M.A ENGLIGH LITERATURE
UNIT I
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU
5/30/2015
SOURCE:. WWW SPARKNOTES.COM
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
INTRODUCTION
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a philosopher and writer best known for his attacks on American social institutions and his respect for nature and simple living. He was heavily influenced by the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who introduced Thoreau to the ideas of transcendentalism, a philosophy central to Thoreau's thinking and writing. In addition to Civil Disobedience (1849), Thoreau is best known for his book Walden (1854), which documents his experiences living alone on Walden Pond in Massachusetts from 1845-1847. Throughout his life, Thoreau emphasized the importance of individuality and self-reliance. He practiced civil disobedience in his own life and spent a night in jail for his refusal to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican War. (Thoreau was opposed to the practice of slavery in some of the territories involved.) It is thought that this night in jail prompted Thoreau to write Civil Disobedience. Thoreau delivered the first draft of the treatise as an oration to the Concord Lyceum in 1848, and the text was published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government.
The two major issues being debated in the United States during Thoreau's life were slavery and the Mexican-American War. Both issues play a prominent part in Thoreau's essay. By the late 1840s, slavery had driven a wedge in American society, with a growing number of Northerners expressing anti-slavery sentiments. In the 1850s, the country became even more polarized, and the introduction of slavery-friendly laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law , prompted many abolitionists to protest the government's actions via various forms of civil disobedience. (Slavery was only to come to an end a generation later when the abolitionist North would win the Civil War (1861-1865), Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation would free all slaves in Confederate territory; eventually, the 13th Amendment would ban slavery everywhere.) In addition to this domestic conflict, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) proved a point of much contention: Precipitated by boundary disputes between the United States and Mexico, the war was ultimately fought in order to expand American territory--many Americans felt it was our "Manifest Destiny" to seize all the land we could--and as a result the United States gained much of the present American Southwest, including California, Nevada and Utah. Thoreau and other opponents of the war argued that the campaign constituted an unnecessary act of aggression and that it was pursued on the basis of arrogance rather than any philosophically justifiable reasons.
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Civil Disobedience enjoyed widespread influence, both in the United States and abroad. Most famously, the work inspired Russia's Leo Tolstoy and India's Mahatma Gandhi. Later, it lent force to the American Civil Rights Movement.
Summary
Thoreau's Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one's conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.
Thoreau begins his essay by arguing that government rarely proves itself useful and that it derives its power from the majority because they are the strongest group, not because they hold the most legitimate viewpoint. He contends that people's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow the law dictated by the majority. When a government is unjust, people should refuse to follow the law and distance themselves from the government in general. A person is not obligated to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. This includes not being a member of an unjust institution (like the government). Thoreau further argues that the United States fits his criteria for an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war.
Thoreau doubts the effectiveness of reform within the government, and he argues that voting and petitioning for change achieves little. He presents his own experiences as a model for how to relate to an unjust government: In protest of slavery, Thoreau refused to pay taxes and spent a night in jail. But, more generally, he ideologically dissociated himself from the government, "washing his hands" of it and refusing to participate in his institutions. According to Thoreau, this form of protest was preferable to advocating for reform from within government; he asserts that one cannot see government for what it is when one is working within it.
Civil Disobedience covers several topics, and Thoreau intersperses poetry and social commentary throughout. For purposes of clarity and readability, the essay has been divided into three sections here, though Thoreau himself made no such divisions.
Important Terms
Abolitionists - Activists in favor of abolishing slavery
Daniel Webste - Daniel Webster (1792-1852) was a well-known American orator, lawyer and politician. As a U.S. Senator, he was an eloquent defender of a strong national government. He opposed the war with Mexico and was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850 on
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slavery, for which many Northerners denounced him. He also served as Secretary of State for Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore.
Mexican-American War - The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was fought over boundary disputes between the two countries; the Americans believed that it was their "Manifest Destiny" to expand their territory. During the war, U.S. forces invaded Mexico and occupied its capital, eventually gaining the land that would later constitute California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
Transcendentalism - A philosophy that became influential in the late 18th century and 19th century. Transcendentalism rejects the idea that knowledge can be fully derived from experience and observation of the physical world; rather, an individual should examine the way she comes to know things—in other words, the thought process itself—and focus on her connection to the divine, which exists beyond the senses but which can be known through intuition and feeling. American transcendentalism reached its peak in New England in the 1840s, under the leadership of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson argued that, while the physical world is important, providing us with necessary goods and frequent beauty, people should live their lives based on truths grasped through reason, not just physical perception. People will find truth within themselves; therefore, self-reliance and individuality are critical. Emerson served as a mentor to Thoreau, who became another leading American transcendentalist.
Section One
Summary
Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience by saying that he agrees with the motto, "That government is best which governs least." Indeed, he says, men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all. As it is, government rarely proves useful or efficient. It is often "abused and perverted" so that it no longer represents the will of the people. The Mexican-American War illustrates this phenomenon.
The American government is necessary because "the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have." However, the only times when government has been useful has been when it has stood aside. Thoreau says that government does not, in fact, achieve that with which we credit it: it does not keep the country free, settle the West, or educate. Rather, these achievements come from the character of the American people, and they would have been even more successful in these endeavors had government been even less involved. Thoreau also complains about restrictions on trade and commerce. However, Thoreau then says that speaking "practically and as a citizen," he is not asking for the immediate elimination of government. Rather, for the moment, he is asking for a better government.
