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On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau · Henry David Thoreau Classics Podcast

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Speaker 1: On the duty of civil disobedience by Henry David Thurrow
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Speaker 1: eighteen forty nine. Original title Resistance to Civil Government, Part one.
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Speaker 1: I heartily accept the motto that government is best which
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Speaker 1: governs least, and I should like to see it acted
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Speaker 1: up to more rapidly and systematically carried out. It finally
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Speaker 1: amounts to this, which also I believe that government is
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Speaker 1: best which governs not at all, and when men are
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Speaker 1: prepared for it, that will be the kind of government
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Speaker 1: which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient,
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Speaker 1: but most governments are usually and all governments are sometimes inexpedient.
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Speaker 1: The objections which have been brought against a standing army,
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Speaker 1: and they are many and weighty and deserve to prevail,
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Speaker 1: may also at last be brought against a standing government.
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Speaker 1: The standing army is only an arm of the standing government.
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Speaker 1: The government itself, which is only the mode which the
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Speaker 1: people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable
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Speaker 1: to be abused and perverted before the people can act
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Speaker 1: through it. Witness the present Mexican War, the work of
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Speaker 1: comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool.
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Speaker 1: For in the outset, the people would not have consented
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Speaker 1: to this measure. This American government, what is it but
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Speaker 1: a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself
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Speaker 1: unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity.
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Speaker 1: It has not the vitality and force of a single
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Speaker 1: living man, for a single man can bend it to
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Speaker 1: his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to
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Speaker 1: the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary
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Speaker 1: for this, for the people must have some complicated machinery
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Speaker 1: or other, and hear its din to satisfy that idea
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Speaker 1: of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully
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Speaker 1: men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves for
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Speaker 1: their own advantage. It is excellent we must all allow.
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Speaker 1: Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise. But
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Speaker 1: by the alacriate with which it got out of its way,
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Speaker 1: it does not keep the country free. It does not
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Speaker 1: settle the West, It does not educate the character inherent
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Speaker 1: in the American people. Has done all that has been accomplished,
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Speaker 1: and it would have done somewhat more if the government
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Speaker 1: had not sometimes got in its way. For government is
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Speaker 1: an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting
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Speaker 1: one another alone. And as has been said, when it
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Speaker 1: is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it.
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Speaker 1: Trade and commerce. If they were not made of India rubber,
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Speaker 1: would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are
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Speaker 1: continually in their way. And if one were to judge
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Speaker 1: these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and
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Speaker 1: not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be
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Speaker 1: classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions
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Speaker 1: on the railroads. But to speak practically and as a citizen,
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Speaker 1: unlike those who call themselves no government men, I ask
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Speaker 1: for not at once no government, but at once a
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Speaker 1: better government. Let every man make known what kind of
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Speaker 1: government would command his respect, and that will be one
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Speaker 1: step toward obtaining it. After all. The practical reason why,
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Speaker 1: when the power is once in the hands of the people,
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Speaker 1: a majority are permitted and for a long period continue
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Speaker 1: to rule, is not because they are most likely to
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Speaker 1: be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to
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Speaker 1: the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But
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Speaker 1: a government in which the majority rule in all cases
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Speaker 1: cannot be based on justice, even as far as men
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Speaker 1: understand it. Can there not be a government in which
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Speaker 1: the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience,
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Speaker 1: in which majorities decide only those questions to which the
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Speaker 1: rule of expediency is applicable. Must the citizen, ever, for
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Speaker 1: a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience
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Speaker 1: to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience? Then?
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Speaker 1: I think we should be men first and subjects afterward.
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Speaker 1: It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the
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Speaker 1: law so much as for the right. The only obligation
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Speaker 1: which I have a right to assume is to do
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Speaker 1: at any time what I think right. It is truly
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Speaker 1: enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a
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Speaker 1: corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
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Speaker 1: Law never made men a whit more just, and by
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Speaker 1: means of their respect for it, even the well disposed
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Speaker 1: are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and
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Speaker 1: natural result of an undue rescipt respect for the law
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Speaker 1: is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates,
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Speaker 1: powder monkeys, and all marching in admirable order over hill
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Speaker 1: and dale to the wars against their wills, i against
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Speaker 1: their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching, indeed,
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Speaker 1: and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no
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Speaker 1: doubt that it is a damnable business in which they
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Speaker 1: are concerned. They are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are
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Speaker 1: they men at all? Or small movable forts and magazines
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Speaker 1: at the service of some unscrupulous man in power. Visit
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Speaker 1: the navy yard and behold a marine, such a man
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Speaker 1: as an American government can make, or such as it
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Speaker 1: can make a man with its black arts, a mere
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Speaker 1: shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out, alive
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Speaker 1: and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under
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Speaker 1: arms with funeral accompaniment, though it may be not a
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Speaker 1: drum was heard, not a funeral note, as his course
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Speaker 1: to the rampart we hurried, not a soldier discharged his
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Speaker 1: farewell shot, or the grave where our hero was buried.
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Speaker 1: The mass of men served the state thus, not as
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Speaker 1: men mainly, but as machines with their bodies. They are
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Speaker 1: the standing army and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatas,
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Speaker 1: et cetera, in most cases there is no free exercise
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Speaker 1: whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense. But
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Speaker 1: they put themselves on a level with wood and earth
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Speaker 1: and stones, and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that
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Speaker 1: will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more
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Speaker 1: respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.
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Speaker 1: They have the same sort of worth only as horses
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Speaker 1: and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed
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Speaker 1: good citizens. Others as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and
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Speaker 1: office holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads, and
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Speaker 1: as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as
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Speaker 1: likely to serve the devil without intending it as God.
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Speaker 1: A very few as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the
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Speaker 1: great sense, and men serve the state with their consciences also,
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Speaker 1: and so necessarily resist it for the most part, and
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Speaker 1: they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise
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Speaker 1: man will only be useful as a man, and will
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Speaker 1: not submit to be clay and stop a hole to
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Speaker 1: keep the wind away, but leave that office to his dust.
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Speaker 1: At least, I am too high born to be propertied
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Speaker 1: to be a second at control or useful serving man.
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Speaker 1: An instrument to any sovereign and state throughout the world.
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Speaker 1: He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears
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Speaker 1: to them useless and selfish, But he who gives himself
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Speaker 1: partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist. How
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Speaker 1: does it become a man to behave toward the American
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Speaker 1: government today? I answer that he cannot, without disgrace, be
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Speaker 1: associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that
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Speaker 1: political organization as my government, which is the slave's government.
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Speaker 1: Also all men recognize the right of revolution, that is
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Speaker 1: the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government,
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Speaker 1: when its tyranny or its ineffectfficiency are great and unendurable.
