William Jennings Bryan's Essay: The Scopes Trial

Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion concentrates on the Scopes trial, otherwise called the "Monkey Trial," which happened in Dayton, Tennessee in the mid year of 1925. The trial occurred in excess of a Tennessee law that banned the educating of human development out in the open schools. The American Civil Liberties Union needed to test the law, and a junior instructor named John Scopes, consented to help them. The alleged "trial of the century" united the well known government official and speaker, William Jennings Bryan, who headed the opposition to development campaign; and Clarence Darrow, who was viewed as the best criminal protection legal advisor of the time. The two men, plus their individual direction, clashed in the trail with the indictment in the end ready to maintain the law.

In many ways, the opinion in this case represents a final step in the creation of

April 6, 1931, the trials for the Scottsboro boys begin(Uschan 16). The boys were represented by Milo C. Moody and Stephen Roddy who were only given twelve days to prepare for the trials. Stephen was and unpaid, unprepared real estate attorney, and Milo was a forgetful seventy year old local attorney who hadn’t tried a case in a long time (“San Marcos” line 13). The trails were completely unorganized and false information was stated throughout the whole thing. The cross examination of Victoria Price lasted minutes and the defense offered very little information to the judge. Six out of the nine boys ended up denying the rape while 3 admitted to it. Even though the three men didn’t rape the women, because of beatings and threats, they admitted to the gang rape. By the time the trail had ended 8 out of the 9 boys were convicted and sentenced to death. Since one of the Scottsboro boys was only thirteen, he was considered too young to be tried as an adult (“UMKC” par. 6-7).

Charles Beard’s suggested that the Constitution was a document that was only created to protect the framer’s wealth. Beard believed that the reason why the rich framers wanted to protect against majority rule was to prevent the majority to overthrow the rich. Beard did manage to fit most of the framers under “rich” categories such as lawyers, landowners, and merchants. But, he failed to realize that the framers limited majority rule to protect the rights of minorities, also.

McCulloch vs. Maryland John Marshall was a prominent figure in the history of the United States as the man who helped shape the Supreme Court to the power it is today. His decisions strengthened the power of the federal government in period of growth for our new nation and established a greater purpose for the Supreme Court. Born September 24, 1755 in Virginia, he went on to attend the college of William and Marry, which became his only formal education. Early in the revolutionary war, he served under the Third Virginia Continental Regiment, rising through the ranks to lieutenant and captain.

The geographic factors such as the location, history and climate influenced the conviction in many ways. The trial’s location had a major effect because the people who live Tennessee and the extensive area are religious. Tennessee, the location where the trial was held was in the Bible Belt, The Bible Belt region stretches from Northern Texas to Western North Carolina. In the Bible Belt region, more conservative Christians live there than other places in the

Dayton, Tennessee was the location of which John Thomas Scopes was charged with a crime. The crime charged against Mr. Scopes was that he was teaching evolution. The law in Tennessee states that the misdemeanor is punishable and the law states “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead of that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” Scopes asked for the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union to assist him in his trial. When William Jennings Bryan heard of the attack on Christian fundamentalism went to assist the prosecution. Clarence Darrow an amazing attorney agreed to help the defense. The trial began on July 10, 1921 and within a few days many reporters

On January 20, 1925, a Tennessee state senator named John A. Shelton proposed a bill to make the teaching of evolution in the state’s public schools a felony, or a criminal act. Fundamentalists had been supporting and pushing the passage of laws such as this for years, because the teaching of evolution and Darwinism contradicts the religious beliefs of creation in Christianity. Popular evangelist, Billy Sunday, undertook an eighteen-day crusade in Memphis in support of the prospective bill. Night after night, Sunday’s audiences grew until more than two-hundred thousand people heard him preach against the evils of evolution. The bill, known as the Butler Act, was officially passed on March 21, 1925, just 3 months after its proposal. Just as state legislators suspected, the ink had hardly dried on the Butler Act before its first challenger emerged.