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Thoreau argues that by answering to the majority, democracies answer the desires of the strongest group, not the most virtuous or thoughtful. A government founded on this principle cannot be based on justice. Why can't there be a government where right and wrong are not decided by the majority but by conscience? Thoreau writes, "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 we should be men first, and subjects afterward." He asserts that it is more important to develop a respect for the right, rather than a respect for law, for people's obligations are to do what is right.
Too much respect for law leads people to do many unjust things, as war illustrates: Soldiers become only a shadow of their humanity; the government shapes them into machines. Soldiers have no opportunity to exercise moral sense, reduced to the existence comparable to that of a horse or dog. Yet these men are often called good citizens. Similarly, most legislators and politicians do not put moral sense first, and those few who do are persecuted as enemies.
The question then becomes how to behave toward the American government. Thoreau's answer is to avoid associating with it altogether. He declares, "I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also." Thoreau says that while everyone recognizes the right to revolution when faced with an intolerably tyrannical or inefficient government, most people say that such a revolution would not be warranted under current conditions. However, Thoreau argues that we have not only the right, but indeed the duty, to rebel. The enslavement of one sixth of the population and the invasion of Mexico represent tremendous injustices that we must not allow to continue.
Thoreau criticizes the attitude that civil obligation should be maintained for the sake of expediency and that government should be obeyed simply to preserve the services we enjoy. Expediency does not take precedence over justice; people must do what justice requires regardless of cost--indeed, even if the cost is one's own life. Thus, Thoreau writes, "If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself." The people of the United States must stop slavery and the war with Mexico, even if it costs them their existence as a people.
Section Two
Summary
After having presented his view of man's individualistic duties as a citizen, Thoreau turns to how citizens should respond to their government's injustices. He says that he does not believe that voting is the proper solution. Voting for justice is not really acting for it. Rather, it is "feebly" expressing your desire that the right prevail. A wise man will not leave justice to the chance of a majority vote. The majority will end up voting their interest, voting for what will
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benefit them. A principled person must follow his conscience. Furthermore, nowadays, there are no people who vote independently of what their political parties tell them to do. There are almost no men in America, according to Thoreau. He complains of people's lack of intellect and self-reliance, as well as their complacency.
Thoreau writes that a person does not have a duty actually to eliminate wrongs-- even the most serious wrongs. A person may legitimately have other goals and pursuits. However, at the very least, a person must "wash his hands" of injustice and not be associated with something that is wrong. He asserts, "If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting on another man's shoulders." Thus, it is hypocritical for a person to commend a soldier for refusing to fight in an unjust war while that same person continues to sustain the unjust government that is pursuing the war.
Everyone agrees that unjust laws exist. The question is whether we should be content to obey them, whether we should try to change them but obey until they're changed, or whether we should disobey them at once. Most people in a democracy believe that the second course is best. They believe that if they resist, the revolution would be worse than the injustice. However, it is the government's fault that this is the case: The government doesn't encourage reform and dissent. Thoreau asks, "Why does [the majority-led government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?"
Thoreau then returns to the metaphor of the government-as-machine. He says that if an injustice is part of the "necessary friction" of the "machine of government," then it should be left alone. Perhaps the machine will wear smooth; in any case, it will eventually wear out. If the injustice has its own spring, rope or pulley, then one must consider whether the remedy is worse than the injustice. However, if the government requires one to be an agent of injustice toward another, then Thoreau says one must break the law. He urges the reader to be a "counter-friction" to the machine and not to participate in the wrong.
Thoreau then argues that working for change through government takes too much time and requires a person to waste his life. He is in the world simply to live in it and can't devote all of his time to making it a good place to live. A person doesn't have time to do everything good yet, this doesn't mean he must do anything wrong. In the case of the United States, the government doesn't provide room for remedy anyway; the very Constitution is evil.
All Abolitionists should immediately stop lending either their persons or their property to support the government of Massachusetts. Thoreau says that he only interacts directly with the American government once a year when the tax collector comes. And then he makes a point to quarrel with this person to make sure he understands what it means to be an officer of the government. These small protests are very important: "For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done for ever." However, the majority of
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people, rather than protesting, simply talk emptily. If people were to risk action, to risk imprisonment, then change would actually occur.
Thoreau maintains that "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." This is true today in Massachusetts, he says: in prison, a person can live with honor among the victims of injustice. Perhaps a person might think she could not be useful in jail, would be incapacitated to bring about change. In response to such a person, Thoreau replies that she does know how much stronger truth is than error--how much more powerfully a person can combat injustice once that person has experienced it for herself. He urges the reader to "cast your whole vote" against injustice, meaning not just a ballot but one's whole influence. A minority is irresistible when it uses its whole weight. For, if given the choice of renouncing slavery and war on the one hand and keeping all just men in prison on the other, the state will choose to eliminate its unjust policies.
