Author:
Henry Hattemer

Date Written:
3/5/2001

Resources:

Tennessee v. John T. Scopes

CNN's Scopes Monkey Trial

Clarence Darrow

William Jennings Bryan

Clarence Darrow

William Jennings Bryan

John T.Scopes

Tennessee v. John T. Scopes

Darrow (left), Bryan (right)

Clarence Darrow and the Scopes Monkey Trial: Brilliance in Vain

The reputable journalist H.L. Mencken described the event as a “religious orgy.” (Rodgers 574) The Louisville Courier-Journal called it an “Ape Trial.” (Weinberg 174) Famed lawyer Clarence Darrow dubbed it a “Summer for the Gods.” (Darrow 263) In the State of Tennessee v. John T. Scopes, the confrontation between evolution and creation climaxed in a brilliant display of forensics. As Darrow put it, a man in Dayton was arrested for doing what Socrates did for Athens. As the Detroit Free Press put it: “With William Jennings Bryan orating on one side of the court room and Clarence Darrow weeping all over the floor on the other, the sessions are likely to be a show appalling to both gods and men.” (de Camp 220) As predicted, the contest which ensued shocked the world. The Scopes-Monkey Trial was an exercise in futility of a brilliant Clarence Darrow.

John T. Scopes, a well-respected teacher in Dayton, Tennessee, was arrested on May 5, 1925, for teaching the work of Charles Darwin to his high school students. The arrest had been previously arranged by local leaders and businessmen to answer the call by the New York ACLU for a test case against anti-evolution legislation. Prominent local men hoped to put Dayton on the map, while capitalizing on the lucrative business opportunities that an internationally publicized event could offer. They never expected the amount of people, hype, or ridicule that the trial would inevitably draw. The men of Dayton, Tennessee, had organized the trial of a century; a contest which pitted evolution versus creation. (Scopes 57)

The first headline to come out of Dayton broadcasted the decision of William Jennings Bryan, the nation’s leading Fundamentalist, vigorous orator, and three-time presidential candidate, to adopt the side of the prosecution. (Darrow 246) Clarence Darrow, the most well known criminal lawyer and premier defender of the times had previously examined the case along with two friends, Dudley Malone and Arthur Hays, and decided to leave the matter to local Tennessee lawyers. When he heard that Bryan, his arch nemesis had entered into the conflict, however, he immediately changed his mind and sent Malone to the ACLU committee to offer their services to the defense for free. (Stone 426) The leaders of the ACLU were not thrilled by the idea of Darrow and Malone serving the defense; ACLU officials feared the considerable hostility that Darrow had aroused in the South by his blatant agnosticism and by his defense of Loeb and Leopold. Many members of the ACLU committee, which was to decide who would represent Scopes, thought that Darrow was a headline chaser, and that he would turn the trial into a circus. They feared that his presence would discredit the trial; and instead of Darrow’s team they recommended several well-respected, more conservative choices. They finally left the decision to the defendant after an hour of argument; Scopes opted for Darrow and Malone. He pointed out that the trial had already become a circus upon the arrival of the evangelist Bryan. Scopes told the ACLU committee, “If it’s going to be a gutter fight, I’d rather have a good gutter fighter.” (de Camp 96)

Clarence Darrow was not a likely attorney to volunteer his services. The defense of John T. Scopes was the first and last time Darrow ever provided counsel free of charge. His previous case was one of the most famous of the century: the controversial defense of two wealthy, murderous, youth--Loeb and Leopold. The much-publicized trial had paid well for Darrow, arousing doubts about his motives and ethics. In fact, Darrow was a self-admitted materialist and yet he volunteered to serve as counsel for nothing, in addition to paying his own expenses. Darrow’s decision created quite a stir across the nation and throughout the world. (Darrow 244) Although some claimed he only wanted the limelight, Darrow had other strong reasons to become involved.

