance of natural forces.

Visits Robert Burns's Cottage, Ayr, Scotland

Ayr, Scotland

During his European tour, Ingersoll visits the Burns cottage at Ayr in Scotland and writes the manuscript of his tribute lecture "Robert Burns" there. The lecture opens with his account of the visit.

European Tour, London, England

London, England

Ingersoll travels to London during his 1878 European tour, visiting the city of Paine, Hume, and the English freethinkers he had long admired.

European Tour, Paris, France

Paris, France

From London, Ingersoll continues to Paris, the France of Voltaire and Diderot, whose legacies he would celebrate in his lectures on Voltaire and on the great infidels.

"Some Mistakes of Moses" Lecture

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll publishes "Some Mistakes of Moses," his most detailed examination of biblical contradictions, historical inaccuracies, and moral problems in the Old Testament. It becomes one of his most-read works.

Funeral of Ebon C. Ingersoll

Washington, D.C.

At his brother Ebon's funeral in Washington, Ingersoll delivers one of the most famous grave-side orations in the English language. "Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities."

"What Must We Do to Be Saved?"

Chicago, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers "What Must We Do to Be Saved?" in Chicago, an extended interrogation of the four Gospels, weighing each against the others on the question that titled the lecture.

"The Great Infidels" Lecture

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll delivers "The Great Infidels," celebrating history's greatest freethinkers and heretics, from Bruno and Galileo to Voltaire and Paine, as humanity's true benefactors.

"Some Reasons Why"

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll publishes "Some Reasons Why," the essay that contains his most-quoted line: "In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences."

Debate with T. DeWitt Talmage

New York, New York

Ingersoll publishes his extended rebuttal to the Reverend T. DeWitt Talmage's sermons against him, six newspaper interviews that became his longest work of religious polemic.

Address on the Civil Rights Act

Washington, D.C.

At Lincoln Hall in Washington, Ingersoll, introduced by Frederick Douglass, speaks on the Supreme Court's ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional.

Stumps for Blaine in the Presidential Campaign

New York, New York

Eight years after nominating him at Cincinnati, Ingersoll campaigns for James G. Blaine across the Midwest and Northeast in the closest presidential race of the Gilded Age. Blaine narrowly loses to Cleveland; Ingersoll never campaigns at this scale again.

Moves to New York City

New York, New York

Ingersoll relocates his family and law practice to New York City, where he continues his enormously successful legal career, charging some of the highest fees of any lawyer in the nation.

Trial of C. B. Reynolds for Blasphemy

Morristown, New Jersey

Ingersoll defends the freethinker C. B. Reynolds at a blasphemy trial in Morristown, New Jersey, one of the last such prosecutions in American legal history.

Star Route Trial Closing

Washington, D.C.

Ingersoll's published closing argument in the Star Route postal-fraud cases, one of the most sensational legal proceedings of the Gilded Age, securing acquittal for his clients after a lengthy prosecution.

"A Lay Sermon"

New York, New York

Ingersoll publishes "A Lay Sermon," a compact address on duty, conscience, and the natural moral instincts that he argued required no theological scaffolding.

Ingersoll-Gladstone Controversy

New York, New York

In the pages of the North American Review, Ingersoll exchanges essays with William E. Gladstone, the four-time British Prime Minister, on the Christian religion. The exchange becomes one of the most-read transatlantic religious debates of the century.

"Crumbling Creeds"

New York, New York

Ingersoll publishes "Crumbling Creeds," surveying what he saw as the visible erosion of nineteenth-century religious orthodoxy under the pressure of science and historical scholarship.

"Shakespeare" Lecture

New York, New York

Ingersoll delivers his "Shakespeare" lecture, a critical appreciation of the playwright as the finest secular moralist of the English language. He repeats it on the lyceum circuit through the early 1890s.

A Christmas Sermon

New York, New York

Ingersoll's famous Christmas essay is published in the New York Evening Telegram. Denounced from every pulpit in the city, it becomes one of the most talked-about editorials of the season.

Graveside Tribute to Walt Whitman

Camden, New Jersey

At Walt Whitman's burial in Camden, New Jersey, Ingersoll delivers the graveside address, four days after the poet's death.

Davis Will Case

Butte, Montana

Ingersoll wins one of the largest contested-will cases of the Gilded Age, the Davis estate trial in Butte, Montana. His closing argument, later published in the Dresden Edition, was praised as a model of forensic clarity.

"About the Holy Bible"

New York, New York

Ingersoll publishes "About the Holy Bible" in the North American Review, a verse-by-verse examination of the moral and historical claims of the Old and New Testaments. It becomes one of the most-circulated freethought essays of the decade.

"Crimes Against Criminals"

New York, New York

Ingersoll delivers "Crimes Against Criminals," a humane plea for prison reform, the abolition of capital punishment, and the rehabilitation of offenders. The lecture anticipates by half a century the reform movements that followed.

"Why I Am an Agnostic" Published

New York, New York

Ingersoll publishes the definitive version of his famous lecture "Why I Am an Agnostic," which becomes one of the most widely distributed freethought documents of the era.

The Chicago and New York Gold Speech

Chicago, Illinois

Ingersoll delivers his last major political address on behalf of the gold standard during the Bryan-McKinley campaign of 1896.

"The Truth" Lecture

New York, New York

Ingersoll delivers "The Truth," one of his last major lectures, summarizing his philosophy: that truth sought through reason and evidence is humanity's highest calling.

"Superstition" Lecture

New York, New York

Ingersoll delivers "Superstition," examining how fear and ignorance give rise to religious dogma, and how science and reason are the proper antidotes.

Liederkranz Club Banquet

New York, New York

At a banquet of the German-American Liederkranz Club in New York, Ingersoll delivers a brief tribute to music and free society. It is one of his last platform appearances in the city.

Last Public Address, "What Is Religion?"

Boston, Massachusetts

Six weeks before his death, Ingersoll delivers his last public address, "What Is Religion?," to the American Free Religious Association at the Hollis Street Theatre in Boston.

Final Argument, Russell vs. Russell

Camden, New Jersey

Ingersoll's final court appearance: an argument before the Vice-Chancellor of New Jersey in Russell vs. Russell, delivered without notes.

Death

Dobbs Ferry, New York

Robert Green Ingersoll dies at Dobbs Ferry, New York, at age 65. His death is mourned across the nation. His body is laid out for public viewing at his home, and thousands file past to pay their respects. His wife Eva survives him.

Publisher's Preface to the Dresden Edition

New York, New York

C. P. Farrell, Ingersoll's brother-in-law and longtime publisher, signs the Publisher's Preface to the twelve-volume Dresden Edition in New York. The preface formally inaugurates the posthumous canon.

The Dresden Edition Published

Dresden, New York

Ingersoll's complete works are published posthumously in 12 volumes as the Dresden Edition, named after his birthplace in Dresden, New York. The edition collects his lectures, essays, poems, legal arguments, political speeches, and correspondence.