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Speaker 1: But almost all say that such is not the case now.
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Speaker 1: But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution
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Speaker 1: of seventy five. If one were to tell me that
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Speaker 1: this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign
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Speaker 1: commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that
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Speaker 1: I should not make an ado about it, for I
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Speaker 1: can do without them. All machines have their friction, and
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Speaker 1: possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At
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Speaker 1: any rate, it is a greater evil to make a
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Speaker 1: stir about it. But when the friction comes to have
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Speaker 1: its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say,
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Speaker 1: let us not have such a machine any longer. In
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Speaker 1: other words, when a sixth of the population of a
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Speaker 1: nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty
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Speaker 1: are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and
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Speaker 1: conquered by a foreign army and subjected to military law,
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Speaker 1: I think that it is not too soon for honest
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Speaker 1: men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the
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Speaker 1: more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun
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Speaker 1: is not our own, but ours is the invading army. Paley,
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Speaker 1: a common authority with many on moral questions, in his
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Speaker 1: chapter on the duty of submission to civil government, resolves
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Speaker 1: all civil obligation into expediency, and he proceeds to say that,
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Speaker 1: so long as the interest of the whole society requires it,
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Speaker 1: that is, so long as the established government cannot be
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Speaker 1: resisted or changed without public inconvenience, it is the will
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Speaker 1: of God that the established government be obeyed. And no
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Speaker 1: longer this principle being admitted, the justice of every particular
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Speaker 1: case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the
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Speaker 1: quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side,
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Speaker 1: and of the probability and expense of redressing it on
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Speaker 1: the other. Of this, he says, every man shall judge
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Speaker 1: for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those
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Speaker 1: cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply,
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Speaker 1: in which a people as well as an individual, must
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Speaker 1: do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly
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Speaker 1: wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore
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Speaker 1: it to him, though I drown myself. This, according to Paley,
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Speaker 1: would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life
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Speaker 1: in such a case shall lose it. This people must
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Speaker 1: cease to hold slaves and to make war on Mexico,
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Speaker 1: though it cost them their existence as a people. In
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Speaker 1: their practice. Nations agree with Paley. But does anyone think
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Speaker 1: that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis.
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Speaker 1: A drab of stat a cloth and silver slut to
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Speaker 1: have her train borne up and her soul trail the dirt.
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Speaker 1: Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are
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Speaker 1: not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a
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Speaker 1: hundred thousand merchants and farmers here who are more interested
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Speaker 1: in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and
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Speaker 1: are not prepared to do justice to the slave and
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Speaker 1: to Mexico cost what it may. I quarrel not with
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Speaker 1: far off foes, but with those who near at home,
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Speaker 1: co operate with, and do the bidding of those far away,
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Speaker 1: and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are
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Speaker 1: accustomed to say that the mass of men are unprepared,
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Speaker 1: but improvement is slow because the few are not as
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Speaker 1: materially wiser or better than the many. It is not
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Speaker 1: so important that many should be good as you as
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Speaker 1: that there be some absolute goodness somewhere, for that will
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Speaker 1: leavin the whole lump. There are thousands who are in
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Speaker 1: opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet
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Speaker 1: in effect do nothing to put an end to them, Who,
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Speaker 1: esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with
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Speaker 1: their hands in their pockets and say that they know
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Speaker 1: not what to do and do nothing, Who even postpone
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Speaker 1: the question of freedom to the question of free trade,
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Speaker 1: and quietly read the prices current along with the latest
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Speaker 1: advices from Mexico. After dinner, and it may be fall
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Speaker 1: asleep over them both. What is the price current of
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Speaker 1: an honest man and patriot? To day? They hesitate, and
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Speaker 1: they regret, and sometimes they petition, but they do nothing
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Speaker 1: in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed
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Speaker 1: for others to remedy the evil that they may no
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Speaker 1: longer have it to regret. At most, they give up
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Speaker 1: only a cheap vote and a feeble countenance. Send God's
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Speaker 1: speed to the right as it goes by them. There
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Speaker 1: are nine hundred and ninety nine patrons of virtue to
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Speaker 1: one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with
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Speaker 1: the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary
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Speaker 1: guardian of it all. Voting is a sort of gaming,
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Speaker 1: like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it,
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Speaker 1: a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions, and
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Speaker 1: betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is
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Speaker 1: not staked. I cast my vote perchance as I think right,
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Speaker 1: but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail.
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Speaker 1: I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its
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Speaker 1: obligation therefore never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for
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Speaker 1: the right is doing nothing for it. He is only
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Speaker 1: expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail.
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Speaker 1: A wise man will not leave the right to the
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Speaker 1: mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the
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Speaker 1: power of the majority. There is but little virtue in
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Speaker 1: the action of masses of men. When the majority shall
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Speaker 1: at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will
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Speaker 1: be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there
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Speaker 1: is but little slavery left to be abolished. By their vote,
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Speaker 1: they will then be the only slaves. Only his vote
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Speaker 1: can hasten the abolition of slavery. Who asserts his own
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Speaker 1: freedom by his vote? I hear of a convention to
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Speaker 1: be held at Baltimore or else where, for the selection
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Speaker 1: of a candidate for the presidency, made up chiefly of
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Speaker 1: editors and men who are politicians by profession. But I think,
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Speaker 1: what is it to an independent, intelligent and respectable man,
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Speaker 1: what decision they may come to. Shall we not have
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Speaker 1: the advantage of this wisdom and honesty? Nevertheless, can we
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Speaker 1: not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many
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Speaker 1: individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no,
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Speaker 1: I find that the respectable man so called has immediately
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Speaker 1: drifted from his position and despairs of his country. When
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Speaker 1: his country has more reasons to despair of him, he
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Speaker 1: forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the
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Speaker 1: only available one, thus proving that he is himself available
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Speaker 1: for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of
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Speaker 1: no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or
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Speaker 1: hireling native who may have been bought. Oh for a
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Speaker 1: man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says,
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Speaker 1: has a bone in his back which you cannot pass
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Speaker 1: your hand through. Our statistics are at fault. The population
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Speaker 1: has been returned too large. How many men are there
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Speaker 1: to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly one
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Speaker 1: does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here.
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Speaker 1: The American has dwindled into an awed fellow, one who
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Speaker 1: may be known by the development of his organ of
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Speaker 1: gregariousness in a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self reliance,
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Speaker 1: whose first and chief concern on coming into the world
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Speaker 1: is to see that the almshouses are in good repair.
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Speaker 1: And before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb
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Speaker 1: to collect a fund to the support of the widows
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Speaker 1: and orphans that may be who, in short ventures to
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Speaker 1: live only by the aid of the mutual insurance company,
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Speaker 1: which is promised to bury him decently. It is not
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Speaker 1: a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote
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Speaker 1: himself to the eradication of any even to most enormous wrong.
