Civil Disobedience
by Henry David Thoreau - 1849
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Desobediencia Civil - Spanish translation by Hernando Jiménez
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While Walden can be applied to almost anyone's life, "Civil Disobedience"
is like a venerated architectural landmark: it is preserved and admired,
and sometimes visited, but for most of us there are not many occasions
when it can actually be used. Still, although it is seldom mentioned
without references to Gandhi and King, "Civil Disobedience" has more
history than many suspect. In the 1940's it was read by the Danish
resistance, in the 1950's it was cherished by people who opposed
McCarthyism, in the 1960's it was influential in the struggle against
South African apartheid, and in the 1970's it was discovered by a new
generation of anti-war activists. The lesson learned from all this
experience is that Thoreau's ideas really do work, just as he imagined
they would.
"Civil Disobedience" in three parts: One - Two - Three
(Originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government")
"I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral
obligation as is cooperation with good. No other person has been more
eloquent and passionate in getting this idea across than Henry David
Thoreau. As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the
heirs of a legacy of creative protest." - Martin Luther King, Jr, from his
Autobiography, Chapter 2
"when, in the mid-1950's, the United States Information Service included
as a standard book in all their libraries around the world a textbook of
American literature which reprinted Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience,' the
late Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin succeeded in having that book
removed from the shelves — specifically because of the Thoreau essay." -
Walter Harding, in The Variorum Civil Disobedience
Much more information: Links to other "Civil Disobedience" sites
"Civil Disobedience" originated as a Concord Lyceum lecture delivered by
Henry on January 26, 1848. It was first published in May of 1849, in
Aesthetic Papers, a short-lived periodical that never managed a second
issue. The modern title comes from Yankee in Canada, with Anti-Slavery and
Reform Papers, an 1866 collection of Thoreau's work.
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Copyright © 2004 Richard Lenat, All Rights Reserved
Civil Disobedience - Part 1 of 3
by Henry David Thoreau - 1849
Thoreau Reader - Civil Disobedience Intro - Civil Disobedience - 2
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I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto,—"That government is best which governs
least";(1) 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,(2) the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would
not have consented to this measure.
[2] This American government—what is it but a 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 on, 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 alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the
country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The
character inherent in the American people has done all that has been
accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had
not sometimes got in its way. 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,(3) would never manage
to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in
their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of
their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to
be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put
obstructions on the railroads.
[3] 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.
[4] After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the
hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period
continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right,
nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are
physically the strongest. But 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 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 that 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 respect for 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, ay, 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
accompaniments, though it may be
"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried."(4)
[5] The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as
machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia,
jailers, constables, posse comitatus,(5) etc. 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,"(6) but leave that office to his dust at least:—
"I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world."(7)
[6] 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.
[7] How does it become a man to behave toward this American government
to-day? 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.
[8] All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to
refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or
its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such
is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution
of '75.(8) 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 great evil to make a stir
about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression
and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any
longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which
has undertaken to be the 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 the fact that the
country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
[9] 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
inconveniency, 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."(9) 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.(10) This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on
Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
[10] In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one
think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis?
"A drab of state, a cloth-o'-silver slut,
To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt."(11)
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 materially wiser or better
than the many. It is not so important that many should be as good as you,
as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven
the whole lump.(12) 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 only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed,
to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine
patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the
real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.
[11] 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. 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.
[12] I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore,(13) or elsewhere,
for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made up chiefly of
editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is
it to any independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision they
may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of his 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 reason 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 this country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any
inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd
Fellow (14)—one who may be known by the development of his organ of
gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful
self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is
to see that the almshouses are in good repair; and, before yet he has
lawfully donned the virile garb, to collect a fund for the support of the
widows and orphans that may be; who, in short ventures to live only by the
aid of the Mutual Insurance company, which has promised to bury him
decently.
[13] It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself
to the eradication of any, even the 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 blush of sin comes its
indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not
quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.
Notes
1."The best government is that which governs least," motto of the United
States Magazine and Democratic Review,1837-1859, also "the less government
we have, the better" - R.W. Emerson, "Politics", 1844 - back
2. US-Mexican War (1846-1848), abolitionists considered it an effort to
extend slavery into former Mexican territory - back
3. Made from the latex of tropical plants, "India" because it came from
the West Indies, and "rubber" from its early use as an eraser - back
4. Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) The Burial of Sir John Morre at Corunna - back
5. Group empowered to uphold the law, a sheriff's posse - back
6. Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist, from Hamlet - back
7. Shakespeare, from King John - back
8. The American Revolution began in Concord & Lexington in 1775 - back
9. William Paley (1743-1805) English theologian & philosopher, from
Principals of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785 - back
10. "He that findeth his life shall lose it..." - Matthew 10:39 - back
11. Cyril Tourneur (1575?-1626) The Revengers Tragadie - back
12. "... a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" - 1 Corinthians 5:6 -
back
13. 1848 Democratic convention nominated Lewis Case for U.S. president,
later defeated by Zachary Talor - back
14. A member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows - back
Civil Disobedience - Part 2 of 3
by Henry David Thoreau - 1849
Thoreau Reader - Civil Disobedience Intro - Civil Disobedience - 3
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[1] 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 disapprove of the character and measures of a
government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its
most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious
obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the
Union,(1) to disregard the requisitions 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?
