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[1] I heartily accept the motto,—; and I should like to see
it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it
finally amounts to this, which also I believe—"That government
is best which governs not at all"; and
that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government
is at best but an ; but most governments are usually, and all
governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been
brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and
deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.
The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only , is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.Witness the the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
[2] This American government—what is it but a though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired
to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has
not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man
can bend it to his will. It is
But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have
some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that
idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully
men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.
Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American
people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done
somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. and, as has been said, when it is most expedient,
the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were
not made of , would never manage to bounce over obstacles which
legislators are continually putting in their way; and if one were to
judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly
by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with
those mischievious persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
[3] But, and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once
and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
[4] After all, the practical reason why,
when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted,
and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most
likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority,
but because they are physically the strongest. But government in which
the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as
far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the
majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?—in
which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency
is applicable? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for
It is but a
corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect
for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice.
A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that
you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates,
,
and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars,
against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences,
which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation
of the heart. Now, what are they? Men at all?
or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous
man in power? Visit the , and behold a marine, such a man as an American government
can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts—-a mere shadow
and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and
already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniment,
though it may be,--
"
[5] The mass of men serve the state
thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are
the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, , etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of
the judgement or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level
with wood and earth and stones; and can perhaps be manufactured
that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than
men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only
as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good
citizens. Others—-as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers,
and office-holders—-serve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as they
rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil,
without intending it, as God.
A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be but leave that office to his dust at least:—
"
To be a second at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world."
[6]
[7] How does it become a man to behave
toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without
disgrace be associated with it.
[8] All men recognize the right of revolution;
that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government,
when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But
almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case,
they think, in the If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because
brought to its ports, it is most
probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without
them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does
enough good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great
evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have
its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say,
let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth
of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the are slaves, and is unjustly overrun and
conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think
that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.
What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so
overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
[9] ,
a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the
"Duty of Submission to Civil Government," resolves all civil obligation
into expediency; and he proceeds to say that "so long as the interest
of the whole society requires it, that it, so long as the established
government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniencey,
it is the will of God . . . that the established government be
obeyed—-and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of
every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation
of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of
the probability and expense of redressing it on the other." Of this,
he says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears
never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency
does not apply, in which a people, as well and an individual,
must do justice, cost what it may. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he
in such a case, shall lose it.
[10] In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but that at the present crisis?
", a cloth-o'-silver slut,
To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt."
Practically speaking, the opponents
to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians
at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are
more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity,
and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico,
We are accustomed to say, that the mass of
men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not as
materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that
many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness
somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. There are thousands who
are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect
do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children
of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets,
and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even
postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade,
and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from
Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both.
What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They
hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing
in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for other
to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At
most, they give up , and a feeble countenance and Godspeed,
to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine
patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal
with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of
it.
[11] , with a
slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with
moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character
of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think
right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail.
I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore,
never exceeds that of expediency. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length
vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be by their vote. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.
[12] I hear of a convention to be held
at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the
Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians
by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent,
and respectable man what decision they may come to? Shall we not have
the advantage of this wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we
not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals
in the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the
respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position,
and despairs of his country, when his country has more reasons
to despair of him. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled
foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. O for
, and, and my neighbor says, has a bone is his back
which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at
fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men
are there to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly one. Does
not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American
has dwindled into an —one who may be known by the development of his organ
of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful
self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world,
is to see that the almshouses are in good repair; and, before
yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to collect a fund to the
support of the widows and orphans that may be; who, in short,
ventures to live only by the aid of the Mutual Insurance company,
which has promised to bury him decently.
[13] It is not a man's duty, as a matter
of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even to most
enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage
him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if
he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support.
I must get off him first, that he may pursue his
contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated.
I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order
me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to
Mexico—-see if I would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly
by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished
a
The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those
who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes
the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he
disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that
degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not
to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the
name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to
pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush
of sin comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were,
unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have
made.
[14] The broadest and most prevalent error
requires the most virtue to sustain it. The slight
reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble
are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of
the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance
and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters,
and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are
, to disregard the requisitions of the President.
Do not they stand in same relation to the State that the State
does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State
from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting
the State?
[15] How can a man be satisfied to entertain
and opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it,
if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a
single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with
knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even
with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual
steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you
are never cheated again. Action from principle, the perception and the
performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially
revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was.
