Henry David Thoreau
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
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 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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 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.
1849. Original title: Resistance to Civil Government