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I heartily accept the motto, "That
government is best which governs least";
and I should like to see it acted up to more
rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it
finally amounts to this, which also I believe--
"That government is best which governs not
at all"; and when men are prepared for it,
that will be the kind of government which the
will have. Government is at best but an
expedient; but most governments are
usually, and all governments are
sometimes, inexpedient. The objections
which have been brought against a standing
army, and they are many and weighty, and
deserve to prevail, may also at last be
brought against a standing government. The
standing army is only an arm of the standing
government. The government itself, which is
only the mode which the people have
chosen to execute their will, is equally liable
to be abused and perverted before the
people can act through it. Witness the
present Mexican war, the work of
comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for in the
outset, the people would not have
consented to this measure.

This American government--what is it but a
tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring
to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but
each instant losing some of its integrity? It
has not the vitality and force of a single living
man; for a single man can bend it to his will.
It is a sort of wooden gun to the people

themselves. But it is not the less necessary
for this; for the people must have some
complicated machinery or other, and hear
its din, to satisfy that idea of government
which they have. Governments show thus
how successfully men can be imposed
upon, even impose on themselves, for their
own advantage. It is excellent, we must all
allow. Yet this government never of itself
furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity
with which it got out of its way. It does not
keep the country free. It does not settle the
West. It does not educate. The character
inherent in the American people has done
all that has been accomplished; and it
would have done somewhat more, if the
government had not sometimes got in its
way. For government is an expedient, by
which men would fain succeed in letting one
another alone; and, as has been said, when
it is most expedient, the governed are most
let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they
were not made of india-rubber, would
never manage to bounce over obstacles
which legislators are continually putting in
their way; and if one were to judge these
men wholly by the effects of their actions
and not partly by their intentions, they would
deserve to be classed and punished with
those mischievious persons who put
obstructions on the railroads.

But, to speak practically and as a citizen,
unlike those who call themselves no-
government men, I ask for, not at one no

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government, but at once a better
government. Let every man make known
what kind of government would command
his respect, and that will be one step toward
obtaining it.

After all, the practical reason why, when the
power is once in the hands of the people, a
majority are permitted, and for a long
period continue, to rule is not because they
are most likely to be in the right, nor
because this seems fairest to the minority,
but because they are physically the
strongest. But a government in which the
majority rule in all cases can not be based
on justice, even as far as men understand
it. Can there not be a government in which
the majorities do not virtually decide right
and wrong, but conscience?--in which
majorities decide only those questions to
which the rule of expediency is applicable?
Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the
least degree, resign his conscience to the
legislator? WHy has every man a
conscience then? I think that we should be
men first, and subjects afterward. It is not
desirable to cultivate a respect for the law,
so much as for the right. The only obligation
which I have a right to assume is to do at any
time what I think right. It is truly enough said
that a corporation has no conscience; but a
corporation on conscientious men is a
corporation with a conscience. Law never
made men a whit more just; and, by means
of their respect for it, even the well-
disposed are daily made the agents on
injustice. A common and natural result of an
undue respect for the law is, that you may
see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain,
corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and
all, marching in admirable order over hill
and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay,
against their common sense and
consciences, which makes it very steep
marching indeed, and produces a
palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt

that it is a damnable business in which they
are concerned; they are all peaceably
inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or
small movable forts and magazines, at the
service of some unscrupulous man in
power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a
marine, such a man as an American
government can make, or such as it can
make a man with its black arts--a mere
shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a
man laid out alive and standing, and
already, as one may say, buried under arms
with funeral accompaniment, though it may
be,

"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not
a soldier discharged his farewell shot O'er
the grave where out hero was buried."

The mass of men serve the state thus, not
as men mainly, but as machines, with their
bodies. They are the standing army, and the
militia, jailers, constables, posse
comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no
free exercise whatever of the judgement or
of the moral sense; but they put themselves
on a level with wood and earth and stones;
and wooden men can perhaps be
manufactured that will serve the purpose as
well. Such command no more respect than
men of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the
same sort of worth only as horses and dogs.
Yet such as these even are commonly
esteemed good citizens. Others--as most
legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers,
and office-holders--serve the state chiefly
with their heads; and, as the rarely make
any moral distinctions, they are as likely to
serve the devil, without intending it, as God.
A very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs,
reformers in the great sense, and men--
serve the state with their consciences also,
and so necessarily resist it for the most part;
and they are commonly treated as enemies
by it. A wise man will only be useful as a

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man, and will not submit to be "clay," and
"stop a hole to keep the wind away," but
leave that office to his dust at least:

"I am too high born to be propertied, To be a
second at control, Or useful serving-man
and instrument To any sovereign state
throughout the world."