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Speaker 1: He may still properly have other concerns to engage him,
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Speaker 1: but it is his duty at least to wash his
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Speaker 1: hands of it, and if he gives it no thought longer,
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Speaker 1: not to give it practically his support. If I devote
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Speaker 1: myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see
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Speaker 1: at least that I do not pursue them sitting upon
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Speaker 1: another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that
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Speaker 1: he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency
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Speaker 1: is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say
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Speaker 1: I should like to have them order me out to
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Speaker 1: help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to
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Speaker 1: march to Mexico. See if I would go. And yet
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Speaker 1: these very men have, each directly by their allegiance, and
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Speaker 1: so indirectly at least by their money furnished a substitute.
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Speaker 1: The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an
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Speaker 1: unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain.
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Speaker 1: The unjust government which makes the war is applauded by
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Speaker 1: those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets
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Speaker 1: at naught, as if the state were penitent to that
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Speaker 1: degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned,
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Speaker 1: but not to that degree that it left off sinning
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Speaker 1: for a moment. Thus, under the name of order and
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Speaker 1: civil government, we are all made at last to pay
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Speaker 1: homage to and support our own meanness. After the first
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Speaker 1: lush of sin comes its indifference, and from immoral it becomes,
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Speaker 1: as it were, unmorral and not quite unnecessary to that
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Speaker 1: life which we have made. The broadest and most prevalent
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Speaker 1: error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The
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Speaker 1: slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable.
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Speaker 1: The noble are most likely to incur those who, while
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Speaker 1: they disprove of the character and measures of a government,
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Speaker 1: yield to it their allegiance and support. Are undoubtedly its
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Speaker 1: most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles
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Speaker 1: to reform. Some are petitioning the state to dissolve the
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Speaker 1: union to disregard the WRECS aquisitions of the President. Why
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Speaker 1: do they not dissolve it themselves the union between themselves
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Speaker 1: and the state, and refuse to pay their quota into
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Speaker 1: its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation
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Speaker 1: to the State that the state does to the union,
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Speaker 1: and have not the same reasons prevented the state from
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Speaker 1: resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the state.
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Speaker 1: How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion
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Speaker 1: merely and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it?
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Speaker 1: If his opinion is that he is aggrieved. If you
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Speaker 1: are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor,
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Speaker 1: you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated,
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Speaker 1: or with saying that you are cheated, or even with
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Speaker 1: petitioning him to pay you your due, But you take
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Speaker 1: effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount and
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Speaker 1: see to it that you are never cheated again. Action
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Speaker 1: from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes
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Speaker 1: things and relations. It is essentially revolutionary and does not
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Speaker 1: consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided
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Speaker 1: states and churches, it divides families. Ay, it divides the individual,
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Speaker 1: separating the diabolical in him from the divine unjust laws exist.
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Speaker 1: Shall we be content to obey that, or shall we
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Speaker 1: endeavor to amend them and obey them until we have succeeded,
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Speaker 1: Or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally under
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Speaker 1: such government as this, think that they ought to wait
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Speaker 1: until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They
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Speaker 1: think that if they should resist, the remedy would be
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Speaker 1: worse than the evil. But it is the fault of
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Speaker 1: the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil.
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Speaker 1: It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt
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Speaker 1: to anticipate and provide for reform. Why does it not
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Speaker 1: cherish its wise minority. Why does it cry and resist
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Speaker 1: before it is hurt. Why does it not encourage its
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Speaker 1: citizens to put out its faults and do better than
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Speaker 1: it would have them. Why does it always crucify Christ
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Speaker 1: and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels.
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Speaker 1: One would think that a deliberate and practical denial of
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Speaker 1: its authority was the only offense never contemplated by its government. Else,
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Speaker 1: why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and
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Speaker 1: proportionate penalty. If a man has no property refuses but
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Speaker 1: once to earn nine shillings for the state, he is
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Speaker 1: put in prison for a period unlimited by any law
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Speaker 1: that I know, and determined only by the discretion of
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Speaker 1: those who put him there. But if he should steal
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Speaker 1: ninety times nine shillings from the state, he is soon
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Speaker 1: permitted to go at large again. If the injustice is
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Speaker 1: part of the necessary friction of the machine of government,
31:22
Speaker 1: let it go. Let it go. Perchance it will wear smooth.
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Speaker 1: Certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has
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Speaker 1: a spring, or a pulley, or a rope or a
31:41
Speaker 1: crank exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether
31:48
Speaker 1: the remedy will not be worse than the evil. But
31:54
Speaker 1: if it is of such a nature that it requires
31:58
Speaker 1: you to be the agent of injustice to another, than
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Speaker 1: I say, break the law. Let your life be a
32:13
Speaker 1: counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to
32:19
Speaker 1: do is to see at any rate that I do
32:25
Speaker 1: not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. As
32:32
Speaker 1: for adopting the ways the state has provided for remedying
32:36
Speaker 1: the evil. I know not of such ways. They take
32:41
Speaker 1: too much time, and a man's life will be gone.
32:46
Speaker 1: I have other affairs to attend to. I came into
32:50
Speaker 1: this world, not chiefly to make this a good place
32:53
Speaker 1: to live in, but to live in it, be it
32:56
Speaker 1: good or bad. A man has not everything to do
33:02
Speaker 1: but something, And because he cannot do everything, it is
33:07
Speaker 1: not necessary that he should be doing something wrong. It
33:12
Speaker 1: is not my business to be petitioning the governor or
33:16
Speaker 1: the legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me.
33:21
Speaker 1: And if they should not hear my petition, what should
33:25
Speaker 1: I do then? But in this case, the state has
33:29
Speaker 1: provided no way. Its very constitution is the evil. This
33:38
Speaker 1: may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory, but
33:44
Speaker 1: it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration
33:51
Speaker 1: the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So
33:57
Speaker 1: is all change for the better, like birth and death,
34:03
Speaker 1: which convulse the body. I do not hesitate to say
34:09
Speaker 1: that those who call themselves abolitionists should at once effectually
34:16
Speaker 1: withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the
34:22
Speaker 1: government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a
34:27
Speaker 1: majority of one before they suffer the right to prevail
34:31
Speaker 1: through them. I think that it is enough if they
34:36
Speaker 1: have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover,
34:44
Speaker 1: any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority
34:48
Speaker 1: of one. Already. I meet this American government or its representative,
34:55
Speaker 1: the state government, directly and face to face once a year,
35:01
Speaker 1: no more, in the person of its tax gatherer. This
35:06
Speaker 1: is the only mode in which a man situated as
35:09
Speaker 1: I am, necessarily meets it, and it then says distinctly
35:15
Speaker 1: recognize me. And the simplest, the most effectual, and in
35:20
Speaker 1: the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating
35:25
Speaker 1: with it. On this head of expressing your little satisfaction
35:30
Speaker 1: with and love for it is to deny it. Then,
35:36
Speaker 1: my civil neighbor, the tax gatherer, is the very man
35:41
Speaker 1: I have to deal with. For it is after all
35:45
Speaker 1: with men, and not with parchment, that I quarrel. And
35:50
Speaker 1: he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government.
