Robert G . Ingersoll Robert Green " Bob " Ingersoll ( August 11 , 1833 – July 21 , 1899 ) was a lawyer , a Civil War veteran , political leader , and orator of United States during the Golden Age of Freethought , noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism . He was nicknamed " The Great Agnostic . " Life and career . Robert Ingersoll was born in Dresden , New York . His father , John Ingersoll , was an abolitionist - leaning Congregationalist preacher , whose radical views forced his family to move frequently . For a time , Rev . John Ingersoll filled the pulpit for American revivalist Charles G . Finney while Finney was on a tour of Europe . Upon Finney ' s return , Rev . Ingersoll remained for a few months as co - pastor / associate pastor under Finney . The elder Ingersoll ' s later pastoral experiences influenced young Robert negatively , however , as The Elmira Telegram described in 1890 : Though for many years the most noted of American infidels , Colonel Ingersoll was born and reared in a devoutly Christian household . His father , John Ingersoll , was a Congregationalist minister and a man of mark in his time , a deep thinker , a logical and eloquent speaker , broad minded and generously tolerant of the views of others . The popular impression which credits Ingersoll ' s infidelity in the main to his father ' s severe orthodoxy and the austere and gloomy surroundings in which his boyhood was spent is wholly wrong . On the contrary the elder Ingersoll ' s liberal views were a source of constant trouble between him and his narrow - minded parishioners . They caused him to frequently change his charges , and several times made him the defendant in church trials . His ministerial career was , in fact , substantially brought to a close by a church trial which occurred while he was pastor of the Congregational Church at Madison , Ohio , and at which his third wife appeared as prosecutor . Upon this occasion he was charged with prevarication and unministerial conduct . The evidence adduced — the trial is one of the abiding traditions of the dull little town of Madison — was of the most trivial and ridiculous character , but the committee which heard it decided that though he had done " nothing inconsistent with his Christian character , " he was " inconsistent with his ministerial character , " and forbade him to preach in the future . Elder John went before the higher church authorities and was permitted to continue his clerical labors . However , he soon removed to Wisconsin , going from there to Illinois , where he died . The Madison trial occurred when young Robert was nine years old , and it was the unjust and bigoted treatment his father received which made him the enemy , first of Calvinism , and later of Christianity in its other forms . In 1853 , " Bob " Ingersoll taught a term of school in Metropolis , Illinois , where he let one of his students , the future Judge Angus M . L . McBane , do the " greater part of the teaching , while Latin and history occupied his own attention " . At some point prior to his Metropolis position , Ingersoll had also taught school in Mount Vernon , Illinois . Later that year , the family settled in Marion , Illinois , where Robert and his brother Ebon Clarke Ingersoll were admitted to the bar in 1854 . A county historian writing 22 years later noted that local residents considered the Ingersolls as a " very intellectual family ; but , being Abolitionists , and the boys being deists , rendered obnoxious to our people in that respect . " While in Marion , he studied law under Judge Willis Allen and served as deputy clerk for John M . Cunningham , Williamson County ' s County Clerk and Circuit Clerk . In 1855 , after Cunningham was named registrar for the federal land office in southeastern Illinois at Shawneetown , Illinois , Ingersoll followed him to the riverfront city along the Ohio River . After a short time there he took the deputy clerk position with John E . Hall , the county clerk and circuit clerk of Gallatin County , and also a son - in - law of John Hart Crenshaw . On November 11 , 1856 , Ingersoll caught Hall in his arms when the son of a political opponent assassinated his employer in their office . When he moved to Shawneetown , he continued to read law under Judge William G . Bowman who had a large library of both law and the classics . In addition to his job as a clerk , he and his brother opened their law practice under the name " E . C . and R . G . Ingersoll " . During this time they also had an office in Raleigh , Illinois , then the county seat of neighboring Saline County . As attorneys following the court circuit he often practiced alongside Cunningham ' s soon - to - be son - in - law , John A . Logan , the state ' s attorney and political ally to Hall . As the trial of Hall ' s assassin dominated the scene and with his earlier mentor Cunningham having moved back to Marion following the land office ' s closing in 1856 , and Logan ' s move to Benton , Illinois , after his marriage that fall , Ingersoll and his brother moved to Peoria , Illinois , where they finally settled in 1857 . Ingersoll was married , February 13 , 1862 , to Eva Amelia Parker ( 1841 - 1923 ) . They had two daughters . Ingersoll was a great believer in the importance of family life . With the outbreak of the American Civil War , he raised the 11th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry and took command . The regiment fought in the Battle of Shiloh . Ingersoll was later captured , then released on his promise that he would not fight again , which 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 and , though he never held an elected position , he was nonetheless an active participant in politics . According to Robert Nisbet , Ingersoll was a " staunch conservative Republican . " His speech nominating James G . Blaine for the 1876 presidential election was unsuccessful , as Rutherford B . Hayes received the Republican nomination , but the speech itself , known as the " Plumed Knight " speech , was considered a model of political oratory . ( Franklin Roosevelt probably used it as a model for his " Happy Warrior " speech when nominating Alfred E . Smith for president in 1928 ) . 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 state attorney general . Illinois Republicans tried to pressure him into running for governor on the condition that Ingersoll conceal his agnosticism during the campaign , which he refused to do on the basis that concealing information from the public was immoral . 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 charged with blasphemy . Although he did not win acquittal , his vigorous defense is considered to have discredited blasphemy laws and few other prosecutions followed . Ingersoll represented the noted con - artist , James Reavis , the ' Baron of Arizona ' for a time , pronouncing his Peralta Land Grant claim airtight . 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 agnosticism 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 . 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 . In a lecture entitled " The Great Infidels , " he attacked the Christian doctrine of Hell : " All the meanness , all the revenge , all the selfishness , all the cruelty , all the hatred , all the infamy of which the heart of man is capable , grew blossomed , and bore fruit in this one word — Hell . " Ingersoll died from congestive heart failure at the age of 65 . Soon after his death , his brother - in - law , Clinton P . Farrell , 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 . Ingersoll ' s ashes are interred in Arlington National Cemetery ( Section 3 , Lot 1620 , Grid S - 16 . 5 ) . In 2005 , a popular edition of Ingersoll ' s work was published by Steerforth Press . Edited by the Pulitzer Prize - winning music critic Tim Page , " What ' s God Got to Do With It : Robert Ingersoll on Free Speech , Honest Talk and the Separation of Church and State " brought Ingersoll ' s thinking to a new audience . Friendship with Walt Whitman . Ingersoll enjoyed a friendship with the poet Walt Whitman , who considered Ingersoll the greatest orator of his time . " It should not be surprising that I am drawn to Ingersoll , for he is Leaves of Grass . . . He lives , embodies , the individuality , I preach . I see in Bob [ Ingersoll ] the noblest specimen — American - flavored — pure out of the soil , spreading , giving , demanding light . " The feeling was mutual . Upon Whitman ' s death in 1892 , Ingersoll delivered the eulogy at the poet ' s funeral . The eulogy was published to great acclaim and is considered a classic panegyric .