Lesson 10 The Trial That Rocked the World

lesson 10

The Trial That Rocked the World

John Scopes

A buzz ran through the crowd as I took my place in the packed court on that sweltering July day in 1925. The counsel for my defence was the famous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow. Leading counsel for the prosecution was William Jennings Bryan, the silver-tongued orator , three times Democratic nominee for President of the United States, and leader of the fundamentalist movement that had brought about my trial.

A few weeks before I had been an unknown school-teacher in Dayton, a little town in the mountains of Tennessee. Now I was involved in a trial reported the world over. Seated in court, ready to testify on my behalf, were a dozen distinguished professors and scientists, led by Professor Kirtley Mather of Harvard University. More than 100 reporters were on hand, and even radio announcer s, who for the first time in history were to broadcast a jury trial. \tricks,\were waiting for the court to open.

The case had erupted round my head not long after I arrived in Dayton as science master and football coach at the secondary school. For a number of years a clash had been building up between the fundamentalists and the modernists. The fundamentalists adhered to a literal interpretation of the Old Testament. The modernists, on the other hand, accepted the theory advanced by Charles Darwin -- that all animal life, including monkeys and men, had evolved from a common ancestor.

Fundamentalism was strong in Tennessee, and the state legislature had recently passed a law prohibiting the teaching of \as taught in the Bible.\The new law was aimed squarely at Darwin's theory of evolution. An engineer, George Rappelyea, used to argue with the local people against the law. During one such argument, Rappelyea said that nobody could teach biology without teaching evolution. Since I had been teaching biology, I was sent for. \

\

\Biology, and that's our textbook.\

thing to court,\

When I was indicted on May 7, no one, least of all I, anticipated that my case would snowball into one of the most famous trials in U. S. history. The American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would take my case to the U. S Supreme Court if necessary to establish that a teacher may tell the truth without being sent to jail.\renownedlawyer Clarence Darrow offered his services to defend me. Ironically, I had not known Darrow before my trial but I had met Bryan when he had given a talk at my university. I admired him, although I did not agree with his views.

By the time the trial began on July 10, our town of 1,500 people had taken on a circusatmosphere. The buildings along the main street were festoonedwith banners. The streets around the three-storey red brick law court sproutedwith rickety stands selling hot dogs, religious books and watermelons. Evangelists set up tents to exhortthe passersby. People from the surrounding hills, mostly fundamentalists, arrived to cheer Bryan against the \who had drawn up the anti-evolution law. Butler was a 49-year-old farmer who before his election had never been out of his native county.

The presiding judge was John Raulston, a florid-faced man who announced: \just a reg'lar mountaineer jedge.\Bryan, ageing and paunchy , was assisted in his prosecution by his son, also a lawyer, and Tennessee's brilliant young attorney-general, Tom Stewart. Besides the shrewd 68-year-old Darrow, my counsel included the handsome and magnetic Dudley Field Malone, 43, and Arthur Garfield Hays, quiet, scholarly and steeped in the law. In a trial in which religion played a key role, Darrow was an agnostic, Malone a Catholic and Hays a Jew. My father had come from Kentucky to be with me for the trial.

The judge called for a local minister to open the session with prayer, and the trial got under way. Of the 12 jurors, three had never read any book except the Bible. One couldn't read. As my father growled, \

After the preliminary sparring over legalities, Darrow got up to make his opening statement. \friend the attorney-general says that John Scopes knows what he is here for,\Darrow drawled. \know what he is here for, too. He is here because ignorance and bigotryare , and it is a mighty strong combination.\

Darrow walked slowly round the baking court. \it is the teachers, \continued, \

is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until we are marching backwards to the glorious age of the sixteenth century when bigots lighted faggots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and Culture to the human mind. \

\ The following day the prosecution began calling wit-nesses against me. Two of my pupils testified, grinning shyly at me, that I had taught them evolution, but added that they had not been contaminated by the experience. Howard Morgan, a bright lad of 14, testified that I had taught that man was a mammal like cows, horses, dogs and cats.

\

\ \

After the evidence was completed, Bryan rose to address the jury. The issue was simple, he declared \Christian believes that man came from above. The evolutionist believes that he must have come from below.\and Bryan warmed to his work. In one hand he brandished a biology text as he denounced the scientists who had come to Dayton to testify for the defence.

