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Title: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Author: Henry David Thoreau

Release date: June 1, 1993 [eBook #71]
Most recently updated: February 14, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE DUTY
OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE ***

On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience

by Henry David Thoreau

1849, original title: Resistance to Civil Government

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; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a
real one against each other, it will surely split. 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 on, 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 mischievous 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 once 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 of 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 of 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, aye, 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 ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O’er the grave where our hero we 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, &c. In most cases there is no free
exercise whatever of the judgment 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 they 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 by it as enemies. 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 secondary 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 is 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 is, so long as the established
government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, 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 as 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 state, 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, near 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 materially wiser or better than the many. It
is not so important that many should be as 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 others to remedy the evil, that they
may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give 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 chequers 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 his 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. Oh
for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in 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
alms-houses are in good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the
virile garb, to collect a fund for 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 the most enormous wrong; he may still properly
have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his
hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his
support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first
see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man’s shoulders.
I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See

what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen
say, “I should like to have them order me out to help put down an
insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico,—see if I would go;” and
yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly,
at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded
who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain
the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose
own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the State were
penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not
to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of
Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and
support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin, comes its
indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were, unmoral, and not
quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.
The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested
virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is
commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they
disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their
allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters,
and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning
the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the
President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,—the union between
themselves and the State,—and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury?
Do not they stand in same relation to the State, that the State does to the
Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting
the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?
How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it?
Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are
cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied
with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even
with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at
once to obtain the full amount, and see 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; aye, 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 be
on the alert to point 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 offence never contemplated by 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 placed 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 which 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 every thing to do, but something; and because he cannot
do every thing, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is
not my business to 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
what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is
obliged to consider whether he shall 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
neighborliness 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,—aye, if
one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves,
were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, 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 for ever. 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 any 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 desponding 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 any thing, resign your office.” When the subject has refused allegiance,
and the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is accomplished.
But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of 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 what 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 Cæsar 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 Cæsar’s government, then pay him back
some of his own when he demands it; “Render therefore to Cæsar that
which is Cæsar’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 of disobedience to it to their
property and families. 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 the 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,” 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, at 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 incorporated 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 me as if I were mere flesh and

blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded
at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought
to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of
stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to
climb or break through, before they could get to be as free as I was. I did
nor for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone
and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They
plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are
underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for
they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone
wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on
my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance,
and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me,
they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at
some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that
the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver
spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my
remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
Thus the state never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or
moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or
honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I
will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What
force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than
I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being
forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that
to live? When I meet a government which says to me, “Your money or 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 its nature, it dies; and so a man.

The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in
their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the door-way,
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 a 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 the 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 man, 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 here
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 verses which were composed by
some 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, nor 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 the 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 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 purpose
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 though useless path from time to time, to save their
souls. This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that most 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 grating of a jail window, “How do ye
do?” My neighbors did not thus 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 mended. When I
was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having
put on my mended shoe, 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, or 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 biassed 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 feeling 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 of 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 of 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 time, he never once glances at the
subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme
would soon reveal the limits of his mind’s range and hospitality. Yet,
compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still
cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are almost the
only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for him.
Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still
his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but
consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with
herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist
with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he has been called, the
Defender of the Constitution. There are really no blows to be given by 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 the 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 behoves a man to do here in America today with regard to
slavery, but ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer as
the following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man,—
from which what new and singular code of social duties might be inferred?
—“The manner,” says he, “in which the governments of those 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 fountain-head.
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 freedom, 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 also I have imagined, but not
yet anywhere seen.

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