Thoreau explains that he has hitherto focused on imprisonment instead of confiscation of goods, primarily because those who are most committed to justice have typically avoided accumulating property. To these people, even a slight tax probably appears exorbitant because the state offers so few services for them. Furthermore, the rich man is always sold to the institution that made him rich; as money increases, virtue decreases. The only questions wealth nurtures is the question of how to spend that money--it never fosters self-questioning and moral consideration. Thus, focusing on material wealth, a person loses his moral ground. With greater life "means," his real opportunity to live is diminished. Thus, the best thing a person can do for his culture when he is rich is to attempt to live his life as he did while he was poor.
Thoreau then addresses those readers who might raise the concern that people need the government's protection and who are worried about the consequences of civil disobedience to their property and family. He says that he himself would never want to think himself dependent on the State's protection. However, he acknowledges that if he refuses to pay taxes it will mean he will lose his property and that the state will harass his family. This is "hard," he admits: It is hard to live honestly and yet outwardly comfortably at the same time. Thus, he concludes that it is not worthwhile to accumulate property. One should be self-sufficient and farm only a small crop. "You must live within yourself," he tells the reader. He quotes Confucius as saying that if a state is not governed by reason, then riches are a source of shame. He reasons that it costs him less "in every sense" to pay the penalty of disobeying the State than it would to obey it. That is, less is lost in forgoing the government's protection and in suffering harassment to one's family, than in sacrificing one's integrity in passive compliance with the government's unjust policies. For if he were to sacrifice his integrity, Thoreau explains, "I should feel as if I were worth less" as a person.
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Section Three
Summary
Thoreau now turns to his personal experiences with civil disobedience. He says that he hasn't paid a poll tax for six years and that he spent a night in jail once because of this. His experience in jail did not hurt his spirit: "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to break through, before they could get to be as free as I was." Since the State couldn't reach his essential self, they decided to punish his body. This illustrated the State's ultimate weakness, and Thoreau says that he came to pity the State. The masses can't force him to do anything; he is subject only to those who obey a higher law. He says that he has to obey his own laws and try to flourish in this way.
The night in prison, he recounts, was "novel and interesting enough." His roommate had been accused of burning down a barn, though Thoreau speculated that the man had fallen asleep drunk in the barn while smoking a pipe. Thoreau was let in on the gossip and history of the jail and was shown several verses that were composed in the jail. The workings of the jail fascinated him, and staying in jail that night was like traveling in another country. He felt as if he was seeing his town through the light of the middle ages--as if he had never heard the sounds of his town before. After the first night, however, somebody interfered and paid his tax, and so he was released from prison the next day. Upon Thoreau's release, it seemed some kind of change had come over the town, the State and the country. He realized that the people he lived with were only friends in the good times. They were not interested in justice or in taking any risks. He soon left the town and was out of view of the State again.
Thoreau says that he always pays the highway tax because he wants to be a good neighbor, but, generally, he avoids all taxes. However, his refusal to pay taxes is not based on a desire to boycott one or two government practices in particular or the practices that a certain tax funds. Rather, he is refusing allegiance to the State as a whole. "In fact," he states, "I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases." Considering the anonymous person who paid his tax for him and let him out of jail, he says that if that person paid his tax out of sympathy with the State, then he or she was simply aiding injustice. If the person did it to help him, then he or she was letting his or her private feelings interfere with the public good. Thoreau says that he sometimes wants to respect his neighbors' desires, knowing that they mean well. However, he reminds himself that there are other people (e.g., the slaves) who would be much more hurt if he went along with his neighbors. He does not believe that he must accept men as they are and give up thinking of how they ought to be. In going against his fellow men, he believes that he can have some impact.
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Thoreau says that he doesn't want conflicts with any other person or country. Rather, he wants to follow the law, and he looks for reasons to follow it. He quotes a verse: "We must affect [i.e., "treat"] our country as our parents, / And if at any time we alienate / Our 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." He says that seen from a "lower" point of view, the Constitution and other laws warrant respect, despite their faults. From higher points of view, however, they appear less and less virtuous. But then, he says, the government doesn't concern him very much, and he avoids thinking about it.
Thoreau then writes that he doesn't have patience for lawyers and legislators. Standing within political institutions, they never critically look at these institutions and, therefore, cannot reform them; "They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency." He speaks of Daniel Webster, saying that this politician fails to make fundamental reforms of government. However, compared with other politicians and reformers, Webster is the only sensible one. He is not a leader but a follower, and his actions are defensive, not aggressive. He supports slavery because it was in the original compact of the U.S. Thus, he doesn't have wisdom but only prudence.
Thoreau concludes by saying that no one with legislative genius has yet appeared in America--such people are rare in the world's history. He writes that government's authority is "impure." To be just, authority must be based on the consent of the governed; its only rights are the rights that the individual gives it. The movement toward democracy constitutes progress toward true respect for the individual. However, democracy is not the last step that can be made. He says that he dreams of a State that respects the individual, a State that would not mind if a few individuals even chose to live independent of it altogether. This kind of State would prepare the way for an even more "perfect and glorious State."
Study Questions
What was Thoreau's view on slavery?
(A) Slavery was a necessary evil given the American economy.
(B) Slavery must be preserved because it is protected in the American Constitution.
(C) Slavery is morally desirable because of the inherent inferiority of blacks.
(D) Slavery is a moral evil that should be eliminated.
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What was Thoreau's primary act of civil disobedience in his own life?
