ROBERT INGERSOLL: GUYS NIGHT OUT

              ROBERT INGERSOLL:  GUYS NIGHT OUT

                                  NORMAN  V.  KELLY

 

I have written quite a bit about Ingersoll, in fact I called him Peoria’s most famous person.   That piece is on the Peoria Public Library link under my name. He was here in Peoria as an attorney for some twenty years, and I only wish we knew more about his personal life, his daily tasks.  He died in New York and his cremated remains were later buried in Arlington Cemetery.  We have a monument for him in Glen Oak Park that was dedicated in 1911.  It is still there.

 

His reputation as the nation’s most elegant speaker followed him in his travels and he was compared favorably with Patrick Henry and Daniel Webster. I often wondered what he was like around his friends, what he did when he was just hanging around some of the local saloons.  Perhaps this is the very story that I needed to find to show folks that Robert Green Ingersoll was just one of the guys when it came to a night out in Peoria, Illinois in 1857.
 

The adventure began on a warm September evening in 1857, after Robert and some of his pals met for a couple of drinks. The newspapers

referred to saloons back then as ‘groggeries’ and then taverns, inns, dumps, saloons, bars, and “Dangerous holes in the walls where the bridge denizens thrived.”  Now, those well-educated men, many of them lawyers, were a gregarious bunch and as they drank and sang the night away they gathered at a street corner to conduct a ‘Town Meeting.’  Not a very good idea it would seem for three o’clock in the morning.  But…at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do.  The meeting soon slipped into song, and the merry makers also built a very large bon fire  there at the corner of Main Street.

 

The sleeping neighbors began to stir and it was not long before the singers had quite an enraged audience.  Also, as one complainer pointed out to the police, “They were not bad singers but they only knew one song and they sang “Annie Laurie” over and over.”

 

                                       A  NEW  DAWN

 

Finally after all the paper work was done over at the holding cell in the city hall, the now somewhat sober young men were released. The local newspapers had their stories, and who knows what embarrassment the men faced by the townspeople.  The judge set the date for the arraignment and when they all gathered in front of the judge a brilliant lawyer stepped forward.  His name was Robert Green Ingersoll and he would be the defense lawyer for all of the men, including himself. Truth is this was really his first ‘defense case.’

 

The judge was not amused.  “How do you and your clients plead?”

 

“Not guilty! Not guilty your honor.”

 

“So entered.”

 

“Your honor the defendants request a jury trial.”

 

It is not recorded in our history but I for one would have liked to have seen the judge’s face when he heard that.

 

                                        THE TRIAL

 

As the assistant state’s attorney put on his case against these men, some of them young upstarts, Defense Attorney Ingersoll never said one word.  He smiled occasionally as he saw the humor in the witnesses’ statements. Finally the parade was over and the prosecution rested.

 

Ingersoll did not call one witness, in fact he immediately approached the jury and went into what would prove to be his summation and final closing argument.

 

In very short order he had the jury virtually hypnotized, lost in his elegant oratory. He spoke of everything except the matter before the court. He quoted the Constitution, ranted about freedom of speech, The Declaration of Independence and of course the glorious Bill Of Rights.

One reporter said, “Brilliant Mr. Ingersoll waved the Stars and Stripes into shreds and pinched the American eagle until it screamed.”

 

Pausing dramatically, Ingersoll walked slowly in front of the jury box catching each and every one of the twelve men jurors momentarily in

the eye before he moved on to the next. He walked back to the podium and stood there looking at the jury. “ Now gentlemen, if you will bring in a verdict in accordance with the law and the evidence I will get the boys together and we will sing you a few verses of “Annie Laurie.”

Much to the consternation of the judge and prosecutor, the jury broke into rousing laughter.

Do I even need to tell you what the verdict was?  You guessed it!

                                        “NOT  GUILTY”

 

During the time Ingersoll was here he became nationally and internationally known.  He had some famous cases and became the Attorney General for Illinois. Robert Ingersoll was a remarkably brilliant man and we are very fortunate that he chose Peoria, Illinois as his home. The next time you are in the lower part of Glen Oak Park go on over and talk to him. He has been waiting for you there since 1911.

Editor’s Note: Norm is a true crime writer and author of several books on Peoria, Illinois.  norman.kelly@sbcglobal.net