On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
On the Duty of Civil DisobedienceOn the Duty of Civil DisobedienceCopyright
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
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 they will have. Government is at best but
an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments
are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought
against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve
to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing
government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing
government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the
people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be
abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness
the present Mexican war, 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.Itdoes not keep the
country free.Itdoes not settle
the West.Itdoes 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, notat onceno 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 of conscientious men is a
corporationwitha 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 corpse to the rampart we hurried;