Clarence Darrow
"The Plea of Clarence Darrow," a legal address preserved as a written work, stands as one of the most closely associated texts with Darrow's name and career. Delivered and later documented in print, it captures the rhetorical approach that defined his decades in American courtrooms, where he worked as both a lawyer and a writer whose arguments extended beyond the immediate case at hand.
Clarence Darrow was born on April 18, 1857, in Kinsman Township, and went on to pursue his education at Allegheny College and subsequently at the University of Michigan, including its law school. These years of formal study laid the foundation for a career that combined legal practice with political engagement, as Darrow also worked as a politician in addition to his roles as a lawyer, writer, and jurist. His professional life unfolded largely in the United States, conducted in English, and he became a figure whose work spanned the courtroom, the written page, and public affairs.
The body of work Darrow produced reflects the range of his concerns as a legal practitioner and writer. Alongside "The Plea of Clarence Darrow," he authored "War Prisoners," a text that demonstrates his engagement with questions extending beyond the boundaries of individual legal cases. His writing in English gave his arguments a life beyond the courtrooms where they were first made, reaching readers who encountered his positions through the printed word rather than live proceedings.
Darrow died on March 13, 1938, in Chicago, closing a career that had taken him from his origins in Kinsman Township through education at the University of Michigan Law School to a sustained practice as a lawyer, jurist, politician, and writer. His authorized cataloging designation, established under the Library of Congress Name Authority File as "Darrow, Clarence, 1857–1938," marks the span of his life and provides the fixed reference point by which his works, including "The Plea of Clarence Darrow" and "War Prisoners," continue to be identified and located in library collections.
Quotes by Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow's insights on:
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths.
The first half of our lives are ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.
So long as the ordinary ideal of punishment prevails, a crime must consist of an act coupled with an intent to do the thing.
We should always bear in mind that crime can never mean anything except the violation of law.
Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coat-tails.
When the violator is convicted. It has no necessary reference to the general moral condition of man.
An increase of crime, as show by statistics, may mean that the records are kept more completely than in former times.