Darrow relished the concept of furthering his cause through a mighty battle between his nemesis—Bryan--and himself. As Darrow commented, “I had been a close observer of Mr. Bryan’s campaigns against knowledge.” Darrow had fought against religious groups such as the Fundamentalists for his whole career. Although he was often portrayed as an atheist, Darrow had no quarrel with religion, or with God, but with sects that turned their backs on education and science. He realized that these certain religions operated against the welfare of their people. (Stone 425) Darrow vehemently denied accusations that he was an atheist. Although he did not seem displeased by the title of agnostic, he himself claimed to be a Christian. A friend noted: “He was a Christian by example and precept, but by intellect he was an agnostic.” Above all, however, Clarence Darrow was a proponent of free thought and thereby progress through scientific advancement. (Stone 425) He had been raised on books of science; his family bought all of Darwin’s works as soon as they were published. (Darrow 250) The Fundamentalists, on the other hand, denied that the stories in the Bible were legends, opinions, poems, myths, and guesses, and pronounced them history. Darrow “realized that there was no limit to the mischief that might be accomplished unless the country was roused to the evil at hand.” He hoped to use the Scopes trial as a vehicle of change, dubbing the event “This great Waterloo of science.” (Darrow 249)

The citizens of Dayton and the onlookers that were drawn from the surrounding areas immediately took the idea that Bryan was a holy crusader battling Satan, and capitalized on it in the form of signs, pamphlets, and souvenirs. Scopes wrote that “Barnum and Bailey would have been pressed hard to produce more acts and sideshows and freaks than Dayton had.” (Scopes 77) Darrow and Bryan had transformed a quiet, sleepy little town into a circus. (Stone 425) Vendors and entertainers struggled to drown out evangelists and preachers, while students circulated petitions asking the legislature to amend the law of gravity and regulate the speed of light, and called Dayton “Monkeytown.” (de Camp 269)

On July 10, 1925, the first day of the greatly anticipated trial, crowds filtered into the courthouse before 7 a.m., two hours prior to the beginning of the procedures. By the time Darrow entered around 9 a.m., the seats and aisles were packed with newspapermen, photographers, and spectators. After picking the jury quickly, he immediately began a full attack on the proceedings. Darrow objected to the day in court being opened by prayer, and he objected to the sign posted, facing the jury, which read “Read Your Bible.” He pleaded for the judge, because of the religious implications of the trial, to omit the clearly biased prayer from the proceedings. The judge ignored his demands. Darrow proposed that either the sign be taken down or an equally large sign be set up which would read “Read Your Evolution.” He maintained that the sign was an attempt to influence the pliable jury; the sign was only removed after a stipulation by the prosecution in order to hasten the procedures. (Weinberg 175) He requested that the incessant “amens” from the Fundamentalist crowd be recorded in the transcript; his annoyance at the responses that punctuated every one of Bryan’s points was evident in his heated speech directed towards the ignorance of the crowd. He finally snapped and blatantly accused the judge of partiality. At this the judge threatened a contempt of court citation, which solicited an apology by Darrow the next day. (Levy 169)

Clarence Darrow was flabbergasted at the misinformed, bigoted citizens that permeated the courtroom. Darrow had the task of convincing twelve Rhea County citizens, all but one of whom were Fundamentalists, that a law prohibiting the teaching of evolution was unconstitutional. One native said that the only Darwin that he had ever heard of was a local dry goods salesman. (Scopes 84) Another told Darrow that he had not read Darwin because he could not read. Darrow was reported to have turned to a cohort in one particularly frustrating objection and said, “Isn’t it difficult to realize that a trial of this kind is possible in the twentieth century in the United States of America?” (Weinberg 174)

Darrow was not one to give up. When prodded by reporters as to how he would go about defending Scopes, he stated that he would smother Mr. Bryan’s influence under a mountain of scientific testimony. (Stone 431) The defense had lined up men of science and learning in areas such as geology, anthropology, zoology, and philosophy to expound the validity of evolution and to disprove a literal translation of the Bible. When that testimony was ruled impertinent and barred from the court, the defense was left with one option. In a historical move, the defense counsel called upon a member of the prosecution, William Jennings Bryan, to the stand to testify as an expert on the Bible. Other members of the prosecution, as well as the bench, exploded with objections. Bryan however, silenced them with an agreement to be sworn in as a witness. Darrow likened Bryan’s action to the “traditional boy passing the graveyard at night—he was whistling to keep up his courage.” (Darrow 250) The fateful battle of the forensic titans was going to climax in a quintessential duel between the men who epitomized each side.