It not only divided States and churches, it divides families;
ay, it divides the individual,
[16] generally, under such a government
as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the
majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist,
the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes
it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for
reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and
resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens
to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does
it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and
pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
[17] One would think, that a deliberate
and practical denial of its authority was the only offense never contemplated
by its government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable
and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has no property refuses
but once to earn for the State, he is put in prison for a period
unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion
of those who put him there; but if he should steal ninety times
nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large
again.
[18] If the injustice is part of the necessary
friction of the let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring,
or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then
perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse
than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to
be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law.
Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the
wrong which I condemn.
[19] As for adopting the ways of the State
has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways.
I have other
affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make
this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he
cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should be petitioning
the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition
me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do
then? But in this case the State has provided no way: This may seem to be harsh and stubborn
and unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness
and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it.
So is all change for the better, like birth and death, which convulse
the body.
[20] I do not hesitate to say, that should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government
of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a , before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I
think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without
waiting for that other one. Moreover,
[21] I meet this American government,
or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to
face, once a year—no more—in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is
the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets
it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the
most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest
mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little
satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. , is the very man I have to deal with—for it is,
after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel—-and
he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall
he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government,
or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me,
his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed
man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he
can get over this obstruction to his neighborlines without a ruder and
more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I know
this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom
I could name—-if ten honest men only—ay, if one HONEST man, in this
State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw
from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail
therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. F But we love better to talk about
it: that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers
in its service, but not one man. If, the
State's ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the
question of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened
with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of
Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of
slavery upon her sister—-though at present she can discover only an act
of inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her—-the Legislature
would not wholly waive the subject of the following winter.
[22] The proper place today, the only place which
Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less despondent spirits,
is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her
own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles.
It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole,
and
come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on that separate
but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those
who are not with her, but against her—the only house in a slave
State in which a free man can abide with
If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their
voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be
as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth
is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively
he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person.
Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole
influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority;
it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it
clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just
men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate
which to choose. that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would
be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed
innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable
revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any
other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall
I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign
your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer
has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished.
But even suppose blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through
this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and
he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.
[23] I have contemplated the imprisonment
of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods—-though both
will serve the same purpose—-because they who assert the purest right,
and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, To such the
State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont
to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn
it by special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly
without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand
it of him. But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is
always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking,
It puts to rest many questions which he would
otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which
it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his
moral ground is taken from under his feet. The best thing a man can do for
his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those
schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the
Herodians according to their condition. "Show me the tribute-money,"
said he—and one took a penny out of his pocket—if you use money
which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and
valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the
advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him back some of his
own when he demands it. "Render therefore to Caesar that which is
Caesar's and to God those things which are God's"—leaving them no wiser
than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.
[24] When I converse with the freest of
my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the
magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the
public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is,
that For my own part, I should not like to think
that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the
authority of the State when it presents its tax bill, it will
soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children
without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man
to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward
respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that
would be sure to go again. A man may grow rich in Turkey even,
if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government.
Confucius said: "If a state is governed by the principles of reason,
poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed
by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects of shame."
No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended
to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered,
or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful
enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts,
and her right to my property and life. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.
[25 toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another
man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should
be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster;
for I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself
by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should
not present its tax bill, and have the State to back its demand, as
well as the Church. However, as the request of the selectmen,
I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing: "Know
all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish
to be regarded as a member of any society which I have not joined."
This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State, having thus
learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that
church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said
that it must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had
known how to name them, I should then have signed off in detail
from ; but I did not know where to find such a complete list.
[26] I have paid no for
I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I
stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick,
the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating
which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness
of that institution which treated my as if I were mere flesh and
blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have
concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and
had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way.
I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen,
there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before
they could get to I did nor for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed
a I felt as if I alone of all
my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat
me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat
and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought
that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall.
I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the
door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or
hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could
not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys,
if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will
abuse his dog. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid
as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know
its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it,
and pitied it.
[27] Thus the state never intentionally
confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his
senses. It is not armed with superior with or honesty, but with superior
physical strength. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has
a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than
I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men
being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of
life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to
me, "" why should I be in haste to give it
my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot
help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the
while to snivel about it. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when
an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain
inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and
spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance,
overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according
to nature, it dies; and so a man.
