George Washington to New Hampshire, 29 December 1777 (Detail, GLC03706) America Between the Wars: William Jennings Bryan's Last Speech by Melinda Sloan Stephen F. Austin High School, Sugar Land, TX Bryan, William Jennings. "Bryan's Last Speech: Undelievered to the Jury in the Scopes Trial." American Experience: Monkey Trial. Updated 2002. PBS. 19 July 2004. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/monkeytrial/filmmore/ps_bryan.html The following are excerpts from the 15,000-word closing argument drafted, but never delivered, by William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925. When Bryan agreed to represent the World Christian Fundamentalist Association, he had not practiced law in over thirty years. Bryan never had the opportunity to give his closing argument because Clarence Darrow, attorney for the defendant John Scopes, asked the jury to return a guilty verdict, so that the case could be appealed. Therefore, Tennessee law prohibited the prosecution's delivery of a closing argument. William Jennings Bryan died just five days after the jury returned a guilty verdict against Scopes, upholding the Tennessee law forbidding the teaching of evolution. This speech illustrates Bryan's view that the Scopes trial represented a larger battle being waged in America, the conflict between Fundamentalist Christianity and the increasing influence of science. Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endangers its cargo. In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war more terrible than it ever was before. Man used to be content to slaughter his fellowmen on a single plane -- the earth's surface. Science has taught him to go down into the water and shoot up from below and to go up into the clouds and shoot down from above, thus making the battlefield three times a bloody as it was before; but science does not teach brotherly love. Science has made war so hellish that civilization was about to commit suicide; and now we are told that newly discovered instruments of destruction will make the cruelties of the late war seem trivial in comparison with the cruelties of wars that may come in the future. If civilization is to be saved from the wreckage threatened by intelligence not consecrated by love, it must be saved by the moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene.... It is for the jury to determine whether this attack upon the Christian religion shall be permitted in the public schools of Tennessee by teachers employed by the state and paid out of the public treasury. This case is no longer local, the defendant ceases to play an important part. The case has assumed the proportions of a battle-royal between unbelief that attempts to speak through so-called science and the defenders of the Christian faith, speaking through the legislators of Tennessee. It is again a choice between God and Baal; it is also a renewal of the issue in Pilate's court.... ...Your answer will be heard throughout the world; it is eagerly awaited by a praying multitude. If the law is nullified, there will be rejoicing wherever God is repudiated, the savior scoffed at and the Bible ridiculed. Every unbeliever of every kind and degree will be happy. If, on the other hand, the law is upheld and the religion of the school children protected, millions of Christians will call you blessed and, with hearts full of gratitude to God, will sing again that grand old song of triumph: "Faith of our fathers, living still, In spite of dungeon, fire and sword; O how our hearts beat high with joy, Whene'er we hear that glorious word -- Faith of our fathers -- Holy faith; We will be true to thee till death! 1. List and describe the good things, as well as the problems, that Bryan says science has created for the world? 2. What war do you think Bryan is referring to in the first paragraph? What were some of the scientific advancements and new technologies used during this war to which Bryan may be referring? 3. In the second paragraph, what two larger forces does Bryan suggest are really competing in this trial? What other opposing forces were battling during the 1920s? 4. What does Bryan predict will happen if the jury votes to convict Scopes and uphold the Tennessee law? How does this compare to the actual outcome or lasting impact of the trial? 5. Imagine that you are Clarence Darrow. What would you have said in your closing argument in response to Bryan's points?