Latest / Logic Library / 02 - On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau

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02 - On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau · Logic Library

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Eighteen forty nine, original title Resistance to Civil Government, Part two. I
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have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender rather than the seizure of his goods,
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though both will serve the same purpose. Because they who assert the purest right,
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and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt state, commonly have not spent
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much time in accumulating property. Too, such, the state renders comparatively small
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service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they
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are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If there were
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one who lived wholly without the use of money, the state itself would hesitate
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to demand it of him. But the rich man, not to make any
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invidious comparison, is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely
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speaking, the more money, the less virtue. For money comes between a
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man and his objects and obtains them for him. It was certainly no great
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virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise
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be taxed to answer, while the only new question which it puts is the
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hard but superfluous one how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken
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from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion, as
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that are called, the means are increased. The best thing a man can
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do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those
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schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians, according
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to their condition, show me the tribute money, said he, and one
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took a penny out of his pocket. If you use money which has the
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image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and valuable,
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that is, if you are men of the state and gladly enjoy the advantages
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of Caesar's government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands
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it. Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those
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things which are God's, leaving them no wiser than before as to which was
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which, for they did not wish to know. When I converse with the
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freest of my neighbors, I perceive that whatever they may say about the magnitude
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and seriousness of the question and their regard for the public tranquility, the long
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and the short of the matter is that they cannot spare the protection of the
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existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience
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to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that
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I ever rely on the protection of the state. But if I deny the
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authority of the state when it presents its tax bill, it will soon take
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and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end.
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This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly
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and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. It will not be worth
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the while to accumulate property that would be sure to go again. You must
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hire or squat somewhere and raise but a small crop and eat that soon.
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You must live within yourself and depend upon yourself, always tucked up and ready
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for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich
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in Turkey, even if he will be in all respects a good subject of
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the Turkish government. Confucius said, if a state is governed by the principles
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of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame. If a state is
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not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects of shame.
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No, until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me
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in some distant southern port where my liberty is endangered, or until I am
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bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can
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afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts and her right to my property and life.
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It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the
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state than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth
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less in that case. Some years ago, the state met me in behalf
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of the church and command ended me to pay a certain sum toward the support
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of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. Pay
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it said, or be locked up in the jail. I declined to pay,
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but unfortunately another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see
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why the school master should be taxed to support the priest, and not the
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priest the schoolmaster, for I was not the state's schoolmaster, but I supported
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myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should not present
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its tax bill and have the state to back its demand as well as the
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church. However, at the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make
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some such statement as this in writing, know all men, by these presents,
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that I, Henry Thurrow, do not wish to be regarded as a
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member of any incorporated society which I have not joined. This I gave to
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the town clerk, and he has it. The state, having thus learned
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that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that church,
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has never made a like demand on me since, though it said that it
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must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to
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name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies
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which I never signed on to, But I did not know where to find
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such a complete list. I have paid no pull tax for six years.
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I was put into a jail once on this account for one night. And
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as I stood considering the walls of solid stone two or three feet thick,
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the door of wood and iron a foot thick, and the iron grating which
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strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that
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institution, which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones
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to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that
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this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought
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to avail itself of my services. In some way. I saw that if
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there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a
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still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be
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as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined,
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and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as
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if I alone, of all my townsmen, had paid my tax. They
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plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who were
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under bred. In every threat and in every compliment, there was a blunder,
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for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of
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that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked
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the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance.
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And they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach
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me, they had resolved to punish my body, just as boys, if
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they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse
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his dog. I saw that the state was half witted, that it was
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timid, as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did
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not know its friends from its foes, And I lost all my remaining respect
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for it and pitied it. Thus, the state never intentionally confronts a man's
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sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body his senses. It is
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not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I
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was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.
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Let us see who is the strongest, What force has a multitude? They
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only can force me, who obey a higher law than I. They force
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me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to
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live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were
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that to live? When I meet a government which says to me your money
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or your life, why should I be in haste to give it my money.
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It may be in a great strait and not know what to do.
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I cannot help that. It must help itself do as I do. It
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is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for
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the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of
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the engineer. I perceive that when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by
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side. The one does not remain inert to make way for the other,
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but both obey their own laws and spring and grow and flourish as best they
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can, till one, perchance overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant
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cannot live according to its nature, it dies, and so a man.
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The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners, in their
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shirt sleeves were enjoying a chat in the evening air in the doorway when I
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entered. But the jailer said, come, boys, it is time to
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lock up. And so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their
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steps returning into the hollow apartments. My roommate was introduced to me by the
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jailer as a first rate fellow and clever man. When the door was locked,
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he showed me where to hang my hat and how he managed matters there.