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow
men appears to them useless and selfish;
but he who gives himself partially to them in
pronounced a benefactor and
philanthropist.

How does it become a man to behave
toward the American government today? I
answer, that he cannot without disgrace be
associated with it. I cannot for an instant
recognize that political organization as my
government which is the slave's
government also.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that
is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to
resist, the government, when its tyranny or
its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
But almost all say that such is not the case
now. But such was the case, they think, in
the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me
that this was a bad government because it
taxed certain foreign commodities brought
to its ports, it is most probable that I should
not make an ado about it, for I can do
without them. All machines have their
friction; and possibly this does enough
good to counter-balance the evil. At any
rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it.
But when the friction comes to have its
machine, and oppression and robbery are
organized, I say, let us not have such a
machine any longer. In other words, when a
sixth of the population of a nation which has
undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are
slaves, and a whole country is unjustly
overrun and conquered by a foreign army,

and subjected to military law, I think that it is
not too soon for honest men to rebel and
revolutionize. What makes this duty the more
urgent is that fact that the country so overrun
is not our own, but ours is the invading army.

Paley, a common authority with many on
moral questions, in his chapter on the "Duty
of Submission to Civil Government,"
resolves all civil obligation into expediency;
and he proceeds to say that "so long as the
interest of the whole society requires it, that
it, so long as the established government
cannot be resisted or changed without
public inconveniencey, it is the will of God. .
.that the established government be
obeyed--and no longer. This principle
being admitted, the justice of every
particular case of resistance is reduced to a
computation of the quantity of the danger
and grievance on the one side, and of the
probability and expense of redressing it on
the other." Of this, he says, every man shall
judge for himself. But Paley appears never
to have contemplated those cases to which
the rule of expediency does not apply, in
which a people, as well and an individual,
must do justice, cost what it may. If I have
unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning
man, I must restore it to him though I drown
myself. This, according to Paley, would be
inconvenient. But he that would save his life,
in such a case, shall lose it. This people
must cease to hold slaves, and to make war
on Mexico, though it cost them their
existence as a people.

In their practice, nations agree with Paley;
but does anyone think that Massachusetts
does exactly what is right at the present
crisis?

"A drab of stat, a cloth-o'-silver slut, To
have her train borne up, and her soul trail in
the dirt."

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Practically speaking, the opponents to a
reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred
thousand politicians at the South, but a
hundred thousand merchants and farmers
here, who are more interested in commerce
and agriculture than they are in humanity,
and are not prepared to do justice to the
slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I
quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those
who, neat at home, co-operate with, and
do the bidding of, those far away, and
without whom the latter would be harmless.
We are accustomed to say, that the mass of
men are unprepared; but improvement is
slow, because the few are not as materially
wiser or better than the many. It is not so
important that many should be good as you,
as that there be some absolute goodness
somewhere; for that will leaven the whole
lump. There are thousands who are in
opinion opposed to slavery and to the war,
who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to
them; who, esteeming themselves children
of Washington and Franklin, sit down with
their hands in their pockets, and say that
they know not what to do, and do nothing;
who even postpone the question of
freedom to the question of free trade, and
quietly read the prices-current along with
the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner,
and, it may be, fall asleep over them both.
What is the price-current of an honest man
and patriot today? They hesitate, and they
regret, and sometimes they petition; but
they do nothing in earnest and with effect.
They will wait, well disposed, for other to
remedy the evil, that they may no longer
have it to regret. At most, they give up only a
cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and
Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them.
There are nine hundred and ninety-nine
patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it
is easier to deal with the real possessor of a
thing than with the temporary guardian of it.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers

or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to
it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral
questions; and betting naturally
accompanies it. The character of the voters
is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I
think right; but I am not vitally concerned that
that right should prevail. I am willing to leave
it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore,
never exceeds that of expediency. Even
voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is
only expressing to men feebly your desire
that it should prevail. A wise man will not
leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor
wish it to prevail through the power of the
majority. There is but little virtue in the action
of masses of men. When the majority shall
at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it
will be because they are indifferent to
slavery, or because there is but little slavery
left to be abolished by their vote. They will
then be the only slaves. Only his vote can
hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts
his own freedom by his vote.

