——亨利·梭罗
我衷心接受这句名言：“管得越少的政府，就越是好政府。”我也十分希望看到这句话被迅速、系统地实施。如果该思想被彻底实施，最终将会得到大约这样一个结果：“什么都不管的政府，便是最好的政府。”这也是我坚信的。当人们准备好接受它时，这便会成为人们将拥有的那种社会管理模式。政府至多算某种权宜，可带来方便，但大部分政府通常、所有的政府有时都不带来方便。我们一直以来谴责常备军。常备军人数众多，机构繁冗，好采用暴力，所以反对声此起彼伏本为理所应当。到最后，我们也许会发现这些谴责会指向常设政府，常备军只是政府的一条手臂而已。政府本身是一种形式，一种人民选举出来执行自己意志的形式，但当人民需要它执行民意时，它却像常备军一样可能被人利用，甚至滥用。看看现在正在进行的美墨战争 吧，它正是相对少数人利用政府工具的杰作，因为从一开始，人民就不同意这种做法。
现在的美国政府是过去留下来的，但是历史不长 。它始终在努力要把自己完整地传递给下一代，但实际上每一刻它都在丢失一些东西，不能让自己完好无损。它本身不像一个活人那样充满生机和力量，因为一个人可以用自己的意志来控制自己。对人民来说，政府倒更像是一杆木枪。虽然如此，它却并非完全不必要，人民总是需要这样一种复杂的大机器，听一听它的噪音，以此满足他们对“社会管理秩序” 的想法。这样一来，政府们的优势便显露出来，展示出它们是多么有能力去指挥国民，欺骗自己，只为了一己私利。这样当然很好，我们也必须接受。但是，这个政府却从未想过促进任何事业的发展，而是身手敏捷地走偏了。它不去促进国家的自由，也不去稳定西部的骚乱，更不好好以身作则教化国民。美国人天生自带的性格，创造了美国人现在所有的成就，但如果没有政府干扰，他们还会做得更多。政府作为表达人民意愿的一种工具，是一种可提供便利的权宜工具，人们非常乐意通过它保持彼此独立。但正如我从前所说，当政府最大限度地行使权宜时，它就最大限度地独立了。贸易和商业若不是像印度橡胶一样有足够的弹性，就无法跳过立法者们不断设下的一道道障碍。如果我们根据立法者给我们带来的后果进行判断，而不是根据他们的意图，那他们真应当同那些把障碍物放到铁轨上的调皮捣蛋者一样，受到同样的惩罚。
但是，作为一个公民，如实地讲，我并不完全赞同那些自称无政府主义者的人，比起无政府，我更赞同有一个好政府。让每个人都说明什么样的政府会赢得他们的尊重，这将是政府走向成功的第一步。
毕竟存在现实原因。为什么人民一旦掌握权力，便会立刻同意由多数人来进行统治，并持续统治很长时间？多数人进行统治，并不是因为他们喜欢权力，也不是因为这对少数群体来说似乎最公平，而是因为，他们是最强大的。但是，在诸多政府形式中，由多数人进行管理的政府在很多时候也是有失公平的，甚至超乎理解地不公。那么，能不能有这样一种政府，对于一件事情的对错，不是完全由强势多数的意志决定的，而是以道德为标准去评判？能不能有这样一种政府，强势多数只决定那些可以根据权宜 原则进行管理的问题？难道公民在某个时刻必须让良心在立法者面前止步？良心是一丝一毫都不得违反的啊！如果可以违反，人们还要良心做什么！我想，我们首先要明确：我们首先是“个人”，然后才是“臣民”。遵守法律就是对正义的尊敬，这种思想并不值得大力提倡。但是，无论何时，只要是我认为是正义的事情，我都有义务去做。群体是没有道德的，这话说得贴切，但若群体由道德高尚的人组成，群体便有了道德。法律并不让人正义，一丝一毫都不会，法律只是让人服从自己，所以，一个最善良的人，也可能因为严格遵守法律而成为不公的代言人 。那么，对法律的绝对遵守一般会得到何种自然结果呢？你也许看见过一队士兵，上校、上尉、班长、士兵、军火搬运工……所有人整齐划一地行军，跨过高山，穿过溪流，奔向战场。