[2] 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 that 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
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 divides states and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the
individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
[3] Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, 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 a government as this,
think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to
alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be
worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the
remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt
to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise
minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not
encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do
better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and
excommunicate Copernicus (2) and Luther,(3) and pronounce Washington and
Franklin rebels?
[4] One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its
authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else, why
has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty?
If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn 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 placed him there;
but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is
soon permitted to go at large again.
[5] 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, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction
to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do
not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
[6] As for adopting the ways which 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 do
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 an change for the better, like birth and death which
convulse the body.
[7] 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.
[8] 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;(4) 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 what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a
man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall 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—ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to
hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be
locked up in the county jail therefor, 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,(5) 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 the following winter.
[9] Under a government which imprisons any 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 desponding spirits, is
in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act,
as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there
that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and 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 has experienced a
little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper
merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it
conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is
irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to
keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will
not hesitate which to choose. 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 enable the State to commit violence and shed
innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable
revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other
public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall I do?" my answer
is, "If you really wish to do anything, resign your office." When the
subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned his 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 manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to
an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.
[10] I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than
the seizure of his goods —though both will serve the same purpose—because
they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a
corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property.
To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is
wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by
special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly without
the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But
the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the
institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the
less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains
them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts
to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while
the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how
to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The
opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as what are called
the "means" are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture
when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he
entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to
their condition. "Show me the tribute-money," said he;—and one took a
penny out of his pocket;—if you use money which has the image of Cæsar on
it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of
the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Cæsar's government, then pay
him back some of his own when he demands it; "Render therefore to Cæsar
that which is Cæsar's, and to God those things which are God's"(6)—leaving
them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to
know.
[11] When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that,
whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question,
and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of
the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing
government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families
of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I
ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of
the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all
my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard.
This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time
comfortably in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to
accumulate property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or
squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must
live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready
for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey
even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish
government. Confucius said, "If a state is governed by the principles of
reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame;(7) if a state is not
governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects
of shame." No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended
to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or
until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful
enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her
right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur
the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should
feel as if I were worth less in that case.
[12] Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and
commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose
preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said, "or be
locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man
saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to
support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster: for I was not the
State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription. I
did not see why the lyceum (8) should not present its tax-bill, and have
the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, at the
request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as
this in writing:—"Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau,
do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society which I
have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State,
having thus learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that
church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said that it
must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to
name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies
which I never signed on to; but I did not know where to find a complete
list.
[13] I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once
on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of
solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot
thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help
being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as
if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that
it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put
me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I
saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there
was a still more difficult one to climb or break through, before they
could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment feel confined,
and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I
alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to
treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and
in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief
desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but
smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations,
which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were
really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had
resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some
person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the
State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver
spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all
my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
[14] Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense,
intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with
superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not
born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is
the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey
a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not
hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of men. What
sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me,
"Your money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money?
It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help that.
It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel about
it. I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of
society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn
and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make
way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and
flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys
the other. If a plant cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so
a man.
Notes
1. "No Union with Slaveholders" had become an abolitionist slogan - back
2. Nicolas Copernicas (1473-1543) Polish founder of modern astronomy - back
3. Martin Luther (1483-1546) German Protestant Reformation leader - back
4. Sam Staples, local constable and tax collector in Concord - back
5. Samuel Hoar (1778-1856) of Concord, sent by Mass. legislature to S.
Carolina to protest the impoundment of free black sailors, and was forced
to leave. His daughter was a close friend of the Emersons and a childhood
friend of Thoreau - back
6. Matthew 22:19-22 - back
7. Analects, 8:13 - back
8. A hall where public lectures are held - back
Civil Disobedience - Part 3 of 3
by Henry David Thoreau - 1849
Thoreau Reader - Civil Disobedience Intro
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[1] The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners
in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the
doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to
lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their steps
returning into the hollow apartments. My room-mate was introduced to me by
the jailer as "a first-rate fellow and a clever man." When the door was
locked, he showed me where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters
there. The rooms were whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least,
was the whitest, most simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment
in the town. He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what
brought me there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he
came there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the
world goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me of burning a
barn; but I never did it." As near as I could discover, he had probably
gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn
was burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever man, had been there
some three months waiting for his trial to come on, and would have to wait
as much longer; but he was quite domesticated and contented, since he got
his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated.
[2] He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one
stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the window.
I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where
former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and
heard the history of the various occupants of that room; for I found that
even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond
the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where
verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but
not published. I was shown quite a long list of verses which were composed
by some young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who
avenged themselves by singing them.
[3] I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should
never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed, and left
me to blow out the lamp.
[4] It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never
expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I
never had heard the town-clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of
the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the
grating. It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle Ages,
and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of knights and
castles passed before me. They were the voices of old burghers that I
heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of
whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village-inn—a
wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native
town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before.
This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town.(1) I
began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.