In the late nineteen-eighties, Edwards v. Aguillard argued that a Louisiana law was against the First Amendment of the Constitution. This law prohibited public schools from teaching about evolution and the evolutionary processes unless the topic was taught alongside religious based creation theories. More specifically, this law imposed on public schools was argued to have broken the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. This clause simply says that absolutely no law can establish or support a religion (“Establishment Clause”, 2011). Many people challenged the state’s law including local parents and teachers as well as men and women with religious affiliations. Ultimately, the Supreme Court found that the state’s act was unlawful according to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment due to the fact that there was no non-religious basis to the act. The creation theories are entirely based around the idea that an all-powerful god created the human race. Therefore the state is promoting this religious teaching. Although it was argued that the act was to give students more opportunities to learn, the point was made that the teachers lost the power to make decisions in his or her own classroom. Furthermore, the law inhibits the learning of children by banning the teaching of evolution unless creation is also taught in the classroom. The law

I am humbly asking that the court of Tennessee will appeal its verdict in regards to the nationally recognized Scope v. State, in 1925. This case will argue the liberties in educating future scientist and general students; and not subjecting religious beliefs in a publicly taxed arena. John Scopes( the defendant) is an educator serving as a substitute teacher at Rhea County High School in Dayton, Tennessee public school system. The defendant was accused of violating the “Butler Act” on the 25th of May, 1925 ,which forbade the teachings of Evolution in public schools because, of the major contradictions to biblical doctrines. William Jennings Bryan( the Prosecutor) was a highly respected lawyer and former secretary of State. Clarence Darrow was an extremely notable attorney who served as legal counsel for Mr. Scopes.The defendants actions resulted in a criminal trial that was held for eight days. Coverage of the case was the first to be publicized by a reporters in the courtroom. The verdict was in favor of the state of Tennessee which motioned that the Butler Act was broken. Scopes found guilty and charged with a substantial fine of $ 100 dollars($1366 in 2017). It is my argument that the defendant was poorly favored by the court because, the testimonies examined where those persons whom Mr. Scope taught the chapter Evolution to. Testimonies that would support the defendant was overruled.

The Scopes Trial of 1925 was one of the quandary case ever witnessed by the American government and public. It was a conflict between science and theology, faith and reason. Lasting eight days this was one of the first media extensive coverage of that time resulted in thousands of print, interviews, and commentary sent from Dayton which helped to shape the public perception of what occurred in the nation. In addition, the trial was a maze run itself where many thought that it was challenging the constitutionality of the bill, to publicly advocate for the legitimacy of Darwin’s theory of evolution, many other thought it was a publicity stunt for the town of Dayton, Tennessee. In simple words, it was a contest between evolution and Christianity.

The Scopes trial happened mainly because the Butler Act was passed, the Butler Act made it illegal to teach human Evolution in a public school. And even though the main objective of the scopes trial was to attract business to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee it ultimately ended in science gaining higher value in the American society over religion.

On March 22, 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act. Making it unlawful in public schools to teach any theory that denies the story of divine creation as taught by the Bible. But to teach instead that man was descended from a lower order of animals. It was in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee where a 24 year old fresh out of college , high school substitute named John Scopes taught the theory of evolution to a biology class. This was just two months after the passing of the Butler Act. John Scopes was then charged with teaching evolution in public school. The proceeding trial will not only become a battle between science and religion but it will bring together two of the most prominent attorneys of the early 20th century. Clarence Darrow and

For decades, the debate of religion in public schools has run rampant through the American people, and it has swept the nation info a vicious battle between opposing political and moral ideals. The topic of creationism and the position that it should be taught as a well-supported theory opposing evolution (concerning the origin of species) is an especially heated subject of disagreement. However, the argument that creation is an acceptable scientific alternative to evolution is fundamentally flawed; the terms “theory” and “science” are garishly misused by creationists attempting to validate their viewpoints with little to no regard for the words’ actual meanings. In addition, the conflict between creationists and evolutionists has led to many legal and political struggles through the decades of conflict between the two ideologies. Points of law used by both sides range from national treaties to the smallest of legal defenses and interpretations of the law – no piece of legislature goes unscrutinized in each sides’ offensive to gain a foothold in the fight. Furthermore, the scientific support for creationist ideas is minimal – almost nonexistent. Areas of the United States still allowing the practice of teaching creation as a science also reveal a startling correlation between religious beliefs and functional scientific knowledge, as well as the effect of creationist beliefs on the education of children. The misrepresentation of

The John Scopes Trial is an example of how one man wanted to be more modern and teach something new to younger generations. A high school biology teacher, John Scopes, was put on trial for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in a Tennessee public school. It was a modernist idea, teaching something new, that at the time, Tennessee had a state law that made it illegal to teach the theory in any state funded school. Traditionalists at the time feared that the bible teachings would then be forgotten if Scopes won the trial. He ended up losing. Scopes and other modernists believed that teaching evolution in schools showed the public another perspective of the world through science rather than through religion. Traditionalists were not in favor of immigration during the 1920s, so they restricted it. Nativists in the 1920s argued that new immigrants were threatening American political cultural and religious traditions, and that new immigrants were taking the jobs away from native born Americans. They had the American Dream, which is “the ideal that every U.S.