\out of this court by experts who come hundreds of miles to testify that they can reconcile evolution, with its ancestors in the jungle, with man made by God in His image and put here for His purpose as par t of a divine plan.\

As he finished, jaw out-thrust, eyes flashing, the audience burst into applauseand shouts of \Yet something was lacking. Gone was the fierce fervour of the days when Bryan had swept the political arena like a prairie fire. The crowd seemed to feel that their champion had not scorched the infidels with the hot breath of his oratory as he should have. Dudley Field Malone popped up to reply. \the only one who has the right to speak for the Bible, he observed. \people in this country who have given up their whole lives to God and religion. Mr. Bryan, with passionate spirit and enthusiasm, has given post of his life to politics.\Bryan sipped from a jug of water as Malone's voice grew in volume. He appealed for intellectual freedom, and accused Bryan of calling for a duel to the death between science and religion.

\

we are not afraid of it. The truth does not need Mr. Bryan. The truth is eternal, immortal and needs no human agency to support it! \

When Malone finished there was a momentary hush. Then the court broke into a storm of applause that surpassed that for Bryan. But although Malone had won the oratorical duel with Bryan, the judge ruled against permitting the scientists to testify for the defence.

When the court adjourned, we found Dayton's streets swarming with strangers. Hawkerscried their wares on every corner. One shop announced: DARWIN IS RIGHT – INSIDE. (This was J. R. Darwin's everything to Wear Store.) One entrepreneur rented a shop window to display an ape. Spectators paid to gaze at it and ponderwhether they might be related.

\noted, \

H. L. Mencken wrote sulphurous dispatches sitting in his Pants with a tan blowing on him, and there was talk of running him out of town for referring to the local citizenry as yokels . Twenty-two telegraphists were sending out 165 000 words a day on the trial.

Because of the heat and a fear that the old court's floor might collapse, under the weight of the throng, the trial was resumed outside under the maples. More than 2 000 spectators sat on wooden benches or squattedon the grass, perched on the tops of parked cars or gawked from windows.

Then came the climax of the trial. Because of the wording of the anti-evolution law, the prosecution was forced to take the position that the Bible must be interpreted literally. Now Darrow sprang his trump card by calling Bryan as a witness for the defence. The judge looked startled. \Darrow said. \world.\

Bryan was suspicious of the wily Darrow, yet he could not refuse the challenge. For year s he had lectured and written on the Bible. He had campaigned against Darwinism in Tennessee even before passage of the anti-evolution law. Resolutely he strode to the stand, carrying a palm fan like a sword to repel his enemies.

Under Darrow's quiet questioning he acknowledged believing the Bible literally, and the crowd punctuated his defiant replies with fervent \

Darrow read from Genesis: \the evening and the morning were the first

day.\Bryan said that he did.

\enquired.

Bryan mopped his bald dome in silence. There were sniggers from the crowd, even among the faithful. Darrow twirled his spectacles as he pursued the questioning. He asked if Bryan believed literally in the story of Eve. Bryan answered in the affirmative.

\after to crawl upon their bellies?\\

\

The crowd laughed, and Bryan turned livid. His voice rose and the fan in his hand shook in anger.

\the world to know that this man who does not believe in God is using a Tennessee court to cast slurs on Him...\

\ideas that no intelligent Christian on earth believes.\

The judge used his gavel to quell the hubbuband adjourned court until next day. Bryan stood forlornly alone. My heart went out to the old warrior as spectator s pushed by him to shake Darrow's hand.

The jury were asked to consider their verdict at noon the following day. The jurymen retired to a corner of the lawn and whispered for just nine minutes. The verdict was guilty. I was fined 100 dollars and costs.

Dudley Field Malone called my conviction a \papers, loyal to their faded champion, hailed it as a victory for Bryan. But Bryan, sad and exhausted, died in Dayton two days after the trial.

I was offered my teaching job back but I declined. Some of the professors who had come to testify on my be-half arranged a scholarship for me at the University of Chicago so that I could pursue the study of science. Later I became a geologist for an oil company.

Not long ago I went back to Dayton for the first time since my trial 37 years ago. The little town looked much the same to me. But now there is a William Jennings

Bryan University on a hill-top over looking the valley.

There were other changes, too. Evolution is taught in Tennessee, though the law under which I was convicted is still on the books. The oratorial storm that Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone blew up in the little court in Dayton swept like a fresh wind through the schools and legislative offices of the United States, bringing in its wake a new climate of intellectual and academic freedom that has grown with the passing years.