35:57
Speaker 1: How shall he ever know well that he is and
36:02
Speaker 1: does as an officer of the government or as a man,
36:08
Speaker 1: until he is obligated to consider whether he will treat
36:13
Speaker 1: me his neighbor for whom he has respect as a
36:18
Speaker 1: neighbor and well disposed man, or as a maniac and
36:23
Speaker 1: disturber of the peace, and see if he can get
36:27
Speaker 1: over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and
36:32
Speaker 1: more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I
36:37
Speaker 1: know this well that if one thousand, if one hundred,
36:44
Speaker 1: if ten men whom I could name, if ten honest
36:49
Speaker 1: men only, I if one honest man in this state
36:56
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts ceasing to hold old slaves, were actually to
37:04
Speaker 1: withdraw from this co partnership and be locked up in
37:10
Speaker 1: the county jail, therefore it would be the abolition of
37:15
Speaker 1: slavery in America. For it matters not how small the
37:21
Speaker 1: beginning may seem to be. What is once well done
37:27
Speaker 1: is done forever. But we love better to talk about
37:33
Speaker 1: it that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many
37:39
Speaker 1: scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man.
37:45
Speaker 1: If my esteemed neighbor, the state's ambassador, who will devote
37:49
Speaker 1: his days to the settlement of the question of human
37:51
Speaker 1: rights in the Council chamber, instead of being threatened with
37:56
Speaker 1: the prisons of Carolina were to sit down the prisoner
37:59
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts, that state which is so anxious to foist
38:05
Speaker 1: the sin of slavery upon her sister, though at present
38:11
Speaker 1: she can discover only an act of inhospitality, to be
38:14
Speaker 1: the ground of a quarrel with her, the legislature would
38:18
Speaker 1: not wholly waive the subject of the following winter. Under
38:24
Speaker 1: a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a
38:31
Speaker 1: just man is also a prison. The proper place today,
38:37
Speaker 1: the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer
38:42
Speaker 1: and less despondent spirits, is in her prisons, to be
38:47
Speaker 1: put out and locked out of the state by her
38:50
Speaker 1: own act, as they have already put themselves out by
38:55
Speaker 1: their principles. It is there that the future slave, and
39:01
Speaker 1: the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to
39:05
Speaker 1: plead the wrongs of his race should find them on
39:09
Speaker 1: that separate, but more free and honorable ground where the
39:14
Speaker 1: state places those who are not with her but against her,
39:21
Speaker 1: the only house in a slave state in which a
39:23
Speaker 1: free man can abide with honor. If any think that
39:29
Speaker 1: their influence would be lost there, and their voices no
39:34
Speaker 1: longer afflict the ear of the state, that they would
39:38
Speaker 1: not be as an enemy within its walls. They do
39:43
Speaker 1: not know by how much truth is stronger than error,
39:50
Speaker 1: nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat
39:55
Speaker 1: injustice who has experienced a little in his own person.
40:03
Speaker 1: Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely,
40:10
Speaker 1: but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it
40:16
Speaker 1: conforms to the majority. It is not even a minority, then,
40:23
Speaker 1: but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.
40:32
Speaker 1: If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison,
40:37
Speaker 1: or give up war and slavery, the state will not
40:42
Speaker 1: hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not
40:48
Speaker 1: to pay their tax bills this year, that would not
40:52
Speaker 1: be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be
40:57
Speaker 1: to pay them, and a naghbor the state to commit
41:01
Speaker 1: violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the
41:08
Speaker 1: definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
41:16
Speaker 1: If the tax gatherer or any other public officer asks me,
41:22
Speaker 1: as one has done, but what shall I do? My
41:26
Speaker 1: answer is, if you really wish to do anything, resign
41:32
Speaker 1: your office. When the subject has refused allegiance and the
41:38
Speaker 1: officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished.
41:45
Speaker 1: But even suppose blood should flow, is there not a
41:50
Speaker 1: sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded. Through
41:57
Speaker 1: this wound, a man's real mins manhood and immortality flow out,
42:05
Speaker 1: and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this
42:12
Speaker 1: blood flowing now. End of Part one, eighteen forty nine,
42:20
Speaker 1: original title Resistance to Civil Government, Part two. I have
42:28
Speaker 1: contemplated the imprisonment of the offender rather than the seizure
42:32
Speaker 1: of his goods, though both will serve the same purpose,
42:38
Speaker 1: because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are
42:42
Speaker 1: most dangerous to a corrupt state commonly have not spent
42:47
Speaker 1: much time in accumulating property. To such the state renders
42:52
Speaker 1: comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to
42:57
Speaker 1: appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it
43:02
Speaker 1: by special labor with their hands. If there were one
43:07
Speaker 1: who lived wholly without the use of money, the state
43:13
Speaker 1: itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the
43:18
Speaker 1: rich man, not to make any invidious comparison, is always
43:23
Speaker 1: sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking,
43:30
Speaker 1: the more money, the less virtue. For money comes between
43:37
Speaker 1: a man and his objects, and obtains them for him,
43:44
Speaker 1: it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It
43:50
Speaker 1: puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be
43:53
Speaker 1: taxed to answer, while the only new question which it
43:57
Speaker 1: puts is the hard but supper flowius one how to
44:02
Speaker 1: spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under
44:09
Speaker 1: his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion
44:15
Speaker 1: as that are called, the means are increased. The best
44:21
Speaker 1: thing a man can do for his culture when he
44:24
Speaker 1: is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes
44:28
Speaker 1: which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians,
44:36
Speaker 1: according to their condition, show me the tribute money, said he,
44:42
Speaker 1: and one took a penny out of his pocket. If
44:46
Speaker 1: you use money which has the image of Caesar on it,
44:50
Speaker 1: and which he has made current and valuable, that is,
44:56
Speaker 1: if you are men of the state and gladly enjoy
45:01
Speaker 1: the advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him back some
45:06
Speaker 1: of his own when he demands it. Render therefore to
45:11
Speaker 1: Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those things
45:17
Speaker 1: which are God's, leaving them no wiser than before as
45:23
Speaker 1: to which was which, For they did not wish to
45:28
Speaker 1: know when I converse with the freest of my neighbors,
45:34
Speaker 1: I perceive that whatever they may say about the magnitude
45:38
Speaker 1: and seriousness of the question and their regard for the
45:41
Speaker 1: public tranquility, the long and the short of the matter
45:46
Speaker 1: is that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government,
45:52
Speaker 1: and they dread the consequences to their property and families
45:57
Speaker 1: of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should
46:01
Speaker 1: not like to think that I ever rely on the
46:04
Speaker 1: protection of the state. But if I deny the authority
46:10
Speaker 1: of the state when it presents its tax bill, it
46:12
Speaker 1: will soon take and waste all my property, and so
46:17
Speaker 1: harass me and my children without end. This is hard.