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The rooms were whitewashed once a month, and this one, at least
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was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably neatest apartment in town.
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He naturally wanted to know where I came from and what brought me there,
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And when I had told him, I asked him, in my turn,
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how he came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course,
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and as the world goes, I believe he was. Why said he?
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They accuse me of burning a barn, But I never did it,
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As near as I could discover, he had probably gone to bed in a
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barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe there, and so a barn was
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burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever man, had been there
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some three months waiting for his trial to come on, and would have to
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wait as much longer. But he was quite domesticated and contented since he got
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his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated. He occupied
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one window and I the other. And I saw that if one stayed there
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long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I had
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soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where former prisoners
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had broken out and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard the
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history of the various occupants of that room. For I found that he even
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there there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of
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the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are
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composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form but not published. I
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was shown quite a long list of young men who had been detected in an
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attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them. I pumped my fellow
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prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should never see him again.
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But at length he showed me which was my bed, and left me
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to blow out the lamp. It was like traveling into a far country such
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as I had never expected to behold. To lie there for one night,
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it seemed to me that I never had heard the town clock strike before,
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nor the evening sound of the village, for we slept with the windows open,
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which were inside the grating. It was to see my native village in
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the light of the Middle Ages, and our concord was turned into a rhine
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stream, and visions of knights and castles passed before me. They were the
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voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary
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spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent
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village inn, a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a
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closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I
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never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions,
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for it is a Shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were
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about. In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the
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door, in small oblong square tin pans made to fit, and holding a
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pint of chocolate with brown bread and an iron spoon. When they called for
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the vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left,
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but my comrade seized it and said that I should lay that up for
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lunch or dinner. Soon after, he was led out to work at haying
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in a neighboring field, whither he went every day and would not be back
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till noon. So he bade me good day, saying that he doubted if
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he should see me again. When I came out of prison, for some
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one interfered and paid that tax. I did not perceive that great changes had
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taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth
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and emerged a gray headed man. And yet a change had to my eyes
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come over the scene the town and state and country greater than any that mere
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time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the state in which I lived.
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I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted
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as good neighbors and friends, That their friendship was for summer weather only,
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that they did not greatly propose to do right, That they were a distinct
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race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and the Malaise
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are, That in their sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks, not
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even to their property. That after all they were not so noble. But
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they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a
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certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular,
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straight, though useless path, from time to time, to save their souls.
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This may be to judge my neighbors harshly, for I believe that many
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of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in
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their village. It was formerly the custom in our village when a poor debtor
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came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their
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fingers, which they crossed to represent the jail window. How do ye do
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My neighbors did not thus salute me, but first looked at me and then
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at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I
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was put into jail as I was going to the shoemakers to get a shoe,
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which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I
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proceeded to finish my errand, and having put on my mended shoe, joined
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a huckleberry party who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct, and in
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half an hour for the horse was soon tackled. Was in the midst of
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a huckleberry field on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and
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then the state was nowhere to be seen. That is the whole history of
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my prisons. I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am
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as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject.
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And as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my
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fellow countrymen. Now it is for no particular item in the tax bill that
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I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the state,
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to withdraw and stand aloof from it. Effectually, I do not care
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to trace the course of my dollar. If I could till advise a man
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or a musket to shoot one with the dollar is innocent. But I am
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concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare
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war with the state after my fashion, though I will still make use and
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get what advantages of her I can, As is usual in such cases,
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if others pay the tax which is demanded of me from a sympathy with the
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state, they do but what they have already done in their own case,
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or rather they a bet in justice to a greater extent than the state requires.
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If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed to
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save his property or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have
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not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good.
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This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be
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too much on his guard in such a case, lest his actions be biased
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by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see
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that he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour. I think
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sometimes why this? People mean, well, they are only ignorant. They
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would do better if they knew. How Why give your neighbors this pain to
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treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think again, this
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is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to
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suffer much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to
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myself, when many millions of men, without heat, without ill will,
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without personal feelings of any kind, a demand of you a few shillings only,
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without the possibility such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present
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demand, and without the possibility on your side of appeal to any other millions,
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Why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do not resist cold
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and hunger, the winds and the waves. Thus obstinately you quietly submit to
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a thousand similar necessities. You do not put your head into the fire,
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but just in proportion. As I regard this as not wholly a brute force,
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but partly a human force, and consider that I have relations to those
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millions, as to so many millions of men, and not of mere brute
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or inanimate things, I see that appeal is possible. First and instantaneously from
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them to the maker of them, and secondly from them to themselves. But
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if I put my head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to
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fire or to the maker of fire, and I have only myself to blame.