这其实并不是他们内心的意愿，甚至有悖常识和道德，所以，这是一种相当危险的行军，让他们每个人都心惊肉跳。对于他们来说，自己的行动只是一纸军令，是该死的公事，他们在内心深处都是渴望和平的。那么，他们算什么，还是人吗？或许他们只是移动的堡垒、弹盒，在为某些不择手段的掌权者效劳？参观一下海军造船厂，盯着某个水兵，你就知道，这正是美国政府的产物，或者说只有美国政府可以施这妖术把一个人变成这样。我们在这个海军身上看不到一点点人性的影子或记忆。他只是被安排在外面站岗的人，活着。而有人说得好：他其实早就带着陪葬物，埋在武器堆里了，不过也可能是：
没有一声送别的锣鼓，没有讣告，
当他的尸体被草草埋进“堡垒”，
没有一个士兵为他鸣枪送别，
在我们的英雄埋葬的坟前。
大批的人不是作为“人”在为这个国家尽忠，而是作为肉体机器。这就是常备军、民兵、狱卒、警察、临时兵团等。在多数情况下，他们根本无法运用自己的道德感和判断力，他们把自己降格成为木头、泥土或石头。也许可以大批量制造木头人，来达到同样的目的。如此，这些人就像卑微的稻草或是一块肮脏的烂泥，还需要什么尊严呢？他们的价值充其量就是一匹马或是一条狗。然而，正是他们这样的人被普遍认为是良民。其他的那些议员、政客、律师、外交官、高官，用他们的头脑服务国家，却毫无道德观念，可能为魔鬼服务却浑然不知，就好像魔鬼才是他们的上帝。还有另外一小部分人——英雄、爱国者、烈士、广义上的改革家和其他用良知为这个国家服务的人——往往都在抵制这些行径，所以统统被它视为敌人。智慧的人要有所作为，必须首先作为“人”存在，不应被降低成一块“泥巴”，只为“挡住墙上的风洞” 。当他脱离世俗、尘归尘土归土时可以说：
我生来高贵，故受不得奴役，
我不比任何人低也不受制于任何人，
我不是有用的仆人和工具，
不为世界上任何一个帝国服务。
有的人把自己的一切全部奉献给了他的同胞，却仿佛被人们认为无用、自私；有的人只奉献了一点点，却被高歌为恩人、慈善家。
对待当今的美国政府，我们应该采取什么样的态度才算正直之人呢？我回答：和它有任何关系都使人蒙羞。如果它同时是奴隶们的政府 ，我怎能承认这个政治机构是我的政府？要我成为这样的政府的臣民，我一秒钟都不愿意。
所有人都承认革命权的存在，即当暴政或无能甚巨，超出人们的忍耐极限时，人们有权拒绝效忠并抵制政府。但几乎所有人都认为至少现在的情形还不至如此，而1775年的那场革命 才适用。有人可能会告诉我说：政府对运进本国港口的特定进口商品征税所以它是个坏政府，如果问题那么简单，我就不会无事生非、大惊小怪了，因为不用进口商品我也照样活得挺好。
所有的机器运转起来都会有摩擦，有的摩擦甚至可以弄拙成巧，其益处抵消了其弊端。不管怎样，要是有人揪住摩擦不放大做文章，则罪不可赦。但当摩擦的力量大到控制机器，出现系统性的压迫和掠夺，那么我说，这样的机器我们不要也罢；换言之，当一个国家打着自由国度的幌子，而其六分之一的人口却是奴隶，而一个国家 全境都被一支侵略军霸占，被不公地蹂躏，被军法统治，以我个人所见，就算是老实人，现在就反叛和起义都绝对不算早。使该义务更加急迫的是这个事实：这个饱受蹂躏的国家不是我们的国家，但侵略军却是我们自己的。
佩利 ，公共权威，在道德问题上著述颇丰，在他的文章《论公民的服从义务》中，他将所有公民责任都解释为“权宜”，并接着解释说：“只要整个社会的利益需要它，也就是说，只要抵制或改变所建立的政府会引起公众不便，那么上帝的意志便是：遵从既定政府。”一旦认同这个原则，判断每个具体的抵制案例是否正义，便简单多了，也就是一方面计算现存的危险和伤痛的数量，另一方面计算成功的可能性和矫正这些危险和伤痛的代价。他说：这样一来，每个人都可以自己进行判断。但佩利似乎从来没有考虑过不适用权宜规则的情况：当一个民族或个人必须伸张正义时，无论代价是什么。如果我昧着良心从一个快要溺水的人手里夺下一块救命的木板，那么，即使我会死去，也必须把木板还给他。根据佩利的观点，这是不对的。但是，在这种情况下，想自救的人才应当毙命。这个民族必须停止蓄奴，必须停止征伐墨西哥，即使那样会让这个民族消亡。