46:24
Speaker 1: This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly
46:28
Speaker 1: and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. It
46:34
Speaker 1: will not be worth the while to accumulate property that
46:38
Speaker 1: would be sure to go again. You must hire or
46:42
Speaker 1: squat somewhere and raise but a small crop and eat
46:46
Speaker 1: that soon. You must live within yourself and depend upon yourself,
46:53
Speaker 1: always tucked up and ready for a start, and not
46:57
Speaker 1: have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey,
47:02
Speaker 1: even if he will be in all respects a good
47:05
Speaker 1: subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said, if a state
47:12
Speaker 1: is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery
47:16
Speaker 1: are subjects of shame. If a state is not governed
47:21
Speaker 1: by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects
47:29
Speaker 1: of shame. No, until I want the protection of Massachusetts
47:35
Speaker 1: to be extended to me in some distant southern port
47:39
Speaker 1: where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent
47:42
Speaker 1: solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise,
47:48
Speaker 1: I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts and her
47:53
Speaker 1: right to my property and life. It costs me less
47:59
Speaker 1: in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to
48:04
Speaker 1: the state than it would to obey. I should feel
48:08
Speaker 1: as if I were worth less in that case. Some
48:13
Speaker 1: years ago, the state met me in behalf of the
48:17
Speaker 1: church and commended me to pay a certain sum toward
48:22
Speaker 1: the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended.
48:27
Speaker 1: But never I myself. Pay it, said, or be locked
48:32
Speaker 1: up in the jail. I declined to pay, but unfortunately
48:39
Speaker 1: another man saw fit to pay it. I did not
48:43
Speaker 1: see why the school master should be taxed to support
48:48
Speaker 1: the priest and not the priest the schoolmaster, for I
48:55
Speaker 1: was not the state's schoolmaster, but I supported my health
49:00
Speaker 1: by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum
49:06
Speaker 1: should not present its tax bill and have the state
49:10
Speaker 1: to back its demand as well as the church. However,
49:16
Speaker 1: at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make
49:20
Speaker 1: some such statement as this, in writing, know all men,
49:25
Speaker 1: by these presents, that I, Henry Thurrow, do not wish
49:30
Speaker 1: to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society
49:35
Speaker 1: which I have not joined. This I gave to the
49:40
Speaker 1: town clerk, and he has it. The state, having thus
49:46
Speaker 1: learned that I did not wish to be regarded as
49:49
Speaker 1: a member of that church, has never made a like
49:53
Speaker 1: demand on me since, though it said that it must
49:57
Speaker 1: adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had
50:02
Speaker 1: known how to name them, I should then have signed
50:05
Speaker 1: off in detail from all the societies which I never
50:08
Speaker 1: signed on to, but I did not know where to
50:12
Speaker 1: find such a complete list. I have paid no pull
50:17
Speaker 1: tax for six years. I was put into a jail
50:21
Speaker 1: once on this account for one night, And as I
50:26
Speaker 1: stood considering the walls of solid stone two or three
50:29
Speaker 1: feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick,
50:35
Speaker 1: and the iron grating which strained the light. I could
50:40
Speaker 1: not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution,
50:45
Speaker 1: which treated me as if I were mere flesh and
50:50
Speaker 1: blood and bones to be locked up. I wondered that
50:56
Speaker 1: it should have concluded at length that this was the
51:00
Speaker 1: best use it could put me to, and had never
51:04
Speaker 1: thought to avail itself of my services. In some way,
51:09
Speaker 1: I saw that if there was a wall of stone
51:12
Speaker 1: between me and my townsmen, there was a still more
51:17
Speaker 1: difficult one to climb or break through before they could
51:20
Speaker 1: get to be as free as I was. I did
51:26
Speaker 1: not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed
51:32
Speaker 1: a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as
51:38
Speaker 1: if I alone, of all my townsmen, had paid my tax.
51:45
Speaker 1: They plainly did not know how to treat me, but
51:48
Speaker 1: behaved like persons who were under bread. In every threat
51:55
Speaker 1: and in every compliment, there was a blunder, for they
52:01
Speaker 1: thought that my chief desire was to stand the other
52:05
Speaker 1: side of that stone wall. I could not but smile
52:09
Speaker 1: to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations,
52:14
Speaker 1: which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and
52:18
Speaker 1: they were really all that was dangerous. As they could
52:23
Speaker 1: not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body,
52:29
Speaker 1: just as boys, if they cannot come at some person
52:32
Speaker 1: against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog.
52:37
Speaker 1: I saw that the state was half witted, that it
52:42
Speaker 1: was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons,
52:47
Speaker 1: and that it did not know its friends from its foes.
52:53
Speaker 1: And I lost all my remaining respect for it, and
52:57
Speaker 1: pitied it. Thus, the state never intentionally confronts a man's sense,
53:03
Speaker 1: intellectual or moral, but only his body his senses. It
53:12
Speaker 1: is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with
53:16
Speaker 1: superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced.
53:22
Speaker 1: I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see
53:28
Speaker 1: who is the strongest, What force has a multitude? They
53:35
Speaker 1: only can force me, who obey a higher law than I.
53:40
Speaker 1: They force me to become like themselves. I do not
53:46
Speaker 1: hear of men being forced to live this way or
53:52
Speaker 1: that by masses of men. What sort of life were
53:57
Speaker 1: that to live? When I meet a government which says
54:01
Speaker 1: to me your money or your life, why should I
54:06
Speaker 1: be in haste to give it my money. It may
54:10
Speaker 1: be in a great strait and not know what to do.