(A) Public rallies and protests
(B) Refusal to pay taxes
(C) Destruction of public property
(D) All of the above
Which of the following government activities did Thoreau NOT object to?
(A) The elimination of tariffs
(B) The war with Mexico
(C) The protection of slavery
(D) None of the above
What was Thoreau's opinion on the "right" to rebel against one's government?
(A) There is never a right of revolution because the government's power is sovereign and absolute.
(B) There is a right to revolution against injustice, and this revolution would be acceptable against the contemporary United States.
(C) There is a right to revolution when facing extreme injustice, but the United States does not fit this description.
(D) Since government is always an evil, there is a constant obligation to revolt against the state and society.
Where did Thoreau write Civil Disobedience?
(A) Massachusetts
(B) Georgia
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(C) England
(D) New York
Why does Thoreau say the majority rules in democracies?
(A) The majority is more likely to be correct.
(B) The majority is stronger than the minority.
(C) To grant the desires of the majority is the only fair way of conducting government.
(D) None of the above
What are a person's duties regarding injustice, according to Thoreau?
(A) One must work to eliminate all wrongs.
(B) One must start a political campaign to reform society.
(C) One must refuse to support something that is wrong.
(D) One has no duties.
In Thoreau's opinion, what is the appropriate way to respond to unjust laws?
(A) One must be content to obey them.
(B) One must try to change the laws but obey them until they're changed.
(C) One must obey them as long as it is politically expedient.
(D) One must disobey the laws at once.
Which of the following measures does Thoreau NOT suggest to minimize the personal costs of civil disobedience?
(A) Don't accumulate private property.
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(B) Be self-sufficient.
(C) Amass important political connections.
(D) Live within yourself.
What does Thoreau call on Abolitionists to do?
(A) Stop paying taxes or supporting the Massachusetts government in any way
(B) Increase the number of anti-slavery petitions to Congress
(C) Campaign for anti-slavery candidates
(D) Send missionaries to the South to convince slaveholders to change their ways
Which does Thoreau say is more important: the need to be an honest individual or the need to be a responsible citizen?
(A) Neither the need to be an individual nor the need to be a citizen is very important,
(B) The need to be an individual and the need to be a ciitizen are equally vital and must be balanced according to circumstance,
(C) A person should be a citizen first and an individual second.
(D) A person should be an individual first and a citizen second.
What does Thoreau use as a metaphor for government?
(A) A ship
(B) A machine
(C) A train
(D) A lighthouse
Which politician does Thoreau criticize in his essay?
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(A) Thomas Jefferson
(B) John C. Calhoun
(C) Abraham Lincoln
(D) Daniel Webster
What does Thoreau say he learned from his night in jail?
(A) He gained a new view of his town.
(B) He realized that the State is ultimately weak.
(C) He realized that his neighbors were only friends during good times.
(D) All of the above
What does Thoreau mean when he says he refuses to sit on another man's shoulders?
(A) He refuses to support inequality.
(B) He refuses to benefit from injustice directed toward others.
(C) He refuses to read traditional literature.
(D) He refuses to perform in the circus.
Why is Thoreau impatient with politicians?
(A) They can't look critically at political institutions.
(B) There have not been any Americans with legislative genius.
(C) They forget that the world isn't ruled by policy and expediency.
(D) All of the above
For what other work is Thoreau famous?
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(A) Walden
(B) Utilitarianism
(C) Self-Reliance
(D) The Federalist Papers
When did Thoreau publish Civil Disobedience?
(A) 1780
(B) 1873
(C) 1849
(D) 1900
Which philosopher does Thoreau quote in his essay?
(A) Immanuel Kant
(B) Confucius
(C) Thomas Hobbes
(D) Ralph Waldo Emerson
Which philosophy is Thoreau most closely associated with?
(A) Transcendentalism
(B) Utilitarianism
(C) Empiricism
(D) Pragmatism
What kind of a state does Thoreau imagine at the end of his essay?
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(A) One that enforces conformity to Thoreau's values
(B) One that respects the individual and will even allow people to live independently of the state
(C) One that will increase the power of government in order to promote social justice
(D) One that will expand the United State's territory as part of its Manifest Destiny
How does Thoreau describe his attitude toward his government in Civil Disobedience?
(A) He looks for reasons to obey its laws.
(B) The government doesn't concern him very much.
(C) He avoids thinking about the government.
(D) All of the above
Why does Thoreau say it costs him less to disobey the law than to obey it?
(A) He would feel ashamed if he became rich under an unjust state.
(B) With the revenue from writing Civil Disobedience, he will make a lot of money.
(C) Disobeying the law doesn't have a very serious impact on his quality of life.
(D) He saves a lot of money by not paying taxes.
Which of the following leaders did Thoreau's essay have the greatest impact on?
(A) Malcolm X
(B) Joseph Stalin
(C) Richard Nixon
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
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Why doesn't Thoreau value voting?
(A) Most elections are corrupt.
(B) The country would be better off with an absolute ruler.
(C) Voting leaves justice to the chance of a majority vote.
