EFFector Online 4.4 12/24/1992

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EFFector Online 4.4           12/24/1992               editors@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation     ISSN 1062-9424

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                         CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

                       by Henry David Thoreau

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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  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."

         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."

         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.

         How does it become a man to behave toward the  American

    government today?  I answer, that he cannot without disgrace

    be associated with it.   I cannot  for an instant  recognize

    that political organization  as my government  which is  the

    slave's government also.

         All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the

    right  to  refuse   allegiance  to,  and   to  resist,   the

    government, when its tyranny  or its 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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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?

         How can a  man be  satisfied to  entertain an   opinion

    merely, and enjoy it?  Is there any enjoyment in it, if  his

    opinion is that he is aggrieved?  If you are cheated out  of

    a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest  satisfied

    with knowing you are  cheated, or with  saying that you  are

    cheated, or even with petitioning  him to pay you your  due;

    but you  take effectual  steps at  once to  obtain the  full

    amount, and  see to  it that  you are  never cheated  again.

    Action from principle, the perception and the performance of

    right, changes  things  and  relations;  it  is  essentially

    revolutionary, and  does not  consist wholly  with  anything

    which was.   It  not only  divided States  and churches,  it

    divides families; ay, it divides the individual,  separating

    the diabolical in him from the divine.

         Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey 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?

         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.

         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.

         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.

         I  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  those  who   call

    themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw

    their  support,  both  in  person  and  property,  from  the

    government  of  Massachusetts,  and   not  wait  till   they

    constitute a majority of one,  before they suffer the  right

    to prevail through them.  I think that it is enough if  they

    have God on their side, without waiting for that other  one.

    Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors  constitutes

    a majority of one already.

         I meet this American government, or its representative,

    the State government,  directly, and  face to  face, once  a

    year--no more--in the  person of its  tax-gatherer; this  is

    the only mode in  which a man situated  as I am  necessarily

    meets it;  and  it then says  distinctly, Recognize me;  and

    the simplest,  the  most  effectual,  and,  in  the  present

    posture of  affairs, the  indispensablest mode  of  treating

    with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction

    with and  love  for  it, is  to  deny  it then.    My  civil

    neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the  very man I have to  deal

    with--for it is, after all, with men and not with  parchment

    that I quarrel--and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent

    of the government.  How shall  he ever know well that he  is

    and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until

    he is  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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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  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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         This is the whole history of "My Prisons."

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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."

    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?

         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.

         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  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  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.

         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.

         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.

         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  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 I  have also  imagined, but  not  yet

    anywhere seen.

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