54:15
Speaker 1: I cannot help that. It must help itself do as
54:19
Speaker 1: I do. It is not worth the while to snivel
54:23
Speaker 1: about it. I am not responsible for the successful working
54:27
Speaker 1: of the machinery of society. I am not the son
54:32
Speaker 1: of the engineer. I perceive that when an acorn and
54:38
Speaker 1: a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not
54:42
Speaker 1: remain inert to make way for the other, but both
54:47
Speaker 1: obey their own laws and spring and grow and flourish
54:51
Speaker 1: as best they can, till one perchance overshadows and destroys
54:57
Speaker 1: the other. If a plant cannot live according to its nature,
55:03
Speaker 1: it dies, and so a man. The night in prison
55:09
Speaker 1: was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners, in their shirt
55:14
Speaker 1: sleeves were enjoying a chat in the evening air in
55:17
Speaker 1: the doorway when I entered. But the jailer said, come, boys,
55:22
Speaker 1: it is time to lock up. And so they dispersed,
55:26
Speaker 1: and I heard the sound of their steps returning into
55:28
Speaker 1: the hollow apartments. My roommate was introduced to me by
55:33
Speaker 1: the jailer as a first rate fellow and clever man.
55:37
Speaker 1: When the door was locked, he showed me where to
55:39
Speaker 1: hang my hat and how he managed matters there. The
55:43
Speaker 1: rooms were whitewashed once a month, and this one, at
55:47
Speaker 1: least was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably neatest
55:52
Speaker 1: apartment in town. He naturally wanted to know where I
55:57
Speaker 1: came from and what brought me there, And when I
56:00
Speaker 1: had told him, I asked him in my turn how
56:03
Speaker 1: he came there, presuming him to be an honest man,
56:07
Speaker 1: of course, and as the world goes, I believe he was.
56:14
Speaker 1: Why said he? They accuse me of burning a barn,
56:19
Speaker 1: but I never did it, As near as I could discover,
56:23
Speaker 1: he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk,
56:26
Speaker 1: and smoked his pipe there, and so a barn was burnt.
56:32
Speaker 1: He had the reputation of being a clever man. Had
56:35
Speaker 1: been there some three months waiting for his trial to
56:38
Speaker 1: come on, and would have to wait as much longer.
56:42
Speaker 1: But he was quite domesticated and contented, since he got
56:46
Speaker 1: his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated.
56:51
Speaker 1: He occupied one window and I the other, and I
56:56
Speaker 1: saw that if one stayed there long, his principal business
57:01
Speaker 1: would be to look out the window. I had soon
57:05
Speaker 1: read all the tracts that were left there, and examined
57:09
Speaker 1: where former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate
57:13
Speaker 1: had been sawed off, and heard the history of the
57:16
Speaker 1: various occupants of that room. For I found that even
57:19
Speaker 1: there there was a history and a gossip which never
57:22
Speaker 1: circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is
57:26
Speaker 1: the only house in the town where verses are composed,
57:31
Speaker 1: which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published.
57:37
Speaker 1: I was shown quite a long list of young men
57:39
Speaker 1: who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who
57:43
Speaker 1: avenged themselves by singing them. I pumped my fellow prisoner
57:48
Speaker 1: as dry as I could, for fear I should never
57:50
Speaker 1: see him again. But at length he showed me which
57:54
Speaker 1: was my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.
57:58
Speaker 1: It was like traveling into a far country such as
58:01
Speaker 1: I had never expected to behold. To lie there for
58:06
Speaker 1: one night, it seemed to me that I never had
58:10
Speaker 1: heard the town clock strike before, nor the evening sound
58:15
Speaker 1: of the village, for we slept with the windows open,
58:19
Speaker 1: which were inside the grating. It was to see my
58:24
Speaker 1: native village in the light of the Middle Ages, and
58:28
Speaker 1: our concord was turned into a rhine stream, and visions
58:33
Speaker 1: of nights and castles passed before me. They were the
58:37
Speaker 1: voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets.
58:42
Speaker 1: I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was
58:45
Speaker 1: done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village inn.
58:49
Speaker 1: A wholly new and rare experience to me. It was
58:53
Speaker 1: a closer view of my native town. I was fairly
58:57
Speaker 1: inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before.
59:05
Speaker 1: This is one of its peculiar institutions, for it is
59:08
Speaker 1: a Shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants
59:13
Speaker 1: were about. In the morning, our breakfasts were put through
59:17
Speaker 1: the hole in the door, in small oblong square tin
59:21
Speaker 1: pans made to fit, and holding a pint of chocolate
59:25
Speaker 1: with brown bread and an iron spoon. When they called
59:30
Speaker 1: for the vessels again, I was green enough to return
59:33
Speaker 1: what bread I had left, but my comrade seized it
59:38
Speaker 1: and said that I should lay that up for lunch
59:40
Speaker 1: or dinner. Soon after, he was led out to work
59:43
Speaker 1: at haying in a neighboring field. Whither he went every
59:47
Speaker 1: day and would not be back till noon. So he
59:51
Speaker 1: bade me good day, saying that he doubted if he
59:54
Speaker 1: should see me again. When I came out of prison
59:58
Speaker 1: for some one into feared and paid that tax. I
1:00:03
Speaker 1: did not perceive that great changes had taken place on
1:00:06
Speaker 1: the common, such as he observed who went in a
1:00:10
Speaker 1: youth and emerged a gray headed man. And yet a
1:00:14
Speaker 1: change had to my eyes come over the scene the town,
1:00:19
Speaker 1: and state, and country, greater than any that mere time
1:00:24
Speaker 1: could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the state in
1:00:28
Speaker 1: which I lived. I saw to what extent the people
1:00:32
Speaker 1: among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors
1:00:36
Speaker 1: and friends, That their friendship was for summer weather, only,
1:00:43
Speaker 1: that they did not greatly propose to do right, That
1:00:48
Speaker 1: they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices
1:00:53
Speaker 1: and superstitions, as the Chinamen and the Malaise are, That
1:00:59
Speaker 1: in their sax sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks,
1:01:04
Speaker 1: not even to their property. That after all they were
1:01:09
Speaker 1: not so noble. But they treated the thief as he
1:01:13
Speaker 1: had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance
1:01:18
Speaker 1: and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular, straight,
1:01:24
Speaker 1: though useless path from time to time, to save their souls.
1:01:30
Speaker 1: This may be to judge my neighbors harshly, for I
1:01:34
Speaker 1: believe that many of them are not aware that they
1:01:37
Speaker 1: have such an institution as the jail in their village.
1:01:41
Speaker 1: It was formerly the custom in our village when a
1:01:43
Speaker 1: poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to
1:01:46
Speaker 1: salute him, looking through their fingers, which they crossed to
1:01:51
Speaker 1: represent the jail window. How do ye do My neighbors
1:01:56
Speaker 1: did not thus salute me, but first looked at me
1:02:00
Speaker 1: and then at one another, as if I had returned
1:02:03
Speaker 1: from a long journey. I was put into jail as
1:02:07
Speaker 1: I was going to the shoemakers to get a shoe,
1:02:10
Speaker 1: which was mended. When I was let out the next morning,
1:02:14
Speaker 1: I proceeded to finish my errand, and having put on
1:02:18
Speaker 1: my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient
1:02:22
Speaker 1: to put themselves under my conduct, and in half an
1:02:26
Speaker 1: hour for the horse was soon tackled. Was in the
1:02:29
Speaker 1: midst of the huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills,
1:02:33
Speaker 1: two miles off, and then the state was nowhere to
1:02:38
Speaker 1: be seen. That is the whole history of my prisons.