(D) None of the above
UNIT I
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE BY HENRY DAVID THOREAU
5/30/2015
SOURCE:. WWW SPARKNOTES.COM
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
INTRODUCTION
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a philosopher and writer best known for his attacks on American social institutions and his respect for nature and simple living. He was heavily influenced by the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, who introduced Thoreau to the ideas of transcendentalism, a philosophy central to Thoreau's thinking and writing. In addition to Civil Disobedience (1849), Thoreau is best known for his book Walden (1854), which documents his experiences living alone on Walden Pond in Massachusetts from 1845-1847. Throughout his life, Thoreau emphasized the importance of individuality and self-reliance. He practiced civil disobedience in his own life and spent a night in jail for his refusal to pay taxes in protest of the Mexican War. (Thoreau was opposed to the practice of slavery in some of the territories involved.) It is thought that this night in jail prompted Thoreau to write Civil Disobedience. Thoreau delivered the first draft of the treatise as an oration to the Concord Lyceum in 1848, and the text was published in 1849 under the title Resistance to Civil Government.
The two major issues being debated in the United States during Thoreau's life were slavery and the Mexican-American War. Both issues play a prominent part in Thoreau's essay. By the late 1840s, slavery had driven a wedge in American society, with a growing number of Northerners expressing anti-slavery sentiments. In the 1850s, the country became even more polarized, and the introduction of slavery-friendly laws such as the Fugitive Slave Law , prompted many abolitionists to protest the government's actions via various forms of civil disobedience. (Slavery was only to come to an end a generation later when the abolitionist North would win the Civil War (1861-1865), Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation would free all slaves in Confederate territory; eventually, the 13th Amendment would ban slavery everywhere.) In addition to this domestic conflict, the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) proved a point of much contention: Precipitated by boundary disputes between the United States and Mexico, the war was ultimately fought in order to expand American territory--many Americans felt it was our "Manifest Destiny" to seize all the land we could--and as a result the United States gained much of the present American Southwest, including California, Nevada and Utah. Thoreau and other opponents of the war argued that the campaign constituted an unnecessary act of aggression and that it was pursued on the basis of arrogance rather than any philosophically justifiable reasons.
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Civil Disobedience enjoyed widespread influence, both in the United States and abroad. Most famously, the work inspired Russia's Leo Tolstoy and India's Mahatma Gandhi. Later, it lent force to the American Civil Rights Movement.
Summary
Thoreau's Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one's conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War.
Thoreau begins his essay by arguing that government rarely proves itself useful and that it derives its power from the majority because they are the strongest group, not because they hold the most legitimate viewpoint. He contends that people's first obligation is to do what they believe is right and not to follow the law dictated by the majority. When a government is unjust, people should refuse to follow the law and distance themselves from the government in general. A person is not obligated to devote his life to eliminating evils from the world, but he is obligated not to participate in such evils. This includes not being a member of an unjust institution (like the government). Thoreau further argues that the United States fits his criteria for an unjust government, given its support of slavery and its practice of aggressive war.
Thoreau doubts the effectiveness of reform within the government, and he argues that voting and petitioning for change achieves little. He presents his own experiences as a model for how to relate to an unjust government: In protest of slavery, Thoreau refused to pay taxes and spent a night in jail. But, more generally, he ideologically dissociated himself from the government, "washing his hands" of it and refusing to participate in his institutions. According to Thoreau, this form of protest was preferable to advocating for reform from within government; he asserts that one cannot see government for what it is when one is working within it.
Civil Disobedience covers several topics, and Thoreau intersperses poetry and social commentary throughout. For purposes of clarity and readability, the essay has been divided into three sections here, though Thoreau himself made no such divisions.
Important Terms
Abolitionists - Activists in favor of abolishing slavery
Daniel Webste - Daniel Webster (1792-1852) was a well-known American orator, lawyer and politician. As a U.S. Senator, he was an eloquent defender of a strong national government. He opposed the war with Mexico and was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850 on
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slavery, for which many Northerners denounced him. He also served as Secretary of State for Presidents William Henry Harrison, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore.
Mexican-American War - The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) was fought over boundary disputes between the two countries; the Americans believed that it was their "Manifest Destiny" to expand their territory. During the war, U.S. forces invaded Mexico and occupied its capital, eventually gaining the land that would later constitute California, Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.
Transcendentalism - A philosophy that became influential in the late 18th century and 19th century. Transcendentalism rejects the idea that knowledge can be fully derived from experience and observation of the physical world; rather, an individual should examine the way she comes to know things—in other words, the thought process itself—and focus on her connection to the divine, which exists beyond the senses but which can be known through intuition and feeling. American transcendentalism reached its peak in New England in the 1840s, under the leadership of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson argued that, while the physical world is important, providing us with necessary goods and frequent beauty, people should live their lives based on truths grasped through reason, not just physical perception. People will find truth within themselves; therefore, self-reliance and individuality are critical. Emerson served as a mentor to Thoreau, who became another leading American transcendentalist.
Section One
Summary
Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience by saying that he agrees with the motto, "That government is best which governs least." Indeed, he says, men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all. As it is, government rarely proves useful or efficient. It is often "abused and perverted" so that it no longer represents the will of the people. The Mexican-American War illustrates this phenomenon.