[28] The night in prison was novel and
interesting enough. The prisoners in their shirtsleeves were enjoying
a chat and the evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer
said, "Come, boys, it is time to lock up"; and so they dispersed,
and I heard the sound of their steps returning into the hollow
apartments. My room-mate was introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate
fellow and clever man." When the door was locked, he showed me
where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms
were whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest,
most simply furnished, and probably neatest apartment in town.
He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought
me there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he came
there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and as the
world goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me
of ; but I never did it." As near as I could discover,
he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his
pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being
a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his
trial to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he
was quite domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing,
and thought that he was well treated.
[29] He occupied one window, and I the
other; and I saw that if one stayed there long, his principal
business would be to look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts
that were left there, and examined where former prisoners had
broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard the history
of the various occupants of that room; for I found that even there
there was which never circulated beyond
the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where
verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular
form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of young
men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves
by singing them.
[30] I pumped as dry
as I could, but at length he
showed me which was my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.
[31] It was like , such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one
night. It seemed to me that I never had heard the town clock strike
before, not the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with
the windows open, which were inside the grating. They were the voices of old burghers that I heard
in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of
whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village
inn—a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of
my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its
institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it
is a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were
about.
[32] In the morning, our breakfasts were
put through the hole in the door, in small oblong-square tin pans,
made to fit, and holding a pint of chocolate, with brown bread, and
an iron spoon. When they called for the vessels again, I was green enough
to return what bread I had left, but my comrade seized it, and said
that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner. Soon after he was
let out to work at haying in a neighboring field, whither he went
every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me good day,
saying that he doubted if he should see me again.
[33] When I came out of prison—-for , and paid that tax—-I did not perceive that great
changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went
in a youth and emerged a gray-headed man; and yet a change had
to my eyes come over the scene—-the town, and State, and country,
greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly
the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among
whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that
their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly
propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by
their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and Malays are that
in their sacrifices to humanity they ran no risks, not even to their
property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated
the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance
and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight through
useless path from time to time, to save their souls. This may
be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that many of them are
not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village.
[34] It was formerly the custom in our
village, when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances
to salute him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed
to represent the jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did
not this salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one another,
as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail
as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mender.
I proceeded to finish my errand,
and, having put on my mended show, joined a huckleberry party,
who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in
half an hour—-or the horse was soon tackled—-was in the midst of a huckleberry
field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the
State was nowhere to be seen.
[35] This is the whole "
[36] I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow countrymen now. It is for no particular
item in the tax bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse
allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually.
I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till
it buys a man, or a musket to shoot one with—the dollar is innocent—but
I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact,
I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion,
[37] If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual
taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because
they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelingsinterfere
with the public good.
[38] This, then is my position at present.
But one cannot be too much on his guard in such a case, lest his
actions be biased by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of
men. Let him see that he does only what belongs to himself and
to the hour.
[39] I think sometimes, Why, this people
mean well, they are only ignorant; they would do better if they
knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are
not inclined to? But I think again, This is no reason why I should
do as they do, or permit others to suffer much greater pain of a different
kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, When many millions of
men, without heat, without ill will, without personal feelings
of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without the possibility,
such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present
demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to
any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force?
You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus
obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities.
You do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I
regard this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force,
and consider that I have relations to those millions as to so many
millions of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate things, I see that
appeal is possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the
Maker of them, and, secondly, from them to themselves. But if I put
my head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire
or to the Maker for fire, and I have only myself to blame. If
I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied with men
as they are, and to treat them accordingly, and not according,
in some respects, to my requisitions and expectations of what they and
I ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should
endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is
the will of God. And, above all, there is this difference between resisting
this and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this
with some effect; but I cannot expect, like, to change
the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
[40] I do not wish to quarrel with
any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions,
or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I
may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land.
I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect
myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes
round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position
of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people to
discover a pretext for conformity.
"We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate
Our love or industry from doing it honor,
We must respect effects and teach the soul
Matter of conscience and religion,
And not desire of rule or benefit."
[41] I believe that the State will
soon be able to take all my work of this sort out of my hands, and then
I shall be no better patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen from
a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is
very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even this State
and this American government are, in many respects, very admirable,
and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have described
them;
[42] However, the government does not
concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts
on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in
this world.
[43] I know that most men think differently
from myself; but those whose lives are by profession devoted to
the study of these or kindred subjects content me as little as any.
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution,
never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society,
but have no resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain
experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious
and even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all
their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits.
