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01 - On the Duty of Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau · The Philosophy Insights Collection

• On the duty of civil disobedience by Henry David Thurrow eighteen forty nine. Original title Resistance to Civil Government, Part one. I heartily accept the motto that government is best which governs least, and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically carried out. It finally amounts to this, which also I believe that government is best which governs not at all, and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient, but most governments are usually and all governments are sometimes inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican War, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool. For in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure. This American government, what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity. It has not the vitality and force of a single living man, for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this, for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves for their own advantage. It is excellent we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise. But by the alacriate with which it got out of its way, it does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West, It does not educate the character inherent in the American people. Has done all that has been accomplished, and it would have done somewhat more if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone. And as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce. If they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles which legislators are continually in their way. And if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads. But to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no government men, I ask for not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all. The practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted and for a long period continue to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience, in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable. Must the citizen, ever, for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience? Then? I think we should be men first and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just, and by means of their respect for it, even the well disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue rescipt respect for the law is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder monkeys, and all marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars against their wills, i against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching, indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned. They are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they men at all? Or small movable forts and magazines at the service of some unscrupulous man in power. Visit the navy yard and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts, a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out, alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniment, though it may be not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, as his course to the rampart we hurried, not a soldier discharged his farewell shot, or the grave where our hero was buried. The mass of men served the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines with their bodies. They are the standing army and the militia, jailers, constables, posse commetatas, et cetera, in most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense. But they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones, and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office holders, serve the state chiefly with their heads, and as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil without intending it as God. A very few as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part, and they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be clay and stop a hole to keep the wind away, but leave that office to his dust. At least, I am too high born to be propertied to be a second at control or useful serving man. An instrument to any sovereign and state throughout the world. He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears to them useless and selfish, But he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist. How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer that he cannot, without disgrace, be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government, which is the slave's government. Also all men recognize the right of revolution, that is the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government, when its tyranny or its in affectfficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of seventy five. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction, and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is a greater evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the duty of submission to civil government, resolves all civil obligation into expediency, and he proceeds to say that, so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconvenience, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed. And no longer this principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other. Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a people as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him, though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life in such a case shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people. In their practice. Nations agree with Paley. But does anyone think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis. A drab of stat a cloth and silver slut to have her train borne up and her soul trail the dirt. Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico cost what it may. I quarrel not with far off foes, but with those who near at home, co operate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say that the mass of men are unprepared, but improvement is slow because the few are not as materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be good as you as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere, for that will leavin the whole lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them, Who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets and say that they know not what to do and do nothing, Who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices current along with the latest advices from Mexico. After dinner, and it may be fall asleep over them both. What is the price current of an honest man and patriot? To day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition, but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed for others to remedy the evil that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give up only a cheap vote and a feeble countenance. End God's speed to the right as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it all. Voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions, and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote perchance as I think right, but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation therefore never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing, for it is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished. By their vote, they will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery. Who asserts his own freedom by his vote? I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore or else where, for the selection of a candidate for the presidency, made up chiefly of editors and men who are politicians by profession. But I think, what is it to an independent, intelligent and respectable man, what decision they may come to. Shall we not have the advantage of this wisdom and honesty? Nevertheless, can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no, I find that the respectable man so called has immediately drifted from his position and despairs of his country. When his country has more reasons to despair of him, He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native who may have been bought. Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through. Our statistics are at fault. The population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly one does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here. The American has dwindled into an awed fellow, one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, in a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self reliance, whose first and chief concern on coming into the world is to see that the almshouses are in good repair. And before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb to collect a fund to the support of the widows and orphans that may be, who, in short ventures to live only by the aid of the mutual insurance company, which is promised to bury him decently. It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any even to most enormous wrong. He may still properly have other concerns to engage him, but it is his duty at least to wash his hands of it, and if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see at least that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico. See if I would go. And yet these very men have, each directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly at least by their money furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain. The unjust government which makes the war is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught, as if the state were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of order and civil government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first lush of sin comes its indifference, and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmral and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made. The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable. The noble are most likely to incur those who, while they disprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support. Are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the state to dissolve the union to disregard the WRECS aquisitions of the President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves the union between themselves and the state, and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same relation to the State that the state does to the union, and have not the same reasons prevented the state from resisting the Union which have prevented them from resisting the state. How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it? If his opinion is that he is aggrieved. If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due, But you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount and see to it that you are never cheated again. Action, from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations. It is essentially revolutionary and does not consist wholly with anything which was it not only divided states and churches, It divides families. Ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey that? Or shall we endeavor to amend them and obey them until we have succeeded, Or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally under such government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform. Why does it not cherish its wise minority. Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt. Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults and do better than it would have them. Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels. One would think that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by its government. Else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate penalty. If a man has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the state, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who put him there. But if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the state, he is soon permitted to go at large again. If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go. Let it go. Perchance it will wear smooth. Certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope or a crank exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil. But if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, than I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see at any rate that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. As for adopting the ways the state has provided for remedying the evil. I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do but something, And because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should be doing something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the governor or the legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me. And if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case, the state has provided no way. Its very constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory, but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the body. I do not hesitate to say that those who call themselves abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one. Already. I meet this American government or its representative, the state government, directly and face to face once a year, no more, in the person of its tax gatherer. This is the only mode in which a man situated as I am, necessarily meets it, and it then says distinctly recognize me. And the simplest, the most effectual, and in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it. On this head of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it is to deny it. Then, my civil neighbor, the tax gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with. For it is after all with men, and not with parchment, that I quarrel. And he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government or as a man, until he is obligated to consider whether he will treat me his neighbor for whom he has respect as a neighbor and well disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I know this well that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name, if ten honest men only, I if one honest man in this state of Massachusetts ceasing to hold old slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co partnership and be locked up in the county jail, therefore it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be. What is once well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the state's ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human rights in the Council chamber, instead of being threatened with the prisons of Carolina were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that state which is so anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her sister, though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality, to be the ground of a quarrel with her, the legislature would not wholly waive the subject of the following winter. Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place to day, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less despondent spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the state by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the future slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them on that separate, but more free and honorable ground where the state places those who are not with her but against her, the only house in a slave state in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the state, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls. They do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who is experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority. It is not even a minority. Then, but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the state will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and a enaghbor the state to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax gatherer or any other public officer asks me, as one has done, but what shall I do? My answer is, if you really wish to do anything, resign your office. When the subject has refused allegiance and the officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow, is there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded. Through this wound, a man's real mins manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now. End of Part one.