Up until 1870 law students were taught what the law said and what it meant. In 1870 Christopher Columbus Langdell became the dean of Harvard Law. Dean was a great admirer of Charles Darwin and his belief in evolution and thus that rights were NOT granted by the Creator. His method of teaching, known as the case method, or case law, taught that there was no need to go back to the Constitution to determine if laws were constitutional. Instead, one only had to rely on cases that were already settled. Oliver Wendell Holmes was one of his students.
I became very enlightened on a recent trip to UVA in Charlottesville, VA. One of the oldest buildings on campus has Darwin, along with other progressive types, embossed in stone on the building. The building was built in the latter half of the 19th century.
And to think I thought that the movement took off in the 1920s with the Scopes Trial.
Thank you for your informative post. It explains a great deal as to how the movement gained ground here in the states.