I hear of a convention to be held at
Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of
a candidate for the Presidency, made up
chiefly of editors, and men who are
politicians by profession; but I think, what is
it to any independent, intelligent, and
respectable man what decision they may
come to? Shall we not have the advantage
of this wisdom and honesty, nevertheless?
Can we not count upon some independent
votes? Are there not many individuals in the
country who do not attend conventions? But
no: I find that the respectable man, so
called, has immediately drifted from his
position, and despairs of his country, when
his country has more reasons to despair of
him. He forthwith adopts one of the
candidates thus selected as the only
available one, thus proving that he is himself
available for any purposes of the
demagogue. His vote is of no more worth
than that of any unprincipled foreigner or

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hireling native, who may have been bought.
O for a man who is a man, and, and my
neighbor says, has a bone is his back which
you cannot pass your hand through! Our
statistics are at fault: the population has
been returned too large. How many men are
there to a square thousand miles in the
country? Hardly one. Does not America
offer any inducement for men to settle here?
The American has dwindled into an Odd
Fellow--one who may be known by the
development of his organ of
gregariousness, and a manifest lack of
intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose
first and chief concern, on coming into the
world, is to see that the almshouses are in
good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully
donned the virile garb, to collect a fund to
the support of the widows and orphans that
may be; who, in short, ventures to live only
by the aid of the Mutual Insurance company,
which has promised to bury him decently.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course,
to devote himself to the eradication of any,
even to most enormous, wrong; he may still
properly have other concerns to engage
him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his
hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought
longer, not to give it practically his support. If
I devote myself to other pursuits and
contemplations, I must first see, at least,
that I do not pursue them sitting upon
another man's shoulders. I must get off him
first, that he may pursue his contemplations
too. See what gross inconsistency is
tolerated. I have heard some of my
townsmen say, "I should like to have them
order me out to help put down an
insurrection of the slaves, or to march to
Mexico--see if I would go"; and yet these
very men have each, directly by their
allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by
their money, furnished a substitute. The
soldier is applauded who refuses to serve
in an unjust war by those who do not refuse

to sustain the unjust government which
makes the war; is applauded by those
whose own act and authority he disregards
and sets at naught; as if the state were
penitent to that degree that it hired one to
scourge it while it sinned, but not to that
degree that it left off sinning for a moment.
Thus, under the name of Order and Civil
Government, we are all made at last to pay
homage to and support our own meanness.
After the first blush of sin comes its
indifference; and from immoral it becomes,
as it were, unmoral, and not quite
unnecessary to that life which we have
made.

The broadest and most prevalent error
requires the most disinterested virtue to
sustain it. The slight reproach to which the
virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the
noble are most likely to incur. Those who,
while they disapprove of the character and
measures of a government, yield to it their
allegiance and support are undoubtedly its
most conscientious supporters, and so
frequently the most serious obstacles to
reform. Some are petitioning the State to
dissolve the Union, to disregard the
requisitions of the President. Why do they
not dissolve it themselves--the union
between themselves and the State--and
refuse to pay their quota into its treasury?
Do not they stand in same relation to the
State that the State does to the Union? And
have not the same reasons prevented the
State from resisting the Union which have
prevented them from resisting the State?

How can a man be satisfied to entertain and
opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any
enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is
aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a
single dollar by your neighbor, you do not
rest satisfied with knowing you are
cheated, or with saying that you are
cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay

-5-

you your due; but you take effectual steps at
once to obtain the full amount, and see to it
that you are never cheated again. Action
from principle, the perception and the
performance of right, changes things and
relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and
does not consist wholly with anything which
was. It not only divided States and
churches, it divides families; ay, it divides
the individual, separating the diabolical in
him from the divine.

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to
obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend
them, and obey them until we have
succeeded, or shall we transgress them at
once? Men, generally, under such a
government as this, think that they ought to
wait until they have persuaded the majority
to alter them. They think that, if they should
resist, the remedy would be worse than the
evil. But it is the fault of the government itself
that the remedy is worse than the evil. It
makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
anticipate and provide for reform? Why
does it not cherish its wise minority? Why
does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why
does it not encourage its citizens to put out
its faults, and do better than it would have
them? Why does it always crucify Christ and
excommunicate Copernicus and Luther,
and pronounce Washington and Franklin
rebels?

One would think, that a deliberate and
practical denial of its authority was the only
offense never contemplated by its
government; else, why has it not assigned
its definite, its suitable and proportionate,
penalty? If a man who has no property
refuses but once to earn nine shillings for
the State, he is put in prison for a period
unlimited by any law that I know, and
determined only by the discretion of those
who put him there; but if he should steal
ninety times nine shillings from the State, he

is soon permitted to go at large again.