震撼世界的审判

在一九二五年七月的那个酷热日子里，当我在挤得水泄不通的法庭里就位时，人群中响起一阵嘁嘁喳喳的议论声。我的辩护人是著名刑事辩护律师克拉伦斯?达罗。担任主控官的则是能说会道的演说家威廉?詹宁斯?布莱恩，他曾三次被民主党提名为美国总统候选人，而且还是导致我这次受审的基督教原教旨主义运动的领导人。

几个星期之前，我还只是田纳西州山区小镇戴顿的一名默默无闻的中学教员，而现在我却成了一次举世瞩目的庭审活动的当事人。在法庭就座为我作证的有以哈佛大学的科特里?马瑟教授为首的十几位有名望的教授和科学家。到场的还有一百多名新闻记者，甚至还有一些广播电台的播音员，他们也要破天荒地播放一次庭审实况。就在我们静候着法庭开审的当儿，达罗关切地搂住我的肩膀低声安慰道：“别担心，孩子，我们会给他们点厉害瞧瞧。” 我刚到戴顿中学任自然科学教员兼足球教练不久，这件案子就突然降临到我的头上。若干年来，原教旨主义者和现代主义者之间就一直在酝酿着一场冲突。原教旨主义者坚持严格按照字面意义去理解《旧约全书》，而现代主义者则接受查尔斯?达尔文的进化论——认为一切动物，包括猿和人，都是由同一个祖先进化而来的。

在田纳西州，原教旨主义势力很强，州立法机构最近还通过了一项法令，禁止公开讲授“任何否定《圣经》上宣讲的创世说的理论。”这项新法规的矛头直接指向了达尔文的进化论。有位名叫乔治?拉普利亚的工程师因反对这项法规常和当地人进行辩论。有一次辩论中，拉普利亚说，任何人要讲授生物学，就不能不讲进化论。因为我就是讲授生物学的，所以他们便把我叫去作证。

“拉普利亚是对的，”我对他们说。

“那么说，你在触犯法律，”他们中的一位说。

“所有其他的教师也都在触犯法律，”我回答说。“亨特所著的《生物学基础》中就讲到了进化论，那是我们使用的教科书。”

于是拉普利亚提出一个建议。“让我们将此事交付法庭判决，”他说，“以检验其是否合法。”

当我于五月七日被正式起诉时，谁也不曾料到，我本人更没有料到我的这件案子竟会越

闹越大，以至成为美国历史上最著名的庭审案例之一。美国公民自由联合会宣布：如有必要，联合会将把我的案子提交美国最高法院审理，“以确保教师不至于因讲授真理而被送进监狱。”接着，布莱恩自告奋勇地要协助州政府方面对我进行起诉。著名律师克拉伦斯?达罗也立即主动提出要替我辩护。具有讽刺意味的是，在这次审判之前我并不认识达罗，但我却见过布莱恩，那是我念大学的时候，他来校作过演讲。我很钦佩他，尽管我并不赞同他的观点。 到七月十日庭审开始的时候，我们这个拥有一千五百人口的小镇上呈现出一派看马戏似的热闹气氛。大街两旁的建筑物上都挂起了彩旗。在法院的三层红砖房子周围的街道上突然冒出了许多摇摇晃晃的摊贩货架，出售的是热狗、宗教书籍和西瓜。福音传教士们也在街上搭起帐篷向行人传教布道。附近一带的山区居民，其中多半是原教旨主义者，也纷纷赶到镇上来为布莱恩呐喊助威，打击那些“外来的异教徒”。他们当中就有具体起草了那条反进化论法令的约翰?巴特勒。巴特勒是一位四十九岁的农场主，在当选之前还从未跨出过自己的县境。

主审法官名叫约翰?劳尔斯顿，是一位面色红润的男人。他操着浓重的地方口音高声说道：“我只是个平平常常的山区法官。”布莱恩的样子老态龙钟，大腹便便。协助他进行起诉工作的有他的儿 1 85子——也是个律师——及田纳西州年轻有为的检察长汤姆?斯图尔特。我的辩护人当中则除了六十八岁的精明老练的达罗外，还有英俊潇洒、富于魅力的四十三岁的达德雷?费尔德?马隆和文质彬彬、学识丰富，尤其精通法学的阿瑟?伽费尔德?黑斯。在一场宗教起着关键作用的审判案中，达罗是个不可知论者，马隆是个天主教徒，而黑斯则是个犹太教徒。我的父亲也特意从肯塔基州赶来陪我面对这次审判。

法官请了一位当地的牧师主持开庭祷告仪式，接着审判便开始了。陪审团的十二名成员中，有三人除《圣经》之外再没有念过什么别的书，还有一人则根本不识字。难怪我父亲气呼呼地骂道：“真是他妈狗屁的陪审团!”

