Robert G. Ingersoll exerted considerable social impact on American culture, employing rhetorical persuasion to champion the free thought movement of the late 1880's. Primarily concerned with advocating the principle of individual freedom of thought and expression in religious life, he enraged his contemporary churchmen who were devoted to group conformity in faith and traditional orthodox theological commitments. Reverend Ingersoll's liberal religion and humanism sought intellectual freedom in the political realm as well, and his well-known addresses assumed inportance on the national level as well as in the Midwest. (KS)