If the injustice is part of the necessary
friction of the machine of government, let it
go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth--
certainly the machine will wear out. If the
injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope,
or a crank, exclusively for itself, then
perhaps you may consider whether the
remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if
it is of such a nature that it requires you to be
the agent of injustice to another, then I say,
break the law. Let your life be a counter-
friction to stop the machine. What I have to
do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend
myself to the wrong which I condemn.

As for adopting the ways of the State has
provided for remedying the evil, I know not
of such ways. They take too much time, and
a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs
to attend to. I came into this world, not
chiefly to make this a good place to live in,
but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has
not everything to do, but something; and
because he cannot do everything, it is not
necessary that he should be petitioning the
Governor or the Legislature any more than it
is theirs to petition me; and if they should not
hear my petition, what should I do then? But
in this case the State has provided no way:
its very Constitution is the evil. This may
seem to be harsh and stubborn and
unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the
utmost kindness and consideration the only
spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So
is all change for the better, like birth and
death, which convulse the body.

I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
themselves Abolitionists should at once
effectually withdraw their support, both in
person and property, from the government
of Massachusetts, and not wait till they
constitute a majority of one, before they
suffer the right to prevail through them. I

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think that it is enough if they have God on
their side, without waiting for that other one.
Moreover, any man more right than his
neighbors constitutes a majority of one
already.

I meet this American government, or its
representative, the State government,
directly, and face to face, once a year--no
more--in the person of its tax-gatherer; this
is the only mode in which a man situated as I
am necessarily meets it; and it then says
distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest,
the most effectual, and, in the present
posture of affairs, the indispensablest
mode of treating with it on this head, of
expressing your little satisfaction with and
love for it, is to deny it then. My civil
neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I
have to deal with--for it is, after all, with
men and not with parchment that I quarrel--
and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent
of the government. How shall he ever know
well that he is and does as an officer of the
government, or as a man, until he is obliged
to consider whether he will treat me, his
neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a
neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a
maniac and disturber of the peace, and see
if he can get over this obstruction to his
neighborlines without a ruder and more
impetuous thought or speech
corresponding with his action. I know this
well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if
ten men whom I could name--if ten honest
men only--ay, if one HONEST man, in this
State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold
slaves, were actually to withdraw from this
co-partnership, and be locked up in the
county jail therefor, it would be the abolition
of slavery in America. For it matters not how
small the beginning may seem to be: what is
once well done is done forever. But we love
better to talk about it: that we say is our
mission. Reform keeps many scores of
newspapers in its service, but not one man.

If my esteemed neighbor, the State's
ambassador, who will devote his days to
the settlement of the question of human
rights in the Council Chamber, instead of
being threatened with the prisons of
Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of
Massachusetts, that State which is so
anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her
sister--though at present she can discover
only an act of inhospitality to be the ground
of a quarrel with her--the Legislature would
not wholly waive the subject of the following
winter.

Under a government which imprisons
unjustly, the true place for a just man is also
a prison. The proper place today, the only
place which Massachusetts has provided
for her freer and less despondent spirits, is
in her prisons, to be put out and locked out
of the State by her own act, as they have
already put themselves out by their
principles. It is there that the fugitive slave,
and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the
Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race
should find them; on that separate but more
free and honorable ground, where the State
places those who are not with her, but
against her--the only house in a slave State
in which a free man can abide with honor. If
any think that their influence would be lost
there, and their voices no longer afflict the
ear of the State, that they would not be as an
enemy within its walls, they do not know by
how much truth is stronger than error, nor
how much more eloquently and effectively
he can combat injustice who has
experienced a little in his own person. Cast
your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely,
but your whole influence. A minority is
powerless while it conforms to the majority;
it is not even a minority then; but it is
irresistible when it clogs by its whole
weight. If the alternative is to keep all just
men in prison, or give up war and slavery,
the State will not hesitate which to choose. If

-7-

a thousand men were not to pay their tax
bills this year, that would not be a violent and
bloody measure, as it would be to pay them,
and enable the State to commit violence
and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the
definition of a peaceable revolution, if any
such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any
other public officer, asks me, as one has
done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If
you really wish to do anything, resign your
office." When the subject has refused
allegiance, and the officer has resigned
from office, then the revolution is
accomplished. But even suppose blood
shed when the conscience is wounded?
Through this wound a man's real manhood
and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to
an everlasting death. I see this blood
flowing now.

