Scopes Trial

William Jennings Bryan, you should recall, resigned as Secretary of State under President Wilson because Bryan was morally opposed to American involvement in World War I. After the war, Bryan toured Europe and kept asking himself: what caused this enormous inhumanity by mankind? World War I was by far the most brutal and atrocious war in the history of the world, with unspeakable slaughter of human life which included chemical warfare. Bryan did some soul-searching and wondered how it was possible that men would do this to each other.

He found his answer in the Darwinism that gripped England and Germany. World War I was, simply put, survival of the fittest by those who had come to believe that only the fittest should survive. It was application of Darwin's theory to mankind itself.

Upon his return to the United States, Bryan felt a calling to prevent the spread of this misguided theory to America. He supported State laws against teaching, to impressionable children in school, that man had evolved from lower life forms. Tennessee had such a law banning the teaching of the theory of human evolution in public school.

In 1925, the ACLU defended schoolteacher John Scopes against enforcement of the law. William Jennings Bryan offered his formidable legal talents to the State of Tennessee to defend the law. The ACLU retained Clarence Darrow, the leading criminal defense attorney and himself a believer in evolution. This became the legal fight of the century, Darrow (and Darwin) v. Bryan.

So many people flocked to watch the trial that it was often held outside the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee. An atheist (and bigot) H.L. Mencken, the leading journalist of the first half of the 20th century, traveled from Baltimore to give his "spin" (biased reporting) on what happened. Mencken's account misled the world into thinking that Darrow (and Darwin) had won. In fact, the opposite occurred: Bryan won, Darrow's client Scopes was convicted, and the Tennessee law remained in effect for nearly another 50 years. Tennessee has remained conservative to this day; Tennessee voted against its own liberal resident Al Gore for President in 2000, giving George W. Bush the national election, and in 2008 presidential candidate John McCain defeated Barack Obama by 15 percentage points there, despite Obama winning by 7 points nationwide.

Details of the Trial

Bryan and the State of Tennessee objected to the textbook being used by Scopes in the public school in the town of Dayton. The textbook taught the falsehood that the Piltdown Man was the "missing link" somehow showing that man had evolved from apes. Years later the Piltdown Man was proven to be a complete fraud perpetrated by evolutionists. The textbook was also racist in teaching that whites had evolved to a higher life form than blacks.

The climax of the trial occurred when Bryan agreed to take the witness stand himself (which is unusual for an attorney) in order to answer Darrow's best questions, if Darrow likewise took the witness stand to answer Bryan's questions. Darrow agreed, and Bryan took the witness stand before a huge audience that gathered to hear one of the finest orators in American history.

This "cross-examination" of Bryan by Darrow included the following:^[6]

Bryan--These gentlemen have not had much chance--they did not come here to try this case. They came here to try revealed religion. I am here to defend it and they can ask me any question they please.

Judge--All right. (Applause in audience.) ...

Bryan--Those [the applauding audience] are the people whom you [Darrow] insult.

Darrow--You insult every man of science and learning in the world because he does believe in your fool religion. ....

Darrow: Wait until you get to me [Note: this refers to Darrow's agreement to be a witness to answer questions by Bryan]. Do you know anything about how many people there were in Egypt 3,500 years ago, or how many people there were in China 5,000 years ago?

Bryan--No.

Darrow--Have you ever tried to find out?

Bryan--No, sir. You are the first man I ever heard of who has been in interested in it. (Laughter)

Darrow--Mr. Bryan, am I the first man you ever heard of who has been interested in the age of human societies and primitive man?

Bryan--You are the first man I ever heard speak of the number of people at those different periods.

Darrow--Where have you lived all your life?

Bryan--Not near you. (Laughter and applause). ...

The next day, it was Darrow's turn to be cross-examined as he had agreed. But instead of upholding his end of the bargain, Darrow abruptly and surprisingly ended the trial by asking the jury to find his own client guilty!^[7]

The jury then deliberated for only 9 minutes, which may be a record in quick jury decisions. It found Darrow's client guilty and ordered him to pay a fine of $100, which was eliminated on a technicality on appeal.^[8]

Review

Let's review several of the important topics of this lecture and the prior one.

Imperialism extended power over other peoples, and America did this particularly around turn of the century (1900). The Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish American War enabled the United States to annex the Philippine Islands, and also Guam and Puerto Rico. (Spain had previously held the Philippines ever since the explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered it in 1521.) But after we took over, a bloody rebellion continued there by natives. We sent 70,000 soldiers to suppress them. Many Americans opposed this imperialism, including Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie. They said it was against our American tradition. After the United States killed off many of the insurgents, Andrew Carnegie sarcastically wrote to our government, "You seem to have about finished your work of civilizing the Filipinos. About 8000 of them have been completely civilized and sent to Heaven. I hope you like it."

President Woodrow Wilson served out his two terms from 1913 through 1921, but was very sickly towards the end. Perhaps due to overwork in his unsuccessful attempt to persuade the American public to support the League of Nations, which included a strenuous speaking tour, Wilson collapsed after one of his speeches on this topic in Pueblo, Colorado in the fall of 1919. A week later, on Oct. 2, 1919, Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him paralyzed and blind in one eye. He never fully recovered, and his incapacity was hidden from the public and not even his Vice President, his cabinet officials or congressmen were allowed to see him. The Constitution provided no means for substituting for an incapacitated president (later the 25th Amendment was passed to authorize a passing of power to the Vice President even if the President is still alive). Wilson's second wife (his first wife had died) essentially acted on behalf of the president for the more than a year, for the remainder of his term of office.

The election of 1920 brought new faces to the White House, and a "dark horse" candidate won for the Republicans this time: Warren G. Harding.