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DARROW INVITES ATTORNEYTO HELP
APPEALVERDICT OF “SCOPES MONKEYTRIAL”
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DARROW, CLARENCE.Typed Letter Signed, to attorney Frank Spurlock, inviting
him to join his defense team. 1 page, oblong 8vo, “Darrow, Smith, Cronson & Smith” sta-
tionery; folds touching signature (without loss), minor smudging to initial “C” of signature.
(MRS)
Chicago, 15 May 1926
[3,000/4,000]
“
The argument in the Scoopes case has been [set] for the 31st. Can’t you help? We can give you an
hour for any place in you[r] argument that you
want.Weare to have three and a half hours on the
side and of course I am very anxious to have you in as I always have been.”
In January of 1925, Representative JohnWashington Butler introduced a bill to the TN House pro-
hibiting the teaching of theories arguing that humans are descended from simpler creatures. Soon after
the Butler bill became law in March, a young teacher in Dayton,TN—John Thomas Scopes—was
indicted for violating the law.The “Scopes MonkeyTrial,” in which Clarence Darrow defended Scopes,
ended in conviction, but Darrow’s appeal, which began on May 31, 1925, resulted in the TN
Supreme Court overturning the conviction and ruling that the Butler law was unconstitutional.