I have contemplated the imprisonment of
the offender, rather than the seizure of his
goods--though both will serve the same
purpose--because they who assert the
purest right, and consequently are most
dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly
have not spent much time in accumulating
property. To such the State renders
comparatively small service, and a slight tax
is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if
they are obliged to earn it by special labor
with their hands. If there were one who lived
wholly without the use of money, the State
itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But
the rich man--not to make any invidious
comparison--is always sold to the
institution which makes him rich. Absolutely
speaking, the more money, the less virtue;
for money comes between a man and his
objects, and obtains them for him; it was
certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to
rest many questions which he would
otherwise be taxed to answer; while the
only new question which it puts is the hard
but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus
his moral ground is taken from under his

feet. The opportunities of living are
diminished in proportion as that are called
the "means" are increased. The best thing a
man can do for his culture when he is rich is
to endeavor to carry out those schemes
which he entertained when he was poor.
Christ answered the Herodians according
to their condition. "Show me the tribute-
money," said he--and one took a penny out
of his pocket--if you use money which has
the image of Caesar on it, and which he has
made current and valuable, that is, if you are
men of the State, and gladly enjoy the
advantages of Caesar's government, then
pay him back some of his own when he
demands it. "Render therefore to Caesar
that which is Caesar's and to God those
things which are God's"--leaving them no
wiser than before as to which was which;
for they did not wish to know.

When I converse with the freest of my
neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they
may say about the magnitude and
seriousness of the question, and their
regard for the public tranquillity, the long and
the short of the matter is, that they cannot
spare the protection of the existing
government, and they dread the
consequences to their property and families
of disobedience to it. For my own part, I
should not like to think that I ever rely on the
protection of the State. But, if I deny the
authority of the State when it presents its tax
bill, it will soon take and waste all my
property, and so harass me and my children
without end. This is hard. This makes it
impossible for a man to live honestly, and at
the same time comfortably, in outward
respects. It will not be worth the while to
accumulate property; that would be sure to
go again. You must hire or squat
somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and
eat that soon. You must live within yourself,
and depend upon yourself always tucked up
and ready for a start, and not have many

-8-

affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey
even, if he will be in all respects a good
subject of the Turkish government.
Confucius said: "If a state is governed by
the principles of reason, poverty and misery
are subjects of shame; if a state is not
governed by the principles of reason, riches
and honors are subjects of shame." No:
until I want the protection of Massachusetts
to be extended to me in some distant
Southern port, where my liberty is
endangered, or until I am bent solely on
building up an estate at home by peaceful
enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance
to Massachusetts, and her right to my
property and life. It costs me less in every
sense to incur the penalty of disobedience
to the State than it would to obey. I should
feel as if I were worth less in that case.

Some years ago, the State met me in behalf
of the Church, and commanded me to pay a
certain sum toward the support of a
clergyman whose preaching my father
attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it said,
"or be locked up in the jail." I declined to
pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit
to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster
should be taxed to support the priest, and
not the priest the schoolmaster; for I was not
the State's schoolmaster, but I supported
myself by voluntary subscription. I did not
see why the lyceum should not present its
tax bill, and have the State to back its
demand, as well as the Church. However,
as the request of the selectmen, I
condescended to make some such
statement as this in writing: "Know all men
by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do
not wish to be regarded as a member of any
society which I have not joined." This I gave
to the town clerk; and he has it. The State,
having thus learned that I did not wish to be
regarded as a member of that church, has
never made a like demand on me since;
though it said that it must adhere to its

original presumption that time. If I had
known how to name them, I should then
have signed off in detail from all the
societies which I never signed on to; but I
did not know where to find such a complete
list.

I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put
into a jail once on this account, for one
night; and, as I stood considering the walls
of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the
door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the
iron grating which strained the light, I could
not help being struck with the foolishness of
that institution which treated my as if I were
mere flesh and blood and bones, to be
locked up. I wondered that it should have
concluded at length that this was the best
use it could put me to, and had never
thought to avail itself of my services in some
way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone
between me and my townsmen, there was
a still more difficult one to climb or break
through before they could get to be as free
as I was. I did nor for a moment feel
confined, and the walls seemed a great
waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone
of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They
plainly did not know how to treat me, but
behaved like persons who are underbred. In
every threat and in every compliment there
was a blunder; for they thought that my chief
desire was to stand the other side of that
stone wall. I could not but smile to see how
industriously they locked the door on my
meditations, which followed them out again
without let or hindrance, and they were
really all that was dangerous. As they could
not reach me, they had resolved to punish
my body; just as boys, if they cannot come
at some person against whom they have a
spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State
was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone
woman with her silver spoons, and that it
did not know its friends from its foes, and I
lost all my remaining respect for it, and

-9-

pitied it.