履行完规定的法律诉讼程序之后，达罗站起来开始发言了。“我的朋友检察长先生方才告诉我们说约翰?司科普斯知道他为什么会被带上法庭，”达罗拖长着声音说。“我也知道他为什么会被带上法庭。那是因为愚昧和偏见还很猖獗，而且这两者又结合在一起，形成一股强大的势力。”

达罗在热得像烘箱似的法庭里来回踱着方步。“今天受攻击的是教师，”他接着说道，“明天就会轮到杂志、书籍和报纸。要不了多久，社会上便会是一种人与人为仇，教派与教派为敌的局面，直到我们的社会大踏步地退回到十六世纪那光辉的年代，那时如果有谁胆敢给人类带来智慧、知识和文化，就会被那些愚昧的偏执狂们点燃柴堆活活烧死。” 他的话音刚落，就听到一个妇女高声咕嘟了一句：“这个该死的异教徒!”

第二天，控方开始传唤证人出庭作证。出庭作证的是我的两个学生，他们一边羞涩地对我傻笑，一边向法庭证明说我向他们宣讲过进化论，但又补充说他们并没有因此而受到毒害。一个叫霍华德.摩根的聪明的十四岁小男孩作证说我对他们讲过，人也像牛、马、狗、猫一

样是哺乳动物。

“他没有说猫和人完全一样吧?”达罗问。

“没有，先生，”那孩子说道。“他说人是有思维能力的。” “这话怕不一定对哩，”达罗哼着鼻子说。

证人作证完毕后，布莱恩起立向陪审团陈辞。问题很简单，他说，“基督徒相信人来自天上，进化论者则认为人一定是来自地下。”旁听的群众忍不住咯咯地笑了起来，布莱恩也就越说越起劲，他一只手挥动着一本生物学教科书，一边口中发话谴责那些来到戴顿为我作证的科学家们。

“《圣经》，”他用洪亮的嗓音大喊大叫道，“是不会被那些千里迢迢赶来作证的学者专家们赶出这个法庭的。这些专家们来到这里的目的是想证明主张人类祖先来自丛林的进化论和上帝按照天机，依其形象创造人类并安排到这个世界上来的看法，是并行不悖的。” 他讲完话时，下巴翘得老高，眼里闪着光芒，听众席中立刻爆发出喝采的掌声和“阿门”的喊声。但似乎还是缺少了一点什么东西。昔日当布莱恩如燎原的烈火般席卷政界时表现出的那种火热的激情已消失殆尽。听众们似乎觉得他们的这位英雄没能充分发挥出应有的辩才将那些异端分子打个落花流水。

达德雷?费尔德?马隆跳起来反驳布莱恩。“布莱恩可不是唯一有资格为《圣经》辩护的人，”他说。“在我们这一国度，还有些人将自己的全部生命都奉献给了上帝和宗教。而布莱恩先生却满腔热情地将自己的大半生命献给了政治。”布莱恩从水杯中呷了一口水，马隆说话的音调随之变得越来越高。他呼吁学术自由并指责布莱恩存心在科学与宗教之间挑起一场殊死决斗。

“从来没有人能同真理决斗，”他大声怒吼，“真理从来都是胜利者——我们并不害怕这一点。真理不需要布莱恩先生。真理是永存的、不朽的，而且并不需要依靠人的力量去维护它!”

马隆发言结束时，场上出现了一阵沉默，但接着法庭里便爆发出一阵暴风骤雨般的掌声．超过了刚才为布莱恩发出的掌声。然而，尽管马隆在同布莱恩进行的这场舌战中取得了胜利，法官还是决定不许在座的科学家们为辩方作证。

休庭期间，我们发现戴顿镇的街头巷尾到处挤满了陌生人，每个角落里都有一些小商小贩在叫卖货物。有家商店的招牌上写道：达尔文：没错——就在里面。(这是小达尔文的服装店。)还有一个承包商租了一个商店橱窗来展出一只猿猴。有些人便花钱去观看这只猿猴，并思量着自己是否可能与它有什么渊源。

“这只可怜的畜牲双手捂住眼睛，蜷缩在一个角落里，”一位记者这样写道，“生怕人猿同源是真的。”

