Editing Robert G. Ingersoll (section)

==Oratory and free thought==
[[File:RobertGIngersoll-audience.jpg|thumb|The only known image of Ingersoll addressing an audience.]]
[[File:The American Museum of Natural History (1891) (17922636760).jpg|thumb|A political cartoon depicting crowds seeking entertainment by flocking to hear Ingersoll advocate for agnosticism in a theater which is open on Sunday, when the [[American Museum of Natural History]] is closed so as "Not to Offend Morality".]]
On October 30, 1880, Ingersoll was introduced as "the Great Agnostic" by Rev. [[Henry Ward Beecher]], before a political speech delivered to a large audience at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn.<ref>Kittredge, Ch. 5. 1911.</ref> He was ironically referred to as "Pope Bob" as early as 1879 by the ''[[Chicago Times]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=July 22, 1899 |title=Robert Ingersoll Crosses the River |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-union-robert-ingersoll-cr/172124089/ |access-date=May 11, 2025 |work=[[The Sacramento Union|The Record-Union]] |page=1 |publication-place=Sacramento |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> In an unpublished 1881 lecture entitled "The Great Infidels", he attacked the doctrine of Hell: "All the meanness, all the revenge, all the selfishness, all the cruelty, all the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."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhMEAAAAYAAJ&q=all%20the%20meanness%2C%20all%20the%20revenge%2C%20all%20the%20selfishness%2C%20all%20the%20cruelty%2C%20all%20the%20hatred%2C%20all%20the%20infamy%20of%20which%20the%20heart%20of%20man%20is%20capable&pg=PA319 | title=The Great Infidels | publisher=The Dresden Publishing Company | work=The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, in Twelve Volumes, Volume III | year=1915 | access-date=December 9, 2012 | author=Ingersoll, Robert G. | pages=319}}</ref>
He opposed the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] and supported a more lenient policy toward Chinese workers coming to the United States.<ref>In correspondence with Congress Representative [[Thomas J. Geary]], ''The North American Review'', vol. 157 (1893) pp. 52-67.</ref> Ingersoll defended women’s rights and opposed [[racial discrimination]] and [[capital punishment]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tarter |first1=Steve |title=A Meeting Of Giants |url=https://www.peoriamagazine.com/article/meeting-giants/ |access-date=25 December 2024 |publisher=Peoria Magazine}}</ref>