The American government is necessary because "the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have." However, the only times when government has been useful has been when it has stood aside. Thoreau says that government does not, in fact, achieve that with which we credit it: it does not keep the country free, settle the West, or educate. Rather, these achievements come from the character of the American people, and they would have been even more successful in these endeavors had government been even less involved. Thoreau also complains about restrictions on trade and commerce. However, Thoreau then says that speaking "practically and as a citizen," he is not asking for the immediate elimination of government. Rather, for the moment, he is asking for a better government.
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Thoreau argues that by answering to the majority, democracies answer the desires of the strongest group, not the most virtuous or thoughtful. A government founded on this principle cannot be based on justice. Why can't there be a government where right and wrong are not decided by the majority but by conscience? Thoreau writes, "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 we should be men first, and subjects afterward." He asserts that it is more important to develop a respect for the right, rather than a respect for law, for people's obligations are to do what is right.
Too much respect for law leads people to do many unjust things, as war illustrates: Soldiers become only a shadow of their humanity; the government shapes them into machines. Soldiers have no opportunity to exercise moral sense, reduced to the existence comparable to that of a horse or dog. Yet these men are often called good citizens. Similarly, most legislators and politicians do not put moral sense first, and those few who do are persecuted as enemies.
The question then becomes how to behave toward the American government. Thoreau's answer is to avoid associating with it altogether. He declares, "I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also." Thoreau says that while everyone recognizes the right to revolution when faced with an intolerably tyrannical or inefficient government, most people say that such a revolution would not be warranted under current conditions. However, Thoreau argues that we have not only the right, but indeed the duty, to rebel. The enslavement of one sixth of the population and the invasion of Mexico represent tremendous injustices that we must not allow to continue.
Thoreau criticizes the attitude that civil obligation should be maintained for the sake of expediency and that government should be obeyed simply to preserve the services we enjoy. Expediency does not take precedence over justice; people must do what justice requires regardless of cost--indeed, even if the cost is one's own life. Thus, Thoreau writes, "If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself." The people of the United States must stop slavery and the war with Mexico, even if it costs them their existence as a people.
Section Two
Summary
After having presented his view of man's individualistic duties as a citizen, Thoreau turns to how citizens should respond to their government's injustices. He says that he does not believe that voting is the proper solution. Voting for justice is not really acting for it. Rather, it is "feebly" expressing your desire that the right prevail. A wise man will not leave justice to the chance of a majority vote. The majority will end up voting their interest, voting for what will
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benefit them. A principled person must follow his conscience. Furthermore, nowadays, there are no people who vote independently of what their political parties tell them to do. There are almost no men in America, according to Thoreau. He complains of people's lack of intellect and self-reliance, as well as their complacency.
Thoreau writes that a person does not have a duty actually to eliminate wrongs-- even the most serious wrongs. A person may legitimately have other goals and pursuits. However, at the very least, a person must "wash his hands" of injustice and not be associated with something that is wrong. He asserts, "If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting on another man's shoulders." Thus, it is hypocritical for a person to commend a soldier for refusing to fight in an unjust war while that same person continues to sustain the unjust government that is pursuing the war.
Everyone agrees that unjust laws exist. The question is whether we should be content to obey them, whether we should try to change them but obey until they're changed, or whether we should disobey them at once. Most people in a democracy believe that the second course is best. They believe that if they resist, the revolution would be worse than the injustice. However, it is the government's fault that this is the case: The government doesn't encourage reform and dissent. Thoreau asks, "Why does [the majority-led government] always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?"
Thoreau then returns to the metaphor of the government-as-machine. He says that if an injustice is part of the "necessary friction" of the "machine of government," then it should be left alone. Perhaps the machine will wear smooth; in any case, it will eventually wear out. If the injustice has its own spring, rope or pulley, then one must consider whether the remedy is worse than the injustice. However, if the government requires one to be an agent of injustice toward another, then Thoreau says one must break the law. He urges the reader to be a "counter-friction" to the machine and not to participate in the wrong.
Thoreau then argues that working for change through government takes too much time and requires a person to waste his life. He is in the world simply to live in it and can't devote all of his time to making it a good place to live. A person doesn't have time to do everything good yet, this doesn't mean he must do anything wrong. In the case of the United States, the government doesn't provide room for remedy anyway; the very Constitution is evil.
All Abolitionists should immediately stop lending either their persons or their property to support the government of Massachusetts. Thoreau says that he only interacts directly with the American government once a year when the tax collector comes. And then he makes a point to quarrel with this person to make sure he understands what it means to be an officer of the government. These small protests are very important: "For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once done well is done for ever." However, the majority of
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people, rather than protesting, simply talk emptily. If people were to risk action, to risk imprisonment, then change would actually occur.
Thoreau maintains that "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison." This is true today in Massachusetts, he says: in prison, a person can live with honor among the victims of injustice. Perhaps a person might think she could not be useful in jail, would be incapacitated to bring about change. In response to such a person, Thoreau replies that she does know how much stronger truth is than error--how much more powerfully a person can combat injustice once that person has experienced it for herself. He urges the reader to "cast your whole vote" against injustice, meaning not just a ballot but one's whole influence. A minority is irresistible when it uses its whole weight. For, if given the choice of renouncing slavery and war on the one hand and keeping all just men in prison on the other, the state will choose to eliminate its unjust policies.
