When People Knew How to Speak: Oratory in the 19th Century

[JanMichael]

3. Robert Ingersoll The Great Agnostic

"The 1876 convention created demand for him as a speaker and he spoke all over the country. He delivered around 1,500 lectures in thirty years. One speech in Chicago attracted 50,000 people. The introductory video at the Ingersoll Birthplace Museum claims he was “seen and heard by more Americans than any human being prior to the advent of motion pictures and radio.” He spoke on politics, literature, patriotism, morality, and women’s rights. He attracted admirers such as Frederick Douglas, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman, Andrew Carnegie, and Thomas Edison. Mark Twain attended an Ingersoll lecture in Chicago in 1879 and later wrote that “the organ of human speech was played by a master.”

Some of his speeches are available online. They were pretty amazing.