Are we obligated to always obey the law? If yes, why? If no, what criteria can be used to determine when disobedience is morally justified?
Consider, also, how this relates to the article on Transcendentalism.
Civil
Disobedience
Originally
published as "Resistance to Civil Government"
By Henry David Thoreau - 1849 - with annotated text
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 seldom mentioned without references to Gandhi
or 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 those 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. 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.
Part
1
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,(4) 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,(5) 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."(6)
[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,(7) 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,"(8) 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."(9)
[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.(10) 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. (11)
[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."(12) 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.(13) 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."(14)
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.(15) 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,(16) 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
(17) — 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.
Possible reference to "The best government is that which governs
least," motto of the United States Magazine and Democratic
Review,1837-1859, or "the less government we have, the better" - from
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Politics", 1844, sometimes mistakenly
attributed to Jefferson - back
2.
U.S.-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.
Anarchists, many of whom came from Massachusetts - back
5.
Boys who carry gunpowder for soldiers - back
6.
Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) The Burial of Sir John Morre at Corunna - back
7.
Group empowered to uphold the law, a sheriff's posse - back
8.
Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist, from Hamlet - back
9.
Shakespeare, from King John - back.
10.
The American Revolution began in Concord & Lexington in 1775 - back
11. A
reference to slavery in the U.S, and to the invasion of Mexico by the U.S. -
back
12.
William Paley (1743-1805) English theologian & philosopher, from Principals
of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785 - back
13.
"He that findeth his life shall lose it..." - Matthew 10:39 - back
14.
Cyril Tourneur (1575?-1626) The Revengers Tragadie - back
15."... a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" - 1
Corinthians 5:6 - back
16. In
1848, Democratics nominated Lewis Case for U.S. president, later defeated by
Zachary Talor - back
17. A
member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal organization
orginating in England in the mid-1700s
Part
2
[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; his work On the
Revolutions was dedicated to Pope Paul III and published in 1543, and he was
was not excomunicated - back
3.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) German monk and 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
Part
3
[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 someone 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)
[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
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