[5] In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the
door, in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint of
chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called for the
vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left; but my
comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner.
Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a neighboring field,
whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me
good-day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again.
[6] When I came out of prison—for some one interfered, and paid that
tax—I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common,
such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering and
gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the scene—the
town, and State, and country—greater than any that mere time could effect.
I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent
the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and
friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did
not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by
their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and Malays are; that
in their sacrifices to humanity, they ran no risks, not even to their
property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated the thief
as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a
few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight though useless path
from time to time, to save their souls. This may be to judge my neighbors
harshly; for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such
an institution as the jail in their village.
[7] It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor debtor came
out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their
fingers, which were crossed to represent the grating of a jail window,
"How do ye do?" My neighbors did not thus salute me, but first looked at
me, and then at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I
was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which
was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my
errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who
were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour—for
the horse was soon tackled—was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one
of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be
seen.
[8] This is the whole history of "My Prisons."(2)
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[9] I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as
desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as
for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen
now. It is for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it.
I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand
aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar,
if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with—the dollar is
innocent—but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In
fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I
will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual
in such cases.
[10] If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy
with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case,
or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires.
If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to
save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have
not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere
with the public good.
[11] This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much
on his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an
undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what
belongs to himself and to the hour.
[12] I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well; they are only
ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors
this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think, again,
This is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to suffer
much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself,
When many millions of men, without heat, without ill-will, without
personal feeling of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without
the possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering
their present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal
to any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute
force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus
obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You do
not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard this
as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that I
have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men, and not of
mere brute or inanimate things, I see that appeal is possible, first and
instantaneously, from them to the Maker of them, and, secondly, from them
to themselves. But, if I put my head deliberately into the fire, there is
no appeal to fire or to the Maker of fire, and I have only myself to
blame. If I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied
with men as they are, and to treat them accordingly, and not according, in
some respects, to my requisitions and expectations of what they and I
ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman (3) and fatalist, I should
endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is the will
of God. And, above all, there is this difference between resisting this
and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this with some
effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus,(4) to change the nature of the
rocks and trees and beasts.
[13] I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to
split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my
neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the
laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have
reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer
comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the
general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a
pretext for conformity.
"We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate
Our love or industry from doing it honor,
We must respect effects and teach the soul
Matter of conscience and religion,
And not desire of rule or benefit."(5)
[14] I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of
this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better a patriot than my
fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with
all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very respectable;
even this State and this American government are, in many respects, very
admirable and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have
described them; but seen from a point of view a little higher, they are
what I have described them; seen from a higher still, and the highest, who
shall say what they are, or that they are worth looking at or thinking of
at all?
[15] However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall
bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I
live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free,
fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time
appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally
interrupt him.
[16] I know that most men think differently from myself; but those
whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred
subjects, content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing
so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold
it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it.
They may be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no
doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems, for which we sincerely
thank them; but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very
wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by
policy and expediency. Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot
speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators
who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for
thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at
the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this
theme would soon reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality.
Yet, compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still
cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are almost the
only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for him.
Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical.
Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth is not
truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in
harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice
that may consist with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he
has been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There are really no
blows to be given by him but defensive ones. He is not a leader, but a
follower. His leaders are the men of '87.(6) "I have never made an
effort," he says, "and never propose to make an effort; I have never
countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to
disturb the arrangement as originally made, by which the various States
came into the Union." Still thinking of the sanction which the
Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because it was a part of the
original compact—let it stand."(7) Notwithstanding his special acuteness
and ability, he is unable to take a fact out of its merely political
relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the
intellect—what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here in America
to-day with regard to slavery, but ventures, or is driven, to make some
such desperate answer as the following, while professing to speak
absolutely, and as a private man—from which what new and singular code of
social duties might be inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which the
governments of those States where slavery exists are to regulate it is for
their own consideration, under their responsibility to their constituents,
to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God.
Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or
any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have never
received any encouragement from me, and they never will."
[17] They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its
stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the
Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they
who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up
their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its
fountain-head.
[18] No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They
are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and
eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his
mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the
day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it
may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet
learned the comparative value of free-trade and of freedom, of union, and
of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively
humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufacturers and
agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in
Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and
the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her
rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I
have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is
the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself
of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation?
[19] The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit
to—for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and
in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well—is still an
impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of
the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but
what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy,
from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true
respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher (8) was wise
enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a
democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in
government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing
and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and
enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a
higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority
are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a
State at least which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the
individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it
inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not
meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of
neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and
suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a
still more perfect and glorious State, which also I have imagined, but not
yet anywhere seen.
Notes
1. At the time, Concord was a county seat - back
2. Reference to Le Mie Prigioni by Silvio Pellico (1789-1854), about his 8
years as a political prisoner, English translation 1833 - back
3. A Muslim - back
4. In Greek mythology, a musician whose songs could charm rocks and trees
and beasts - back
5. George Peele (1557?-1597?), Battle of Alcazar (in later editions only)
- back
6. Writers of the Constitution in 1787 - back
7. Danial Webster (1782-1852) from speech in U.S. Senate - back
8. Probably Confucius (551-479 B.C.) - back