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If I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied with
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men as they are, and to treat them accordingly and not according in some
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respects to my requisitions and ex spectations of what they and I ought to be,
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then like a good mussulman and fatalist, I should endeavor to be satisfied
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with things as they are, and say it is the will of God.
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And above all there is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or
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natural force. That I can resist this with some effect, but I cannot
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expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and
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beasts. I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I
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do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself
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up as better than my neighbors. I seek, rather, I may say,
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even an ex for conforming to the laws of the land. I am
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but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect
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myself on this head, and every year, as the tax gatherer comes round,
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I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and
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state governments and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
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We must affect our country as our parents, and if at any time
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we alienate our love or industry from doing it honor. We must respect affects
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and teach the soul matter of conscience and religion, and not desire of rule
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or benefit. I believe that the state will soon be able to take all
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my work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be
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no better patriot than my fellow countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view,
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the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good. The law
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and the courts are very respectable. Even this state and this American government are
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in many respects very admirable and rare things to be thankful for, such as
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a great many have described them. Seen from a higher still, and the
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highest who shall say what they are or what they are worth looking at or
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thinking of at all? However, the government does not concern me much,
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and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many
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moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a
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man is fought free, fancy, free, imagination, free, that which
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is not, never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise
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rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him. I know that most men think differently
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from myself, But those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of
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these or kindred subjects, content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators,
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standing so completely within the institution never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They
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speak of moving society, but have no resting place without it. They may
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be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious
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and even useful systems for which we sincerely thank them. But all their wit
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and usefulness lie within certain, not very wide limits. They are wont to
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forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency. Webster never goes
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behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are
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wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government, but
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for thinkers and those who legislate for all time. He never once glances at
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the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme
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would soon reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality. It compared with
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the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of
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politicians in general, his are almost the only sensible and valuable words, and
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we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original,
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and above all practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom but prudence.
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The lawyer's truth is not truth but consistency, or a consistent expediency. Truth
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is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the
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justice that may consist with wrongdoing. He well deserves to be called, as
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he has been called, the defender of the Constitution. There are really no
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blows to be given him, but defensive ones. He is not a leader,
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but a follower. His leaders are the men of eighty seven. I
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have never made an effort, he says, and never proposed to make an
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effort. I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an
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effort to disturb the arrangement as originally made by which various states came into the
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Union. Still thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he
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says, because it was part of the original compact, let it stand.
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Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take a fact out
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of its merely political relations and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed
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of by the intellect. What what, for instance, it behooves a man
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to do here in America today with regard to slavery. But ventures or is
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driven to make some such desperate answer to the following, while professing to speak
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absolutely and as a private man, from which what new and singular of social
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duties might be inferred? The manner, says he, in which the governments
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of the states where slavery exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration,
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under the responsibility to their constituents to the general laws of proprietary humanity and
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justice, and to God. Associations formed elsewhere springing from a feeling of humanity
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or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have
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never received any encouragement from me, and they never will. These extracts have
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been inserted since the lecture was read. H. D. T. They
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who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream
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no higher stand and wisely stand by the Bible and the Constitution and drink at
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it there with reverence and humanity. But they who behold where it comes trickling
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into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more and continue
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their pilgrimage towards its fountain head. No man with a genius for legislation has
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appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There
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are orators, politicians, and eloquent men by the thousand, but the speaker
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has not yet opened his mouth to speak. Who is capable of settling the
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much vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake,
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and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may
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inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and
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of freedom, of union, and of rectitude to a nation. They have
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no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and
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manufactures and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators
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and Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints
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of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations for
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eighteen hundred years. Though perchance I have no right to say it. The
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New Testament has been written. Yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and
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practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science
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of legislation, the authority of government, even such as I am willing to
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submit to, for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better
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than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do
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so well. Is still an impure one. To be strictly just, it
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must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure
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right over my person and property, but what I concede to it. The
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progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a
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democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the
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Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire.
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Is a democracy such as we know it, the last improvement possible in
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government. Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing
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the rights of man. There will never be a really free and enlightened state
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until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power from
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which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
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I please myself with imagining a state at last which can afford to be just
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to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor,
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which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose, if a few
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were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by
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it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men. A state
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which bore this kind of fruit and suffered it to drop off as fast as
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it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious state,
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which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. End of
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On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thurrow