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 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. [These extracts have been inserted since the lecture was read -HDT]
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.
Typed by: Sameer Parekh (zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM) 1-12-91
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