1:02:45
Speaker 1: I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I
1:02:49
Speaker 1: am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I
1:02:52
Speaker 1: am of being a bad subject, and as for supporting schools,
1:02:57
Speaker 1: I am doing my part to educate my fellow countrymen. Now,
1:03:02
Speaker 1: it is for no particular item in the tax bill
1:03:05
Speaker 1: that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to
1:03:08
Speaker 1: refuse allegiance to the state, to withdraw and stand aloof
1:03:16
Speaker 1: from it. Effectually, I do not care to trace the
1:03:20
Speaker 1: course of my dollar. If I could till advise a
1:03:24
Speaker 1: man or a musket to shoot one with the dollar
1:03:30
Speaker 1: is innocent. But I am concerned to trace the effects
1:03:36
Speaker 1: of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with
1:03:43
Speaker 1: the state after my fashion, though I will still make
1:03:48
Speaker 1: use and get what advantages of her I can, as
1:03:52
Speaker 1: is usual in such cases, if others pay the tax
1:03:56
Speaker 1: which is demanded of me from a sympathy with the state,
1:04:01
Speaker 1: they do but what they have already done in their
1:04:04
Speaker 1: own case, or rather they a bet in justice to
1:04:08
Speaker 1: a greater extent than the state requires. If they pay
1:04:13
Speaker 1: the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed
1:04:18
Speaker 1: to save his property or prevent his going to jail,
1:04:23
Speaker 1: it is because they have not considered wisely how far
1:04:27
Speaker 1: they let their private feelings interfere with the public good.
1:04:33
Speaker 1: This then is my position at present. But one cannot
1:04:38
Speaker 1: be too much on his guard in such a case,
1:04:41
Speaker 1: lest his actions be biased by obstinacy or an undue
1:04:46
Speaker 1: regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that
1:04:51
Speaker 1: he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour.
1:04:57
Speaker 1: I think sometimes why this? People mean? Well, they are
1:05:03
Speaker 1: only ignorant. They would do better if they knew how
1:05:09
Speaker 1: Why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as
1:05:12
Speaker 1: they are not inclined to? But I think again, this
1:05:18
Speaker 1: is no reason why I should do as they do,
1:05:21
Speaker 1: or permit others to suffer much greater pain of a
1:05:24
Speaker 1: different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, when many
1:05:31
Speaker 1: millions of men, without heat, without ill will, without personal
1:05:37
Speaker 1: feelings of any kind, a demand of you a few
1:05:40
Speaker 1: shillings only, without the possibility, such is their constitution, of
1:05:47
Speaker 1: retracting or altering their present demand, and without the possibility
1:05:50
Speaker 1: on your side of appeal to any other millions, Why
1:05:55
Speaker 1: expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force. You do not
1:06:01
Speaker 1: resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves. Thus
1:06:04
Speaker 1: obstinately you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You
1:06:10
Speaker 1: do not put your head into the fire, but just
1:06:15
Speaker 1: in proportion. As I regard this as not wholly a
1:06:18
Speaker 1: brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that
1:06:24
Speaker 1: I have relations to those millions, as to so many
1:06:29
Speaker 1: millions of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate things.
1:06:35
Speaker 1: I see that appeal is possible, first and instantaneously from
1:06:43
Speaker 1: them to the maker of them, and secondly from them
1:06:50
Speaker 1: to themselves. But if I put my head deliberately into
1:06:56
Speaker 1: the fire, there is no appeal to fire or to
1:06:59
Speaker 1: the maker of fire. And I have only myself to blame.
1:07:05
Speaker 1: If I could convince myself that I have any right
1:07:08
Speaker 1: to be satisfied with men as they are, and to
1:07:12
Speaker 1: treat them accordingly and not according in some respects to
1:07:17
Speaker 1: my requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought
1:07:21
Speaker 1: to be, then like a good mussulman and fatalist, I
1:07:28
Speaker 1: should endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are,
1:07:32
Speaker 1: and say it is the will of God. And above
1:07:36
Speaker 1: all there is this difference between resisting this and a
1:07:44
Speaker 1: purely brute or natural force. That I can resist this
1:07:48
Speaker 1: with some effect, but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to
1:07:54
Speaker 1: change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
1:07:59
Speaker 1: I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation.
1:08:05
Speaker 1: I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions,
1:08:10
Speaker 1: or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek, rather,
1:08:16
Speaker 1: I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the
1:08:22
Speaker 1: laws of the land. I am but too ready to
1:08:26
Speaker 1: conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself
1:08:30
Speaker 1: on this head, and every year, as the tax gatherer
1:08:35
Speaker 1: comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts
1:08:39
Speaker 1: and position of the general and state governments, and the
1:08:43
Speaker 1: spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
1:08:48
Speaker 1: We must affect our country as our parents, and if
1:08:52
Speaker 1: at any time we alienate our love or industry from
1:08:56
Speaker 1: doing it honor, we must respect effects and tear each
1:09:00
Speaker 1: the soul matter of conscience and religion, and not desire
1:09:05
Speaker 1: of rule or benefit. I believe that the state will
1:09:09
Speaker 1: soon be able to take all my work of this
1:09:11
Speaker 1: sort out of my hands, and then I shall be
1:09:15
Speaker 1: no better patriot than my fellow countryman. Seen from a
1:09:19
Speaker 1: lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults,
1:09:22
Speaker 1: is very good. The law and the courts are very respectable.
1:09:30
Speaker 1: Even this state and this American government are in many
1:09:35
Speaker 1: respects very admirable and rare things to be thankful for,
1:09:44
Speaker 1: such as a great many have described them seen from
1:09:49
Speaker 1: a higher still, and the highest who shall say what
1:09:54
Speaker 1: they are or what they are worth looking at or
1:09:59
Speaker 1: thinking of at all? However, the government does not concern
1:10:04
Speaker 1: me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts
1:10:08
Speaker 1: on it. It is not many moments that I live
1:10:11
Speaker 1: under a government, even in this world. If a man
1:10:15
Speaker 1: is fought free, fancy, free, imagination, free, that which is not,
1:10:24
Speaker 1: never for a long time appearing to be to him,
1:10:28
Speaker 1: unwise rulers are reformers cannot fatally interrupt him. I know
1:10:35
Speaker 1: that most men think differently from myself, But those whose
1:10:40
Speaker 1: lives are by profession devoted to the study of these
1:10:43
Speaker 1: or kindred subjects content me as little as any. Statesmen
1:10:49
Speaker 1: and legislators standing so completely within the institution never distinctly
1:10:55
Speaker 1: and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but
1:11:03
Speaker 1: have no resting place without it. They may be men
1:11:08
Speaker 1: of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt
1:11:12
Speaker 1: invented ingenious and even useful systems for which we sincerely
1:11:18
Speaker 1: thank them. But all their wit and usefulness lie within
1:11:25
Speaker 1: certain not very wide limits. They are wont to forget
1:11:31
Speaker 1: that the world is not governed by policy and expediency.