各国在行动上支持佩利的观点，但人们真的认为在当前这个危机时刻，马萨诸塞州的做法是正确的吗？
一个装腔作势的娼妓，穿着银灰色外衣的荡妇，
无论如何挺直身体的线条，她的灵魂都在肮脏的泥里拖行。
说实话，反对马萨诸塞州改革的，并不是成千上万的南方政治家们，而是千千万万的奴隶贩子和农场主们，他们对商业和农业的兴趣远大于对人性的关注，准备付出任何代价都要死守阵地，继续非正义地对待奴隶和墨西哥。我的论战对象不是遥远的敌人，而是那些在家里穿戴整齐、和远处的敌人合作或指挥他们的人，若没有这些人的存在，我远处的那些敌人本是无害的。我们习惯地认为，改革发展得这么慢，是因为大多数人还没有准备好，而且统治阶层那一小部分人，并不比被统治的民众有实质上的智慧优势或别的优势。很多人是不是像你一样优秀没那么重要，重要的是，世界的某个地方一定存在着某种绝对的善 ，这种善会让整个面团发酵成功。
有成千上万的人一边反对奴隶制、反对战争，一边几乎不做任何事情去结束它们；他们以华盛顿和富兰克林的子孙自居，却稳稳地坐着，双手插兜，说不知道该做什么，所以什么也不做；他们甚至先谈自由贸易的问题，而把自由本身推后；在茶余饭后，他们一边阅读行市价格表，一边看着从墨西哥传来的最新建议，然后，可能就进入了梦乡，枕着价格表和那些建议。那么今天，正直之人和爱国者的市价又是多少呢？面对这个问题，他们迟疑了，后悔了，有时也请愿，但他们总不愿积极地做些什么，做了也没啥效果。他们会等待，端庄地坐着等待，等待有一天别人消除邪恶，这样他们就不用继续后悔了。而现在，他们顶多会上交一张廉价的选票以示微乎其微的抗议，或对正义表示微弱的支持与良好的祝愿，他们也就这样了。当一个道德完善的人出现，就会出现999个人拥护美德。但是，和一件东西的真正主人打交道，比起和它的暂时保管者打交道来说，要容易得多。
所有的投票都是一种赌博，虽然牵涉道德问题，但其实就像赌博，获胜不需要什么道德，只涉及到你是不是下对了赌注。投票者的品行不会掺杂在赌局中，人们又不用道德下注。我投了选票给我认为可能正确的那方，但我并不十分关心我的这个正确选择是否会获胜，我更愿意把它留给多数派去决定。因此，投票的责任，从来都没有超过权宜 的范围。即使人们是为正义投票的，也没有为正义做任何事情，它只是用微弱的声音告诉人们，你希望这一方获胜。一个智者是不会允许正义任由几率摆布的，也不会寄希望于通过多数派的力量使之获胜。在群体行为中没有什么美德可言。将来有一天，强势多数最终还是会投票废除奴隶制的，原因可能是他们对奴隶制已经漠不关心，或是因为奴隶制已经自然衰落到所剩不多，那就索性投票完全废除吧。最后，他们却成了唯一的奴隶。只有扔掉选票以保自由的人，其选票才能真正加速奴隶制的废除。
我听说在巴尔的摩港还是哪里，举行了一场推选总统候选人的大会，参会人员主要是编辑 或职业政客。但是我想，他们决定推举谁，对那些独立、明智、受人尊敬的人来说又能算什么呢？难道，我们不能利用自己的智慧和诚实？我们不能指望有独立的选票吗？这个州里有很多人都没去参加大会啊！但是，不，我发现，所有值得尊敬的人们——暂时这么叫吧——刚一起身投票，就会对自己的国家绝望，同时国家有更多的理由不对他们寄予什么希望。这样的大会选出了候选人，值得尊敬的人则迅速从这些候选人中选出一个来，因为只有这么几个人可选。这就证明了值得尊敬的人们，只能是被煽动的对象和达成某些人特定目的的工具。