FREE ESSAY ON CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Resistance to Civil Government, or Civil Disobedience 
Henry David Thoreau
[1] I heartily accept the motto,-"That government is best which governs least"; and I
should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it
finally amounts to this, which also I believe-"That government is best which governs not
at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the
will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and
all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought
against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also
at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the
standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have
chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the
people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a
few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the
people would not have consented to this measure. 
[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 upon, even impose on themselves, for their
own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself
furthered any enterprise, but by the 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, would never manage to bounce
over 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 mischievious 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 one 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 can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can
there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and
wrong, but conscience?-in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule
of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree,
resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think
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 on 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 on injustice. A common and
natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of soldiers,
colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable
order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, 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 accompaniment,
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 out hero was buried.
[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, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgement 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 the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are
as likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few-as heroes,
patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men-serve the state with their
consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly
treated as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to
be clay, and stop a hole to keep the wind away, but leave that office to his dust at
least:- 
I am too high born to be propertied, 
To be a second at control, 
Or useful serving-man and instrument 
To any sovereign state throughout the world. 
[6] He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears to them useless and selfish;
but he who gives himself partially to them in pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.

[7] How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer,
that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize
that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also. 
[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. 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 counter-balance 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 that 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 it,
so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public
inconveniencey, it is the will of God . . . that the established government be obeyed-and
no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of
resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the
one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other. Of this, he
says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated
those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a people, as well
and an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank
from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to
Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose
it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them
their existence as a people. 
[10] In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does anyone think that
Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis? 
A drab of stat, a cloth-o'-silver slut, To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in
the dirt.
Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred
thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who
are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not
prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with
far-off foes, but with those who, neat at home, co-operate with, and do the bidding of,
those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say,
that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not as
materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be good
as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole
lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet
in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of
Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they
know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the
question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices
from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the
price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and
sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait,
well disposed, for other to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret.
At most, they give up only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance 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, 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 this wisdom and
honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many
individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the
respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and despairs of
his country, when his country has more reasons to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one
of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is
himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than
that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. O for a
man who is a man, and, and my neighbor says, has a bone is his back which you cannot pass
your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too
large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly one. Does
not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into
an Odd Fellow-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 to the support of the
widows and orphans that may be; who, in short, ventures to live only by the aid of the
Mutual Insurance company, which 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 to most enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage
him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no
thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other
pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them
sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his
contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my
townsmen say, I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of
the slaves, or to march to Mexico-see if I would go; and yet these very men have each,
directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a
substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who
do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those
whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the state were
penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that
degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil
Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After
the first 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. 
[14] 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, 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 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? 
[15] How can a man be satisfied to entertain and opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there
any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a
single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated,
or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due;
but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you
are never cheated again. Action from principle, the perception and the performance of
right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not
consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided States and churches, it
divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from
the divine. 
[16] 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 put out its faults,
and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and
excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? 
[17] One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the
only offense never contemplated by its government; else, why has it not assigned its
definite, its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man 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 put him there;
but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted
to go at large again. 
[18] 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. 
[19] As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know
not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other
affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but
something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should be
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 unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and
consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for
the better, like birth and death, which convulse the body. 
[20] 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. 
[21] I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government,
directly, and face to face, once a year-no more-in the person of its tax-gatherer; this
is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says
distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present
posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of
expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil
neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with-for it is, after all,
with men and not with parchment that I quarrel-and he has voluntarily chosen to be an
agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of
the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me,
his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a
maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his
neighborlines 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 co-partnership, 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, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human
rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened with the prisons of Carolina,
were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist
the sin of slavery upon her sister-though at present she can discover only an act of
inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her-the Legislature would not wholly
waive the subject of the following winter. 
[22] Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a
prison. The proper place today, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her
freer and less despondent spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the
State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is
there that the 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 from office, then the revolution is
accomplished. But even suppose 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. 
[23] 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; 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 that 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 Caesar 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 Caesar's
government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it. Render therefore to
Caesar that which is Caesar's and to God those things which are God's-leaving them no
wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know. 
[24] 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; if a state is not governed by the
principles of reason, riches and honors are 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. 
[25] 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 should not present its tax bill, and have the State to back its demand, as
well as the Church. However, as 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 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 such a complete list. 
[26] 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 my 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 nor 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. 
[27] 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 with 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 live 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 our 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 nature, it dies;
and so a man. 
[28] The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their
shirtsleeves 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 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 neatest apartment in 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 an, 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. 
[29] 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 there 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 young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who
avenged themselves by singing them. 
[30] 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. 
[31] 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, not 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. I began to comprehend what its
inhabitants were about. 
[32] 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. 
[33] 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 gray-headed man; and yet a change had come 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 through 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. 
[34] 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 jail window, How do ye do? My neighbors did not this 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 mender. When I
was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my
mended show, 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. 
[35] This is the whole history of My Prisons. 
[36] 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 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 use and get what advantages of her I
can, as is usual in such cases. 
[37] 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. 
[38] This, then is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on his guard in
such a case, lest his actions 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. 
[39] 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 feelings 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 for 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 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, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts. 
[40] 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 
Out 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. 
[41] 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 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; 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? 
[42] 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. 
[43] 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 tim, 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 an 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 him but defensive ones. He is not a leader, but a follower. His leaders
are the men of '87. 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 various States came into the Union.
Still thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, Because
it was part of the original compact-let it stand. 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 American today with regard to slavery-but ventures, or is
driven, to make some such desperate answer to the following, while professing to speak
absolutely, and as a private man-from which what new and singular of social duties might
be inferred? The manner, says he, in which the governments of the States where slavery
exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration, under the 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. [Thoreau's Note: These extracts have been inserted since the lecture
was read.] 
[44] 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 humanity; 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
fountainhead. 
[45] 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 freed, of union, and of rectitude, to
a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation
and finance, commerce and manufactures 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. 
[46] 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 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 last 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 lie 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 I have also imagined,
but not yet anywhere seen