Thoreau explains that he has hitherto focused on imprisonment instead of confiscation of goods, primarily because those who are most committed to justice have typically avoided accumulating property. To these people, even a slight tax probably appears exorbitant because the state offers so few services for them. Furthermore, the rich man is always sold to the institution that made him rich; as money increases, virtue decreases. The only questions wealth nurtures is the question of how to spend that money--it never fosters self-questioning and moral consideration. Thus, focusing on material wealth, a person loses his moral ground. With greater life "means," his real opportunity to live is diminished. Thus, the best thing a person can do for his culture when he is rich is to attempt to live his life as he did while he was poor.
Thoreau then addresses those readers who might raise the concern that people need the government's protection and who are worried about the consequences of civil disobedience to their property and family. He says that he himself would never want to think himself dependent on the State's protection. However, he acknowledges that if he refuses to pay taxes it will mean he will lose his property and that the state will harass his family. This is "hard," he admits: It is hard to live honestly and yet outwardly comfortably at the same time. Thus, he concludes that it is not worthwhile to accumulate property. One should be self-sufficient and farm only a small crop. "You must live within yourself," he tells the reader. He quotes Confucius as saying that if a state is not governed by reason, then riches are a source of shame. He reasons that it costs him less "in every sense" to pay the penalty of disobeying the State than it would to obey it. That is, less is lost in forgoing the government's protection and in suffering harassment to one's family, than in sacrificing one's integrity in passive compliance with the government's unjust policies. For if he were to sacrifice his integrity, Thoreau explains, "I should feel as if I were worth less" as a person.
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Section Three
Summary
Thoreau now turns to his personal experiences with civil disobedience. He says that he hasn't paid a poll tax for six years and that he spent a night in jail once because of this. His experience in jail did not hurt his spirit: "I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to break through, before they could get to be as free as I was." Since the State couldn't reach his essential self, they decided to punish his body. This illustrated the State's ultimate weakness, and Thoreau says that he came to pity the State. The masses can't force him to do anything; he is subject only to those who obey a higher law. He says that he has to obey his own laws and try to flourish in this way.
The night in prison, he recounts, was "novel and interesting enough." His roommate had been accused of burning down a barn, though Thoreau speculated that the man had fallen asleep drunk in the barn while smoking a pipe. Thoreau was let in on the gossip and history of the jail and was shown several verses that were composed in the jail. The workings of the jail fascinated him, and staying in jail that night was like traveling in another country. He felt as if he was seeing his town through the light of the middle ages--as if he had never heard the sounds of his town before. After the first night, however, somebody interfered and paid his tax, and so he was released from prison the next day. Upon Thoreau's release, it seemed some kind of change had come over the town, the State and the country. He realized that the people he lived with were only friends in the good times. They were not interested in justice or in taking any risks. He soon left the town and was out of view of the State again.
Thoreau says that he always pays the highway tax because he wants to be a good neighbor, but, generally, he avoids all taxes. However, his refusal to pay taxes is not based on a desire to boycott one or two government practices in particular or the practices that a certain tax funds. Rather, he is refusing allegiance to the State as a whole. "In fact," he states, "I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases." Considering the anonymous person who paid his tax for him and let him out of jail, he says that if that person paid his tax out of sympathy with the State, then he or she was simply aiding injustice. If the person did it to help him, then he or she was letting his or her private feelings interfere with the public good. Thoreau says that he sometimes wants to respect his neighbors' desires, knowing that they mean well. However, he reminds himself that there are other people (e.g., the slaves) who would be much more hurt if he went along with his neighbors. He does not believe that he must accept men as they are and give up thinking of how they ought to be. In going against his fellow men, he believes that he can have some impact.
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Thoreau says that he doesn't want conflicts with any other person or country. Rather, he wants to follow the law, and he looks for reasons to follow it. He quotes a verse: "We must affect [i.e., "treat"] our country as our parents, / And if at any time we alienate / Our 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." He says that seen from a "lower" point of view, the Constitution and other laws warrant respect, despite their faults. From higher points of view, however, they appear less and less virtuous. But then, he says, the government doesn't concern him very much, and he avoids thinking about it.
Thoreau then writes that he doesn't have patience for lawyers and legislators. Standing within political institutions, they never critically look at these institutions and, therefore, cannot reform them; "They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency." He speaks of Daniel Webster, saying that this politician fails to make fundamental reforms of government. However, compared with other politicians and reformers, Webster is the only sensible one. He is not a leader but a follower, and his actions are defensive, not aggressive. He supports slavery because it was in the original compact of the U.S. Thus, he doesn't have wisdom but only prudence.
Thoreau concludes by saying that no one with legislative genius has yet appeared in America--such people are rare in the world's history. He writes that government's authority is "impure." To be just, authority must be based on the consent of the governed; its only rights are the rights that the individual gives it. The movement toward democracy constitutes progress toward true respect for the individual. However, democracy is not the last step that can be made. He says that he dreams of a State that respects the individual, a State that would not mind if a few individuals even chose to live independent of it altogether. This kind of State would prepare the way for an even more "perfect and glorious State."
Study Questions
What was Thoreau's view on slavery?
(A) Slavery was a necessary evil given the American economy.
(B) Slavery must be preserved because it is protected in the American Constitution.
(C) Slavery is morally desirable because of the inherent inferiority of blacks.