Thus the state never intentionally confronts a
man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only
his body, his senses. It is not armed with
superior with or honesty, but with superior
physical strength. I was not born to be
forced. I will breathe after my own fashion.
Let us see who is the strongest. What force
has a multitude? They only can force me
who obey a higher law than I. They force me
to become like themselves. I do not hear of
men being forced to live this way or that by
masses of men. What sort of life were that to
live? When I meet a government which says
to me, "Your money our your life," why
should I be in haste to give it my money? It
may be in a great strait, and not know what
to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do
as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel
about it. I am not responsible for the
successful working of the machinery of
society. I am not the son of the engineer. I
perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut
fall side by side, the one does not remain
inert to make way for the other, but both
obey their own laws, and spring and grow
and flourish as best they can, till one,
perchance, overshadows and destroys the
other. If a plant cannot live according to
nature, it dies; and so a man.

The night in prison was novel and
interesting enough. The prisoners in their
shirtsleeves were enjoying a chat and the
evening air in the doorway, when I entered.
But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to
lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard
the sound of their steps returning into the
hollow apartments. My room-mate was
introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate
fellow and clever man." When the door was
locked, he showed me where to hang my
hat, and how he managed matters there.
The rooms were whitewashed once a
month; and this one, at least, was the

whitest, most simply furnished, and
probably neatest apartment in town. He
naturally wanted to know where I came
from, and what brought me there; and,
when I had told him, I asked him in my turn
how he came there, presuming him to be an
honest an, of course; and as the world
goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they
accuse me of burning a barn; but I never did
it." As near as I could discover, he had
probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk,
and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn
was burnt. He had the reputation of being a
clever man, had been there some three
months waiting for his trial to come on, and
would have to wait as much longer; but he
was quite domesticated and contented,
since he got his board for nothing, and
thought that he was well treated.

He occupied one window, and I the other;
and I saw that if one stayed there long, his
principal business would be to look out the
window. I had soon read all the tracts that
were left there, and examined where former
prisoners had broken out, and where a
grate had been sawed off, and heard the
history of the various occupants of that
room; for I found that even there there was a
history and a gossip which never circulated
beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is
the only house in the town where verses are
composed, which are afterward printed in a
circular form, but not published. I was
shown quite a long list of young men who
had been detected in an attempt to escape,
who avenged themselves by singing them.

I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I
could, for fear I should never see him again;
but at length he showed me which was my
bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.

It was like travelling into a far country, such
as I had never expected to behold, to lie
there for one night. It seemed to me that I

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never had heard the town clock strike
before, not the evening sounds of the
village; for we slept with the windows open,
which were inside the grating. It was to see
my native village in the light of the Middle
Ages, and our Concord was turned into a
Rhine stream, and visions of knights and
castles passed before me. They were the
voices of old burghers that I heard in the
streets. I was an involuntary spectator and
auditor of whatever was done and said in
the kitchen of the adjacent village inn--a
wholly new and rare experience to me. It
was a closer view of my native town. I was
fairly inside of it. I never had seen its
institutions before. This is one of its peculiar
institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to
comprehend what its inhabitants were
about.

In the morning, our breakfasts were put
through the hole in the door, in small oblong-
square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a
pint of chocolate, with brown bread, and an
iron spoon. When they called for the vessels
again, I was green enough to return what
bread I had left, but my comrade seized it,
and said that I should lay that up for lunch or
dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at
haying in a neighboring field, whither he
went every day, and would not be back till
noon; so he bade me good day, saying that
he doubted if he should see me again.

When I came out of prison--for some one
interfered, and paid that tax--I did not
perceive that great changes had taken
place on the common, such as he observed
who went in a youth and emerged a gray-
headed man; and yet a change had come to
my eyes come over the scene--the town,
and State, and country, greater than any that
mere time could effect. I saw yet more
distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to
what extent the people among whom I lived
could be trusted as good neighbors and

friends; that their friendship was for
summer weather only; that they did not
greatly propose to do right; that they were a
distinct race from me by their prejudices
and superstitions, as the Chinamen and
Malays are that in their sacrifices to
humanity they ran no risks, not even to their
property; that after all they were not so noble
but they treated the thief as he had treated
them, and hoped, by a certain outward
observance and a few prayers, and by
walking in a particular straight through
useless path from time to time, to save their
souls. This may be to judge my neighbors
harshly; for I believe that many of them are
not aware that they have such an institution
as the jail in their village.