1:11:39
Speaker 1: Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with
1:11:43
Speaker 1: authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators
1:11:47
Speaker 1: who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government, but
1:11:53
Speaker 1: for thinkers and those who legislate for all time. He
1:12:00
Speaker 1: never once glances at the subject. I know of those
1:12:05
Speaker 1: whose serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon
1:12:09
Speaker 1: reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality. Yet,
1:12:14
Speaker 1: compared with the cheap professions of most reformers and the
1:12:17
Speaker 1: still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his
1:12:23
Speaker 1: are almost the only sensible, in valuable words, and we
1:12:29
Speaker 1: thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original,
1:12:35
Speaker 1: and above all practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom
1:12:40
Speaker 1: but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not truth but consistency,
1:12:48
Speaker 1: or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself,
1:12:56
Speaker 1: and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that
1:12:58
Speaker 1: may consist with wrongdoing. He well deserves to be called,
1:13:03
Speaker 1: as he has been called, the defender of the Constitution.
1:13:08
Speaker 1: There are really no blows to be given him but
1:13:11
Speaker 1: defensive ones. He is not a leader but a follower.
1:13:18
Speaker 1: His leaders are the men of eighty seven. I have
1:13:22
Speaker 1: never made an effort, he says, and never propose to
1:13:25
Speaker 1: make an effort. I have never countenanced an effort, and
1:13:30
Speaker 1: never mean to countenance an effort to disturb the arrangement
1:13:34
Speaker 1: as originally made by which various states came into the Union. Still,
1:13:41
Speaker 1: thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery,
1:13:45
Speaker 1: he says, because it was part of the original compact,
1:13:51
Speaker 1: let it stand. Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he
1:13:57
Speaker 1: is unable to take a fact out of its merely
1:14:00
Speaker 1: political relations and behold it as it lies absolutely to
1:14:06
Speaker 1: be disposed of by the intellect. What what, for instance,
1:14:12
Speaker 1: it behooves a man to do here in America today
1:14:16
Speaker 1: with regard to slavery? But ventures or is driven to
1:14:21
Speaker 1: make some such desperate answer to the following, while professing
1:14:27
Speaker 1: to speak absolutely and as a private man, from which
1:14:33
Speaker 1: what new and singular of social duties might be inferred?
1:14:39
Speaker 1: The manner, says he, in which the governments of the
1:14:43
Speaker 1: states where slavery exists are to regulate it is for
1:14:47
Speaker 1: their own consideration, under the responsibility to their constituents, to
1:14:53
Speaker 1: the general laws of proprietary humanity and justice, and to God.
1:14:59
Speaker 1: Associationations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity or
1:15:04
Speaker 1: any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it.
1:15:10
Speaker 1: They have never received any encouragement from Me, and they
1:15:13
Speaker 1: never will. These extracts have been inserted since the lecture
1:15:18
Speaker 1: was read. H. D. T. They who know of no
1:15:22
Speaker 1: purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream
1:15:25
Speaker 1: no higher stand and wisely stand by the Bible and
1:15:30
Speaker 1: the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humanity.
1:15:37
Speaker 1: But they who behold where it comes trickling into this
1:15:41
Speaker 1: lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more
1:15:45
Speaker 1: and continue their pilgrimage towards its fountain head. No man
1:15:50
Speaker 1: with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They
1:15:55
Speaker 1: are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians,
1:16:04
Speaker 1: and eloquent men by the thousand, but the speaker has
1:16:08
Speaker 1: not yet opened his mouth to speak. Who is capable
1:16:12
Speaker 1: of settling the much vexed questions of the day. We
1:16:17
Speaker 1: love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any
1:16:21
Speaker 1: truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire.
1:16:27
Speaker 1: Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of
1:16:33
Speaker 1: free trade, and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude
1:16:39
Speaker 1: to a nation. They have no genius or talent for
1:16:44
Speaker 1: comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufactures,
1:16:51
Speaker 1: and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy
1:16:57
Speaker 1: wit of legislators and Congress for our guide, uncorrected by
1:17:02
Speaker 1: the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people,
1:17:07
Speaker 1: America would not long retain her rank among the nations
1:17:12
Speaker 1: for eighteen hundred years. Though perchance I have no right
1:17:18
Speaker 1: to say it. The New Testament has been written. Yet
1:17:24
Speaker 1: where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent
1:17:30
Speaker 1: enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds
1:17:35
Speaker 1: on the science of legislation, the authority of government, even
1:17:42
Speaker 1: such as I am willing to submit to, for I
1:17:45
Speaker 1: will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better
1:17:49
Speaker 1: than I, and in many things even those who neither
1:17:53
Speaker 1: know nor can do so well. Is still an impure one.
1:17:59
Speaker 1: To be strictly just, it must have the sanction and
1:18:04
Speaker 1: consent of the governed. It can have no pure right
1:18:10
Speaker 1: over my person and property, But what I concede to it.
1:18:17
Speaker 1: The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from
1:18:22
Speaker 1: a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward
1:18:27
Speaker 1: a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher
1:18:32
Speaker 1: was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis
1:18:37
Speaker 1: of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know
1:18:42
Speaker 1: it the last improvement possible in government? Is it not
1:18:49
Speaker 1: possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing
1:18:57
Speaker 1: the rights of man. There will never be a really
1:19:03
Speaker 1: free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize
1:19:08
Speaker 1: the individual as a higher and independent power from which
1:19:15
Speaker 1: all its own power and authority are derived, and treats
1:19:20
Speaker 1: him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a state at
1:19:25
Speaker 1: last which can afford to be just to all men,
1:19:31
Speaker 1: and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor,
1:19:37
Speaker 1: which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose,
1:19:43
Speaker 1: if a few were to live aloof from it, not
1:19:47
Speaker 1: meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all
1:19:51
Speaker 1: the duties of neighbors and fellow men. A state which
1:19:55
Speaker 1: bore this kind of fruit and suffered it to drop
1:20:00
Speaker 1: off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way
1:20:04
Speaker 1: for a still more perfect and glorious state, which I
1:20:09
Speaker 1: have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. End of
1:20:18
Speaker 1: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thurrough