Charles Jared Ingersoll

Charles Jared Ingersoll , 1782-1862, American political leader and author, b. Philadelphia; son of Jared Ingersoll (1749-1822). In several influential publications, including Inchiquin: The Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics (1810), he argued for more intellectual independence and national self-sufficiency. Admitted to the bar in 1802, Ingersoll served (1813-15) as a Jeffersonian in Congress and was (1815-29) U.S. district attorney for Pennsylvania. He returned to Congress (1841-49), where he was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and was influential in securing the annexation of Texas. Besides several plays, including Julian: A Tragedy (pub. 1831), he wrote a four-volume history of the War of 1812 (1845-52) and his recollections (1861).

Bibliography: See biography by W. M. Meigs (1897, repr. 1970).

Ingersoll, Charles Jared (1782–1862),Philadelphia lawyer, member of Congress (1813–15, 1840–49), and author. Although his works are varied, and include Edwy and Elgiva (1801), and Julian (1831), dramas, two histories of the War of 1812, books of poetry, and works on political economy, he is best known for Inchiquin, the Jesuit's Letters … (1810), an anonymous set of essays purportedly by a Jesuit traveler in America who appreciates the native scene and thus indirectly attacks the criticisms of contemporary English travelers. The scathing criticism of this book in the Quarterly Review (English) precipitated such defenses as Timothy Dwight's Remarks on the Review of Inchiquin's Letters (1815) and Paulding's The United States and England (1815).