他的投票不具有任何价值，充其量还不如一个没什么原则的外国人，或者被买通了的本国人的选票。我的邻居说：一个真正有骨气的人，一个真正的人，怎会受别人的左右！我们的统计数字出了错误：选票数量大大超过了实际人口数。在美国，平均一千平方米有多少人？几乎不到一人。难道美国就不愿给人一个愿意在此定居的借口吗？美国人已经堕落成一个怪物救济会了 ——以交际器官发达 著称，却明显缺乏智慧和乐观自主精神。他们来到这个世界上的首要、主要目的就是保证救济院管理有序，发展良好，于是一身正义的打扮，为救济那些孤儿寡妇四处筹钱；总之，活着就是冒险，只能靠互助保险公司帮忙才能存活，因为保险公司答应他们不会死得很不体面。
自然，为了消除任何恶——甚至大恶——奉献自己，不是个人的职责，或许他还有其他正经事忙着去做。但是，他至少应当完全和它划清界限，这便是他的职责，根本不去思考它，因为思考它就是给了它实际上的支持。如果让我投身于某种追求或某种思想，我首先要确定自己不是在跟随别人的意志，坐在别人的肩膀上进行思考。我必须离开这个人，这样他也能自己追求自己的思考。让我们看看多大的不协调同时共存吧。 我曾听一位同乡说：“我倒想让人们命令我去镇压一场奴隶暴乱，或是加入到对墨西哥的战争中去，等着看，看我会不会去！”这些人反对奴隶制和墨西哥战争，但正是这些人，直接用他们的效忠、间接用他们的税钱，找了别人代替自己去镇压奴隶、去向墨西哥开火。有一种士兵是我们大加赞赏的，他们拒绝参战任何一场非正义的战争，鼓掌的正是那些从不拒绝供养挑起不正义战争的政府的人们，正是那些行为上和权威上都被这个士兵漠视甚至蔑视的人们。好像这个国家会悔过当初，所以雇了一个人，当它一做错就鞭打它，但它却从未有一刻让悔恨阻止自己犯罪。这样，在秩序和国民政府的名义下，我们最终等于被迫尊敬并支持了自己的卑贱。羞愧之色一闪而过，无动于衷立刻取而代之；从对道德的漠视，变成了不道德，道德对我们已经过成这样的生活来说，本就不那么必需。
最盛行的错误影响也最广泛，只有最无私的美德才能支持它的传播。爱国主义美德常引起轻声的责备，越高尚的人们越容易这样做。有些人不赞成政府的品德和策略，却依旧效忠并支持它，所以无疑是它最忠实的支持者，所以是改革最大的障碍。一些人向州政府请愿，请求解散联邦政府，请求不遵从总统的意志。为什么他们不自己解散，解散自己和州的关系，拒绝向州库交纳钱财？他们和州政府的关系，不正像州与联邦的关系吗？州不能抵制联邦的理由，不正是他们不能抵制州的理由吗？
懂了这些就满足了吗，还蛮开心的？他明知自己受到了侵害，那还有任何开心可言？如果你被邻居骗了一美元，知道你被骗了就够了，不用行动了？或是到处去说你被骗了，或反复请求他把钱还给你，这就算完了？你会尽全力讨回你的一切，并保证永远不会再次上当。正确地认识和行使正义，并按原则行动，会大大改变事物和事物间的关系。行动本身，从本质上讲就是革命性的，把任何旧事物抛诸脑后。行动，不仅将各州分开，将教会分开，也分离家庭；它也分离个人，把恶魔从他的身体中驱逐，只留下真善美。
存在不公正的法律，那么，我们应当去遵守它们，还是努力去完善它们，等它们成功完善后才遵守？或者干脆现在就对它们置之不理？一般人在这个政府体制下，通常认为应该先等一等，等到说服大多数人投票修改法律。他们还认为，如果抵抗，那药方就比恶疾本身更邪恶了。但导致药方比恶疾更邪恶的，正是这个政府本身的错，是它把一切搞得更糟了。为什么它不能有点预见性，并为改革提供帮助呢？它为什么不能珍惜智慧的少数人呢？它为什么还没受到伤害就开始大叫并反抗？它为什么不鼓励它的臣民纠正它的缺点，既然自己没有纠正好？它为什么总是把基督钉在十字架上，把哥白尼和伽利略驱逐出教会，宣布华盛顿和富兰克林为叛徒？
