Napoleon vs. French Peasant | Ghosted By History

Napoleon vs. French Peasant 

lyrics inspired by...

Oration: Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

Year: 1877

Author: Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)

Notes: see below after lyric video

A little while ago, I stumbled across an 1877 speech by Robert G. Ingersoll, a famous orator and lawyer known as "the great agnostic." While I don't agree with him religiously, I agree with his oration about Napoleon - well, except I've seen the tomb, and it's red Russian quartzite, not black Egyptian marble. 

In his book you’ll find a softened version—“rare and nameless marble”—but that’s still geologically wrong. Ingersoll changed it even further on a later edition, still not exactly right, but I stuck to the original oration as performed on the stage of the Wieting Opera House in Syracuse to a sold out audience.

Could it be that Ingersoll never saw the tomb for himself? Could it be transmission drift—memory, transcription, or secondhand ‘seeing’ through images? This led me down a deep rabbit hole into the world of Stereographs.

For the uninitiated: stereographs were popular from the 1850s to the early 1900s, and were the Victorian version of "virtual reality."  They allowed people to experience armchair travel, viewing famous monuments and natural wonders in lifelike 3D. It was like sharing a cool YouTube video with your friend. To make a standard stereograph, the camera is moved 2.5 inches to take a second photo - mimicking the distance between average human eyes. The cards were placed into a viewfinder. They weren't expensive but they weren't cheap. Think of them like Nintendo games in the 90's or a nice bottle of wine today - they were something to share, something to enjoy... something to show off at dinner parties.

Seeing was believing in the 1800s. Even if it was a stereograph. I found countless stereographs of the tomb in question largely in greyscale. The images I saw were easy to confuse the tomb as black marble for example this one in the Library of Congress archives and the one used in the cover art where you can clearly imagine yourself leaning over the balustrade:

We have no reason to believe that Ingersoll didn't go to Paris. Still, I'm glad I asked the questions that led me to learn so much about stereographs. He was a man of means who took a French vacation in 1875. While this doesn't independently prove the moment at the balustrade, it looks like Ingersoll wasn't exaggerating this one. I'm probably spoiled from the ability to fact-check nearly everything instantly with the internet at my fingertips. This may have caused me to judge too harshly the artistic work of Ingersoll's oration as unverified or to assume that he was lazy with facts. 

The tomb maybe has otherworldly qualities that etches itself in a man's mind as black?

I am unsure if I, myself, could have accurately named the color prior to this research relying on only my memory. I'm lucky to have taken a photo of the burial place in question. Even when the photo from my earliest Apple smartphone, the iPhone 4, leaves megapixels to be desired; it's comforting to rely on evidence collected on my own over the word of a scholarly article. I don't think I would remember my own moment 'leaning over the balustrade' without this photo I-don't-remember-taking but now, suddenly, care very much about:

While his speeches often focused on the struggles of the common man, Ingersoll ironically charged top dollar to make an appearance. In a time before screens, orators were the influencers. He was wealthy and remembered as generous. He was an interesting guy. His grandchildren both passed away without children ending the line of his descendants. We may never know if his agnosticism was legit or a stage persona, but certainly in his time it turned out to be a lucrative venture... to be a Republican pushing the envelope on social issues. People talk about you more when they disagree.

Do Ingersoll's century-and-a-half-year-old words still resonate with you as much as they do with me? Add 'Napoleon vs. French Peasant' to your streaming library - click here.

Would you rather have been a French Peasant and WORN WOODEN SHOES? 🤘🏼🎸🎶