It was formerly the custom in our village,
when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his
acquaintances to salute him, looking
through their fingers, which were crossed to
represent the jail window, "How do ye do?"
My neighbors did not this salute me, but first
looked at me, and then at one another, as if I
had returned from a long journey. I was put
into jail as I was going to the shoemaker's
to get a shoe which was mender. When I
was let out the next morning, I proceeded to
finish my errand, and, having put on my
mended show, joined a huckleberry party,
who were impatient to put themselves under
my conduct; and in half an hour--for the
horse was soon tackled--was in the midst
of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest
hills, two miles off, and then the State was
nowhere to be seen.

This is the whole history of "My Prisons."

I have never declined paying the highway
tax, because I am as desirous of being a
good neighbor as I am of being a bad
subject; and as for supporting schools, I am
doing my part to educate my fellow
countrymen now. It is for no particular item in

-11-

the tax bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish
to refuse allegiance to the State, to
withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually.
I do not care to trace the course of my dollar,
if I could, till it buys a man a musket to shoot
one with--the dollar is innocent--but I am
concerned to trace the effects of my
allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with
the State, after my fashion, though I will still
make use and get what advantages of her I
can, as is usual in such cases.

If others pay the tax which is demanded of
me, from a sympathy with the State, they do
but what they have already done in their own
case, or rather they abet injustice to a
greater extent than the State requires. If they
pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the
individual taxed, to save his property, or
prevent his going to jail, it is because they
have not considered wisely how far they let
their private feelings interfere with the
public good.

This, then is my position at present. But one
cannot be too much on his guard in such a
case, lest his actions be biased by
obstinacy or an undue regard for the
opinions of men. Let him see that he does
only what belongs to himself and to the hour.

I think sometimes, Why, this people mean
well, they are only ignorant; they would do
better if they knew how: why give your
neighbors this pain to treat you as they are
not inclined to? But I think again, This is no
reason why I should do as they do, or permit
others to suffer much greater pain of a
different kind. Again, I sometimes say to
myself, When many millions of men, without
heat, without ill will, without personal
feelings of any kind, demand of you a few
shillings only, without the possibility, such is
their constitution, of retracting or altering
their present demand, and without the
possibility, on your side, of appeal to any

other millions, why expose yourself to this
overwhelming brute force? You do not resist
cold and hunger, the winds and the waves,
thus obstinately; you quietly submit to a
thousand similar necessities. You do not put
your head into the fire. But just in proportion
as I regard this as not wholly a brute force,
but partly a human force, and consider that I
have relations to those millions as to so
many millions of men, and not of mere brute
or inanimate things, I see that appeal is
possible, first and instantaneously, from
them to the Maker of them, and, secondly,
from them to themselves. But if I put my
head deliberately into the fire, there is no
appeal to fire or to the Maker for fire, and I
have only myself to blame. If I could
convince myself that I have any right to be
satisfied with men as they are, and to treat
them accordingly, and not according, in
some respects, to my requisitions and
expectations of what they and I ought to be,
then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I
should endeavor to be satisfied with things
as they are, and say it is the will of God.
And, above all, there is this difference
between resisting this and a purely brute or
natural force, that I can resist this with some
effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to
change the nature of the rocks and trees
and beasts.

I do not wish to quarrel with any man or
nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make
fine distinctions, or set myself up as better
than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say,
even an excuse for conforming to the laws
of the land. I am but too ready to conform to
them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect
myself on this head; and each year, as the
tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself
disposed to review the acts and position of
the general and State governments, and the
spirit of the people to discover a pretext for
conformity.

-12-

"We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate Out love or
industry from doing it honor, We must
respect effects and teach the soul Matter of
conscience and religion, And not desire of
rule or benefit."

I believe that the State will soon be able to
take all my work of this sort out of my hands,
and then I shall be no better patriot than my
fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point
of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is
very good; the law and the courts are very
respectable; even this State and this
American government are, in many
respects, very admirable, and rare things,
to be thankful for, such as a great many
have described them; seen from a higher
still, and the highest, who shall say what
they are, or that they are worth looking at or
thinking of at all?

However, the government does not concern
me much, and I shall bestow the fewest
possible thoughts on it. It is not many
moments that I live under a government,
even in this world. If a man is thought-free,
fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is
not never for a long time appearing to be to
him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot
fatally interrupt him.

