ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL - AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED 02/05/1880 - HFSID 101636

ROBERT G. INGERSOLL. ANS: "RG Ingersoll", 4x2 card. No place, 1880 February 5. To lecture agent James Redpath. In full: "Give (2) resd seats to AW Cornell & charge to me". ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL (1833-1899) is best known as the foremost orator and political speechmaker of his day. From 1865-1899, Ingersoll crisscrossed the country, giving three to four hour lectures (which he had committed to memory) on topics as wide-ranging as Shakespeare, Reconstruction, science and religion. An attorney when the Civil War broke out, Ingersoll raised the 11th Illinois Cavalry Regiment in 1862 and was given the rank of Colonel. A veteran of the battle of Shiloh, Ingersoll was captured, and, as was the custom with officers early in the war, was paroled on the condition that he not fight again. In 1867, he was named the first Attorney General of Illinois. Ingersoll, who was well known for backing Republican Party causes, gave the nominating speech for James G. Blaine at the 1876 Republican National Convention. Although the nomination went to Rutherford B. Hayes, Ingersoll's "Plumed Knight" speech was considered the classic political speech of the age. Despite helping in the election of a number of Republican Party candidates, Ingersoll was never appointed to a political office by any of them due to his outspoken and frequently controversial views. That did not mean he was without admirers; Ingersoll's friends included Presidents, authors (including Mark Twain), industrial giants (Andrew Carnegie among them), activists (such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and other prominent people of the day. JAMES REDPATH (1833-1891), a former newspaper editor and journalist, had founded the Boston Lyceum Bureau in 1868. Later called the Redpath Bureau, it arranged tours for some of the most prominent speakers in the nation. Ingersoll, one of Redpath's clients, was getting one dollar per seat, an astonishing price at the time. A.W. CORNELL was a distinguished architect. Heavily soiled. Lightly creased and worn at corners. Dealer's stamp, paper remnant and glue stain (no show through) on verso, which is also soiled.