William Jennings Bryan: Speech at the Scopes Trial

William Jennings Bryan's Speech at the Scopes Trial gave the former U.S. congressman and secretary of state, famous for his Cross of Gold Speech, an opportunity to articulate his ideas about creationism.The landmark 1925 American legal case charged high school science teacher John Scopes with violating Tennessee's Butler Act, making it unlawful to teach evolution in any state-funded school. Bryan argued the case for the prosecution against the famed attorney Clarence Darrow, who stood for the defense. The trial arguments became a theological contest, pitting modern scientific ideas of evolution against a fundamentalist biblical interpretation of creation. Bryan called no witnesses and never cross-examined a witness. Instead, he delivered a speech to the court, in which he mounted a defense of a literal reading of the Bible as revealed truth and contended that evolutionary theory is incompatible with Christianity.