I know that most men think differently from
myself; but those whose lives are by
profession devoted to the study of these or
kindred subjects content me as little as any.
Statesmen and legislators, standing so
completely within the institution, never
distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak
of moving society, but have no resting-
place without it. They may be men of a
certain experience and discrimination, and
have no doubt invented ingenious and even
useful systems, for which we sincerely
thank them; but all their wit and usefulness
lie within certain not very wide limits. They

are wont to forget that the world is not
governed by policy and expediency.
Webster never goes behind government,
and so cannot speak with authority about it.
His words are wisdom to those legislators
who contemplate no essential reform in the
existing government; but for thinkers, and
those who legislate for all tim, he never
once glances at the subject. I know of those
whose serene and wise speculations on
this theme would soon reveal the limits of
his mind's range and hospitality. Yet,
compared with the cheap professions of
most reformers, and the still cheaper
wisdom an eloquence of politicians in
general, his are almost the only sensible
and valuable words, and we thank Heaven
for him. Comparatively, he is always strong,
original, and, above all, practical. Still, his
quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The
lawyer's truth is not Truth, but consistency or
a consistent expediency. Truth is always in
harmony with herself, and is not concerned
chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist
with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be
called, as he has been called, the Defender
of the Constitution. There are really no
blows to be given him but defensive ones.
He is not a leader, but a follower. His
leaders are the men of '87. "I have never
made an effort," he says, "and never
propose to make an effort; I have never
countenanced an effort, and never mean to
countenance an effort, to disturb the
arrangement as originally made, by which
various States came into the Union." Still
thinking of the sanction which the
Constitution gives to slavery, he says,
"Because it was part of the original
compact--let it stand." Notwithstanding his
special acuteness and ability, he is unable
to take a fact out of its merely political
relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely
to be disposed of by the intellect--what, for
instance, it behooves a man to do here in
American today with regard to slavery--but

-13-

ventures, or is driven, to make some such
desperate answer to the following, while
professing to speak absolutely, and as a
private man--from which what new and
singular of social duties might be inferred?
"The manner," says he, "in which the
governments of the States where slavery
exists are to regulate it is for their own
consideration, under the responsibility to
their constituents, to the general laws of
propriety, humanity, and justice, and to
God. Associations formed elsewhere,
springing from a feeling of humanity, or any
other cause, have nothing whatever to do
with it. They have never received any
encouragement from me and they never
will. [These extracts have been inserted
since the lecture was read -HDT]

They who know of no purer sources of truth,
who have traced up its stream no higher,
stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and
the Constitution, and drink at it there with
reverence and humanity; but they who
behold where it comes trickling into this lake
or that pool, gird up their loins once more,
and continue their pilgrimage toward its
fountainhead.

No man with a genius for legislation has
appeared in America. They are rare in the
history of the world. There are orators,
politicians, and eloquent men, by the
thousand; but the speaker has not yet
opened his mouth to speak who is capable
of settling the much-vexed questions of the
day. We love eloquence for its own sake,
and not for any truth which it may utter, or
any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators
have not yet learned the comparative value
of free trade and of freed, of union, and of
rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius
or talent for comparatively humble
questions of taxation and finance,
commerce and manufactures and
agriculture. If we were left solely to the

wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our
guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable
experience and the effectual complaints of
the people, America would not long retain
her rank among the nations. For eighteen
hundred years, though perchance I have no
right to say it, the New Testament has been
written; yet where is the legislator who has
wisdom and practical talent enough to avail
himself of the light which it sheds on the
science of legislation.

The authority of government, even such as I
am willing to submit to--for I will cheerfully
obey those who know and can do better
than I, and in many things even those who
neither know nor can do so well--is still an
impure one: to be strictly just, it must have
the sanction and consent of the governed. It
can have no pure right over my person and
property but what I concede to it. The
progress from an absolute to a limited
monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a
democracy, is a progress toward a true
respect for the individual. Even the Chinese
philosopher was wise enough to regard the
individual as the basis of the empire. Is a
democracy, such as we know it, the last
improvement possible in government? Is it
not possible to take a step further towards
recognizing and organizing the rights of
man? There will never be a really free and
enlightened State until the State comes to
recognize the individual as a higher and
independent power, from which all its own
power and authority are derived, and treats
him accordingly. I please myself with
imagining a State at last which can afford to
be just to all men, and to treat the individual
with respect as a neighbor; which even
would not think it inconsistent with its own
repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not
meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who
fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and
fellow men. A State which bore this kind of
fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it

-14-

ripened, would prepare the way for a still
more perfect and glorious State, which I
have also imagined, but not yet anywhere
seen.

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