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Popular Democracy
From the Revolutionary War through the American entrance into World War I, the United States had tended to follow the Federalist argument for minority rights. When World War I broke out, however, Wilson and his administration had to find a way to deal with dissenters and anti-war activists. As such they turned to the majoritarian arguments, such as those of the Anti-Federalists, and enacted laws that made many anti-war activities illegal. When the war was over, majoritarian arguments continued to dominate the American political system. While it often takes a back seat to the religion vs. science debate, main issue at hand in the Scopes trial was the conflict of majority rule and minority rights.
There was no shortage of anti-evolutionists in the 1920’s, but it was William Jennings Bryan who transformed the movement by suggesting that laws should be enacted against its teachings. According to Edward Larson, a Richard B. Russell Professor of History and Law argues that in calling for laws against the teaching of evolution, Bryan “inadvertently raised the issue of majority rule versus minority rights in an instructive new way that impacted how Americans conceived of liberty.”[1] Bryan, unlike other anti-evolutionists, however, did not argue that evolution should not be taught because it was promoted a false science that could not be reconciled with the Bible. Instead, he believed that anti-evolution laws could be justified on majoritian grounds. He argued that just as “Christians are compelled to build their own colleges in which to teach Christianity,” so too should agnostics and atheists “build their own colleges if they want to teach agnosticism or atheism.”[2] In this way the law was not making evolutionary theories illegal, just making it illegal for public funds to be used for its teaching.
[1] Edward J.Larson, "The Scopes Trial and the Evolving Concept of Freedom.” Virginia Law Review Vol. 85 No. 3 (April 1999): 508.
[2] William Jennings Bryan and Mary Baird Bryan. The Memoirs of William Jennings Bryan (Philadelphia, PA: The United Publishers of America, 1925), 527.
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