(D) Slavery is a moral evil that should be eliminated.
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What was Thoreau's primary act of civil disobedience in his own life?
(A) Public rallies and protests
(B) Refusal to pay taxes
(C) Destruction of public property
(D) All of the above
Which of the following government activities did Thoreau NOT object to?
(A) The elimination of tariffs
(B) The war with Mexico
(C) The protection of slavery
(D) None of the above
What was Thoreau's opinion on the "right" to rebel against one's government?
(A) There is never a right of revolution because the government's power is sovereign and absolute.
(B) There is a right to revolution against injustice, and this revolution would be acceptable against the contemporary United States.
(C) There is a right to revolution when facing extreme injustice, but the United States does not fit this description.
(D) Since government is always an evil, there is a constant obligation to revolt against the state and society.
Where did Thoreau write Civil Disobedience?
(A) Massachusetts
(B) Georgia
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(C) England
(D) New York
Why does Thoreau say the majority rules in democracies?
(A) The majority is more likely to be correct.
(B) The majority is stronger than the minority.
(C) To grant the desires of the majority is the only fair way of conducting government.
(D) None of the above
What are a person's duties regarding injustice, according to Thoreau?
(A) One must work to eliminate all wrongs.
(B) One must start a political campaign to reform society.
(C) One must refuse to support something that is wrong.
(D) One has no duties.
In Thoreau's opinion, what is the appropriate way to respond to unjust laws?
(A) One must be content to obey them.
(B) One must try to change the laws but obey them until they're changed.
(C) One must obey them as long as it is politically expedient.
(D) One must disobey the laws at once.
Which of the following measures does Thoreau NOT suggest to minimize the personal costs of civil disobedience?
(A) Don't accumulate private property.
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(B) Be self-sufficient.
(C) Amass important political connections.
(D) Live within yourself.
What does Thoreau call on Abolitionists to do?
(A) Stop paying taxes or supporting the Massachusetts government in any way
(B) Increase the number of anti-slavery petitions to Congress
(C) Campaign for anti-slavery candidates
(D) Send missionaries to the South to convince slaveholders to change their ways
Which does Thoreau say is more important: the need to be an honest individual or the need to be a responsible citizen?
(A) Neither the need to be an individual nor the need to be a citizen is very important,
(B) The need to be an individual and the need to be a ciitizen are equally vital and must be balanced according to circumstance,
(C) A person should be a citizen first and an individual second.
(D) A person should be an individual first and a citizen second.
What does Thoreau use as a metaphor for government?
(A) A ship
(B) A machine
(C) A train
(D) A lighthouse
Which politician does Thoreau criticize in his essay?
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(A) Thomas Jefferson
(B) John C. Calhoun
(C) Abraham Lincoln
(D) Daniel Webster
What does Thoreau say he learned from his night in jail?
(A) He gained a new view of his town.
(B) He realized that the State is ultimately weak.
(C) He realized that his neighbors were only friends during good times.
(D) All of the above
What does Thoreau mean when he says he refuses to sit on another man's shoulders?
(A) He refuses to support inequality.
(B) He refuses to benefit from injustice directed toward others.
(C) He refuses to read traditional literature.
(D) He refuses to perform in the circus.
Why is Thoreau impatient with politicians?
(A) They can't look critically at political institutions.
(B) There have not been any Americans with legislative genius.
(C) They forget that the world isn't ruled by policy and expediency.
(D) All of the above
For what other work is Thoreau famous?
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(A) Walden
(B) Utilitarianism
(C) Self-Reliance
(D) The Federalist Papers
When did Thoreau publish Civil Disobedience?
(A) 1780
(B) 1873
(C) 1849
(D) 1900
Which philosopher does Thoreau quote in his essay?
(A) Immanuel Kant
(B) Confucius
(C) Thomas Hobbes
(D) Ralph Waldo Emerson
Which philosophy is Thoreau most closely associated with?
(A) Transcendentalism
(B) Utilitarianism
(C) Empiricism
(D) Pragmatism
What kind of a state does Thoreau imagine at the end of his essay?
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(A) One that enforces conformity to Thoreau's values
(B) One that respects the individual and will even allow people to live independently of the state
(C) One that will increase the power of government in order to promote social justice
(D) One that will expand the United State's territory as part of its Manifest Destiny
How does Thoreau describe his attitude toward his government in Civil Disobedience?
(A) He looks for reasons to obey its laws.
(B) The government doesn't concern him very much.
(C) He avoids thinking about the government.
(D) All of the above
Why does Thoreau say it costs him less to disobey the law than to obey it?
(A) He would feel ashamed if he became rich under an unjust state.
(B) With the revenue from writing Civil Disobedience, he will make a lot of money.
(C) Disobeying the law doesn't have a very serious impact on his quality of life.
(D) He saves a lot of money by not paying taxes.
Which of the following leaders did Thoreau's essay have the greatest impact on?
(A) Malcolm X
(B) Joseph Stalin
(C) Richard Nixon
(D) Mahatma Gandhi
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Why doesn't Thoreau value voting?
(A) Most elections are corrupt.
(B) The country would be better off with an absolute ruler.
(C) Voting leaves justice to the chance of a majority vote.
(D) None of the above
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