H?L。门肯穿着短裤，一边吹着电扇，一边写出了一些含辛辣讽刺意味的电讯文稿。由于他在文中将当地居民称作“乡巴佬”，因此人们议论着要将他驱逐出镇。二十二个报务员

每天要拍发十六万五千字的报道这场庭审的电文。

由于天气炎热，加之又担心古老的法庭地板会因承受不住人群的重量而坍塌，审判活动改在户外枫树荫下继续进行。前来观审的有两千多人，他们有的坐在长条木凳上，有的蹲在草地上，有的趴在停放着的汽车的车顶上，还有的人则从窗户里傻呆呆地伸长脖子向外张望。 接着审判的高潮到来了。由于反进化论法律条文的限制，控方只得坚持《圣经》必须严格按字面意义解释的立场。这时，达罗突然打出他的王牌，点名要布莱恩充当辩方证人。法官也满脸惊讶。“我们要他当证人是因为他是《圣经》研究专家，”达罗说道。“作为经学权威，他的声誉是举世公认的。”

布莱恩满心狐疑，不知那诡计多端的达罗葫芦里在卖什么药，但他又不能不接受这一挑战。多年来他一直在讲解《圣经》，并且还曾围绕《圣经》著书立说。甚至在反进化论法令通过之前，他就在田纳西州发动过反达尔文主义的运动。这时，只见他刚毅果敢地握着一把芭蕉扇，像是拿它当成一把退敌的利剑似的，大步流星地向证人席走去。

在达罗的平静语调套问下，他承认自己对《圣经》的字字句句深信不疑，旁观的人群对他的激昂的回答不时和以热烈的“阿门，，的喊声。

达罗翻开《创世纪》念道：“夜尽晨来乃第一天也。’’接下来他问布莱恩是否相信太阳是第四天创造出来的，布莱恩回答说他相信。

“没有太阳之前又怎么会有早晨和晚上呢?”达罗问道。

布莱恩闷声不响地擦拭着自己的秃顶。人群中传出阵阵暗笑声，连一些虔诚的基督徒也在发笑。达罗一面捻弄着他的眼镜，一面继续发问。他问布莱恩是否相信有关夏娃的故事字字句句都是真实的，布莱恩作了肯定的回答。

“那末你也相信上帝为了惩罚引诱夏娃的那条蛇便让所有蛇类从那以后永远匍匐爬行的故事是真的了?”

“我相信那是真的。”

“好哇，那么你是否知道那以前蛇类是如何行走的呢?”

观审的人群哄地笑了起来。布莱恩气得脸色发青，盛怒之下他调门提高了，手里拿着的扇子一个劲儿抖动着。

“法官大人，”他说。“我即刻就要回答达罗先生的所有问题。我要让世界知道这个不信上帝的人正在利用田纳西州的法庭诽谤上帝??”

“我反对这种说法，”达罗大声叫道。“我只是在考验你的那些愚蠢的想法，世界上没有哪个有知识的基督徒会相信你的那些想法。”

法官敲响小木槌止住了喧哗声，随即宣布休庭，次日再审。

布莱恩孤零零地站在那儿。当观众们纷纷从他身边挤过去同达罗握手时，我的心替这位昔日的英雄难过起来。

第二天中午，陪审团受命对此案进行裁决。陪审员们离席退到草坪的一角，只低声议论

了九分钟，结果是判决被告有罪。我被罚款一百美元，并支付诉讼费用。

达德雷?费尔德?马隆称这次庭审结果对我来说是一次“胜利的败仗”。有几家南方报纸，出于对他们那位已失去昔日光彩的英雄的忠诚，称这次审判结果为布莱恩的胜利，并为之欢呼。可布莱恩本人却因伤心劳神过度，审判结束后才过了两天便在戴顿去世。

学校要请我回去继续担任原先的教学职务，但我谢绝了。有几位前来为我作证的教授已为我争取到了一份芝加哥大学的奖学金，因而我得以继续进修自然科学。．后来，我成为一家石油公司的地质学专家。

前不久，我在那次审判三十七年之后第一次重返戴顿。在我眼中，小镇景物依旧，只是多了一所威廉?詹宁斯?布莱恩大学，它坐落在一个小山坡上，俯视着下面的山谷。 还有一?些其他方面的变化。进化论已经可以在田纳西州公开讲授了，尽管那条曾判我有罪的法令仍未废除。由克拉伦斯?达罗和达德雷?费尔德?马隆在戴顿镇的小小法庭上掀起的那些辩论风暴犹如一股清风吹遍了美国的学校和立法机关，随之而来的是日渐增长的思想自由和学术自由的新气象。

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