Part 1
I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto, — "That government is best which governs
least";(1) 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,(2) 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.
[2] This American government — what is it but a tradition, though a
recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but
each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and
force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.
It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the
less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated
machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government
which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be
imposed 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,(3) would never manage to bounce over the 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.
[3] But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call
themselves no-government men,(4) 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.
[4] 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 cannot be based on justice, even as far as men
understand it. Can there not be a government in which 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 law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain,
corporal, privates, powder-monkeys,(5) and all, marching in admirable
order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against
their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching
indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that
it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all
peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable
forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American
government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts —
a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and
standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral
accompaniments, though it may be
"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried."(6)
[5] 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,(7) etc. 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 as enemies by it. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and
will not submit to be "clay," and "stop a hole to keep the wind away,"(8)
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."(9)
[6] 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.
[7] How does it become a man to behave toward this American government
to-day? 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.
[8] 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.(10) 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 counterbalance 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 the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but
ours is the invading army.(11)
[9] 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."(12) 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.(13) This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on
Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
[10] In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one 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."(14)
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.(15) 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 to-day? 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.
[11] All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a
slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral
questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the
voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I
am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to
leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that
of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is
only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise
man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to
prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in
the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for
the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to
slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by
their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten
the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.
[12] I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore,(16) 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 reason 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 this country?
Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here?
The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow (17) — one who may be known
by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack
of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern,
on coming into the world, is to see that the almshouses are in good
repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to
collect a fund 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.
[13] 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.
Notes
1. Possible reference to "The best government is that which governs
least," motto of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review,1837-1859,
or "the less government we have, the better" - R.W. Emerson, "Politics",
1844, sometimes mistakenly attributed to Jefferson
2. U.S.-Mexican War (1846-1848), abolitionists considered it an effort
to extend slavery into former Mexican territory
3. Made from the latex of tropical plants, "India" because it came from
the West Indies, and "rubber" from its early use as an eraser
4. Anarchists, many of whom came from Massachusett
5. Boys who carry gunpowder for soldiers
6. Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) The Burial of Sir John Morre at Corunna
7. Group empowered to uphold the law, a sheriff's posse
8. Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist, from Hamlet
9. Shakespeare, from King John
10. The American Revolution began in Concord & Lexington in 1775
11. A reference to slavery in the U.S, and to the invasion of Mexico by
the U.S.
12. William Paley (1743-1805) English theologian & philosopher, from
Principals of Moral and Political Philosophy, 1785
13. "He that findeth his life shall lose it..." - Matthew 10:39
14. Cyril Tourneur (1575?-1626) The Revengers Tragadie - back
15."... a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump" - 1 Corinthians 5:6
16. In 1848, Democratics nominated Lewis Case for U.S. president, later
defeated by Zachary Talor
17. A member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal
organization orginating in England in the mid-1700s.
Part 2
[1] 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,(1) 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
the 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?
[2] 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 that 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 divides states and churches, it divides families;
ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the
divine.
[3] 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 (2) and Luther,(3)
and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
[4] 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.
[5] 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.
[6] 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 everything to do, but something;
and because he cannot do everything, 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 unconciliatory; but it is to
treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that
can appreciate or deserves it. So is an change for the better, like
birth and death which convulse the body.
[7] 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.
[8] 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;(4) 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 — ay, 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 forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we
say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its
service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's
ambassador,(5) 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 the following winter.
[9] Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for
a just man is also a prison. The proper place to-day, 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 anything, 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.
[10] 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; and 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"(6)
— leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did
not wish to know.
[11] When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that,
whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the
question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the
short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the
existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property
and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like
to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny
the authority of the State when it presents its tax-bill, it will soon
take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without
end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly,
and at the same time comfortably in outward respects. It will not be
worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again.
You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat
that soon. You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself
always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs. A man
may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good
subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said, "If a state is
governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of
shame;(7) 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.
[12] Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and
commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman
whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said,
"or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately,
another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should
be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster: for
I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary
subscription. I did not see why the lyceum (8) 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 a complete list.
[13] 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 not 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.
[14] 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 have 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.
Notes
1. "No Union with Slaveholders" had become an abolitionist slogan
2. Nicolas Copernicas (1473-1543) Polish founder of modern astronomy;
his work On the Revolutions was dedicated to Pope Paul III and published
in 1543, and he was was not excomunicated
3. Martin Luther (1483-1546) German monk and Protestant Reformation
leader
4. Sam Staples, local constable and tax collector in Concord
5. Samuel Hoar (1778-1856) of Concord, sent by Mass. legislature to S.
Carolina to protest the impoundment of free black sailors, and was
forced to leave. His daughter was a close friend of the Emersons and a
childhood friend of Thoreau
6. Matthew 22:19-22
7. Analects, 8:13
8. A hall where public lectures are held
Part 3
[1] 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 doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it
is time to lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of
their steps returning into the hollow apartments. My room-mate was
introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate fellow and 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 the 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.
[2] 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.
[3] 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.
[4] 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.(1) I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.
[5] 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.
[6] When I came out of prison — for some one interfered, and paid that
tax — I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the
common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a tottering
and 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 propose to do right; that they were a
distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the
Chinamen and Malays are; that in their sacrifices to humanity, they ran
no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so
noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a
certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a
particular straight though useless path from time to time, to save their
souls. This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that
many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the
jail in their village.
[7] 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.
[8] This is the whole history of "My Prisons."(2)
[9] 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 what use and get what advantage of her
I can, as is usual in such cases.
[10] 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.
[11] This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much
on his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or
an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only
what belongs to himself and to the hour.
[12] 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 (3) 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,(4) to change the nature of the rocks and trees and
beasts.
[13] 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
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."(5)
[14] 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 a 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; but seen from a point of view a little
higher, they are what I 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?
[15] 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.
[16] 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.(6) "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 a part of the original compact — let it stand."(7)
Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take
a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies
absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect — what, for instance, it
behooves a man to do here in America to-day 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
their 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."
[17] 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 humility; 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.
[18] 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
manufacturers 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?
[19] 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(8)
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 least 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.
Notes
1. At the time, Concord was a county seat
2. Reference to Le Mie Prigioni by Silvio Pellico (1789-1854), about his
8 years as a political prisoner, English translation 1833
3. A Muslim
4. In Greek mythology, a musician whose songs could charm rocks and
trees and beasts
5. George Peele (1557?-1597?), Battle of Alcazar (in later editions only)
6. Writers of the Constitution in 1787
7. Danial Webster (1782-1852) from speech in U.S. Senate
8. Probably Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