Darrow slowly and meticulously picked apart everything that the Fundamentalists held dear and put it on display for the entire world to laugh at and ridicule. Years earlier Darrow had published a list of fifty questions, directed at Bryan, on the Fundamentalist faith. Before the ordeal was over, Darrow had presented all fifty questions to Bryan, who floundered and sputtered.

Darrow started pleasantly with Bryan, who agreed to be a witness because of his blind faith in his religion. Bryan was so convinced that he was in the right that he thought he could rely solely on his faith to respond to the ruthless Darrow. He was anesthetized by the frequent encouragement from the audience in the beginning. Soon, however, a hush came over the crowd as even the hills people of Tennessee began to notice that Darrow was making Bryan into a fool. Darrow read excerpts from the Bible and, hinging on Bryans confirmation that he believed in a literal translation, asked the witness to explain.

Darrow: Now, you say, the big fish swallowed Jonah, and he there remained how long—three days—and then he spewed him upon the land. Do you believe that he made such a fish and that it was big enough to swallow Jonah?

Bryan: Yes sir, one miracle is just as easy to believe as another. The Bible does not make extreme statements, as do evolutionists.

Darrow: The Bible says that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still for the purpose of lengthening the day. Do you believe that Joshua made the sun stand still?

Bryan: I do.

Darrow: Do you believe at that time the entire sun went around the earth?

Bryan: No

Darrow: Have you ever pondered what would naturally happen to the earth if it stood still suddenly?

Bryan: No

Darrow: Don’t you know it would have been converted into a molten mass of matter?

Bryan: I would want to hear expert testimony on that.

Darrow: Do you believe that Eve was literally made out of Adam’s rib?

Bryan: I do.

Darrow: If in the beginning there was only Adam and Eve and then Cain and Abel, where did Cain get his wife?

Bryan: I cannot say. (Levy 284-304)

Darrow went on to question Bryan on how there was morning and evening on the first three days, without a sun, and how those first days could be measured without a sun, since the sun was, according to the Bible, created on the fourth day. At one point Darrow ripped his shirtsleeve during his furious examination of Bryan, and spectator support for the Fundamentalist dwindled out of existence as Darrow’s blitz of questions peppered Bryan with his own narrow-minded ignorance. After the magnificent destruction, Darrow, knowing that Bryan had planned and written out already a hulking final speech to the jury, waived his own right to a final address, thereby nullifying Bryan’s.

Not surprisingly, it took the twelve “yokels” of the jury several hours to find John T. Scopes guilty of teaching evolution. He was fined one hundred dollars and the bond was set at five hundred; both of which were furnished by the Baltimore Sun. The world laughed at Dayton, Tennessee. Famed journalist H. L. Mencken wrote the next day “The net effect of Clarence Darrow’s great speech yesterday seems to be precisely the same as if he had bawled it up a rainspout in the interior of Afghanistan… It rose like a wind and ended lie a flourish of bugles…but the morons in the audience, when it was over, simply hissed.” (Weinberg 174)

The State of Tennessee versus John T. Scopes is a study in conflict. Thoughts, beliefs, laws, regions, and giant men clashed in a showcase of religious bigotry. The outcome of the trial was of no bearing compared to the reverberations that Darrow’s examination of Bryan caused: Fundamentalists had largely lost faith in their leader, and started questioning their absolute faith and their literal translation of the Bible. Other states began to challenge anti-evolution laws, soon causing the tide to change, leaving Fundamental evangelists to dry up in the light of knowledge and scientific progress.

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