They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy
and expediency. never goes behind government, and so cannot
speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators
who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government;
but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once
glances at the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise
speculations on this theme would soon reveal the limits of his
mind's range and hospitality. Yet, compared with the cheap professions
of most reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom an eloquence of
politicians in general, his are almost the only sensible and valuable
words, and we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong,
original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not
wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency
or a consistent expediency. He well deserves
to be called, as he has been called, the Defender of the Constitution.
There are really no blows to be given him but defensive ones. He is
not a leader, but a follower. His leaders are the
"I have never made an effort," he says, "and never propose to
make an effort; I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean
to countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement as originally
made, by which various States came into the Union." Still thinking
of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because
it was part of the original compact—let it stand." Notwithstanding
his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take a fact out of
its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely
to be disposed of by the intellect—what, for instance, it behooves
a man to do here in America today with regard to slavery—but ventures,
or is driven, to make some such desperate answer to the following,
while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man—from
which what new and singular of social duties might be inferred? "The
manner," says he, "in which the governments of the States where
slavery exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration,
under the responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws
of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations
formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or any other
cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have never received
any encouragement from me and they never will. [Thoreau's Note:
"These extracts have been inserted since the lecture was read."]
[44] They
who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream
no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution,
and drink at it there with reverence and humanity; but they who
behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up
their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its
fountainhead.
[45] No man with a genius for legislation
has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world.
There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but
the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable
of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence
for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism
it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative
value of free trade and of freed, of union, and of rectitude,
to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble
questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufactures and
agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators
in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience
and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not
long retain her rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years,
though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament
has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and
practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds
on the science of legislation.
[46] The authority of government, even
such as I am willing to submit to—for I will cheerfully obey those
who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who
neither know nor can do so well—is still an impure one: to be
strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.
It can have no pure right over my person and property but what
I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy,
from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true
respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise
enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is
a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government?
I please
myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to
all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor;
which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a
few were to lie aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by
it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men. A State
which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as
it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and
glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.
 Sources:
- Drinnon, Richard. "Thoreau's Politics of the Upright Man." The Massachusetts Review 4.1 (Autumn 1962): 126-138. Also in John Hicks, Thoreau in Our Season (Amherst, 1966, 154-68).
- Duban, James. "Thoreau, Garrison, and Dymond: Unbending Firmness of Mind." American Literature 57 (1985): 309-317.
- Meyer, Michael. "'Civil Disobedience' and the Problem of Thoreau's 'Peaceable Revolution'." Approaches to Teaching Thoreau's Walden and Other Works. New York: MLA, 1996.
- Kaplan, Morris. "Civil Disobedience, Conscience, and Community: Thoreau's 'Double Self' and the Problematic of Political Action." The Delegated Intellect: Emersonian Essays on Literature, Science, and Art in Honor of Don Gifford. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.
- Rossi, William, editor. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. New York: Norton & Company, 1966.
- Stern, Philip Van Doren. The Annotated Walden. New York: Clarkson Potter, 1970.
- Wood, Barry. "Thoreau's Narrative Art in 'Civil Disobedience'." Philological
Quarterly 60 (1981):105-115
Additional Resources:
Bedau, Hugo Adam. ed. Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice. NY, 1969.
- Duban, James. "Conscience and Consciousness: The Liberal Christian Context of Thoreau's Political Ethic." American Literature 60 (1987), 208-22.
- Erlich, Michael. "Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience': Strategy for Reform." Connecticut Review 7.1 (1973), 100-110.
- Franklin, H. Bruce. Prison Literature in America: The Victim as Criminal and Artist. Westport: Hill, 1978.
- Glick, Wendell. "'Civil Disobedience': Thoreau's Attack upon Relativism." Western Humanities Review 7 (1952), 35-42.
- Harding, Walter. "Was It Legal? Thoreau in Jail." American Heritage, Aug 1975, 36-37.
- Herr, William. "A More Perfect State: Thoreau's Concept of Civil Government." Massachusetts Review 16 (1975), 470-87.
- Herr, William. "Thoreau: A Civil Disobedient?" Ethics 85 (1974), 87-91.
Madden, Edward. Civil Disobedience and Moral Law in Nineteenth-Century American Philosophy. Seattle, 1968.
- Wynn Yarborough, Changing
Trends in Criticism of "Resistance to Civil Government.".
VCU, 1999.
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