人们可能会想到，故意挑衅权威的行为，是政府唯一没有明确定罪的罪行。但是，为什么没有明确而适当的相应处罚呢？如果一个人分文未有，并拒绝向本州交纳9先令的税款，据我所知的法律，他就要被关进大牢，时间多久就不好说了，这要由把他送进大牢的那伙人决定。但是如果他在州里交高于9先令90倍的钱，他很快就会被释放，不管这钱是偷来的还是抢来的。
如果不正义是政府机器必定要产生的摩擦，无法避免，那么，随它去吧，不管了；可能有一天它会磨合好的——当然，也可能有一天它终会磨坏。如果不公正不是机器的摩擦，而是专门配有弹簧、滑轮、绳子或曲柄，这时，你就要考虑是否药方并不比恶疾更糟了。但是，如果性质变成这样，就需要你不公正地对待别人 ，这可如何是好？我说：不遵守那法律就好了。让你的生命成为反摩擦力，停止机器的运转。不管怎样，我要保证自己不会随波逐流，不会把力气用在助长自己所唾弃的不公正上。
至于州政府提出的那些修正错误的方法，我还真不看好。那些方法要花费太久的时间，以至于超过了人们一生的时间。我还有其他的事情要做。我来到这个世界上，首要的任务不是要把世界变成一个适宜生活的好地方，而是要先活着，不管好与坏。一个人不能把所有的事情都做了，能做的只有某些事情。正因为他不是每件事情都能做，所以也没有必要向州长或立法者请愿，就像州长和议员们不必向我请愿一样。而且，如果他们不听我的请愿，我该怎么办呢？这种情况下，州政府没有提供解决方式。所以，出问题的其实正是宪法体制，它是罪恶本身。这听起来好像太激进、太固执、太严厉了，但对待这样的宪法体制，这是最斟酌、最温和也是唯一可用的精神了，政府的态度应该是感激与接收。凡是改变，方向都是向上的，如同出生与死亡 时身体的颤抖。
我毫不犹豫地说，那些宣称要废除奴隶制的人们，对马萨诸塞州给予个人形式和物质上的所有支持，应该马上统统停止并撤回，而不要等废奴势力成为大势后投票解决。那种权利是痛苦的。我想，只要上帝与他们并肩，这就足够了，不用等什么多数投票之类的了吧！而且，一个比邻居们正义得多的人，本身一个人就是大多数了。
我每年都会和美国政府，或者它的代表州政府，有一次面对面直接接触的机会，就是和收税官打交道。他是像我这样的地位的人，唯一必须和政府打交道的形式。政府有它明确的态度：“承认我。”在这种情形下处理这种事情，要表达你的不满和讨厌的情感，最有效、最简单的必经之途，就是否定它的存在。我的一个公仆邻居，也就是那个收税官，正是我要用这种方式对待的人。毕竟我要反对的不是一张没有思想的羊皮纸，而是人。这个自愿当了政府代表的人，为政府效力。作为一个政府官员，他会认为我是个疯子，一个扰乱治安的人；作为一个人，他应该把我当成他所尊敬的邻居，和一个好人。如果他不能在两者之间权衡，就不能有所领悟，就无法克服障碍成为亲切有爱的人，言语和善，不出现过激的想法并言行一致。我很明白：如果我认识的人中有一千个人、一百个人、十个人——即使只有十个诚实的人，或只有一个诚实的人在马萨诸塞州解散奴隶，并因为实际上停止了和政府在奴隶方面的合谋被关进大牢，这也可以说是美国已经开始废除奴隶制了。因为不管开始多么微小，只要做了，就永远有效果。但我们更喜欢谈论，谈论说废奴是我们的使命。有很多报纸在为改革服务，但没有一个人。就拿我令人尊敬的邻居来说，他是本州的大使，宁愿黑天白昼地致力于在议会大厅解决人权问题，也不愿冒可能被关进卡罗莱纳州监狱的风险。马萨诸塞州迫切地想把奴隶制的罪名嫁祸在这个邻州上，虽然它发现只有一些不友善的行为可以作为争吵的理由。我想，只要这个大人物愿意坐在马萨诸塞州监狱里，立法院第二个冬天就不会再继续回避讨论奴隶制的问题了。
如果一个政府出现非法关押，那么，正义的人的正确归宿便是监狱。马萨诸塞州为崇尚自由和不那么沮丧的人们，准备的最合适的地方就是监狱了，它亲自将这些人驱逐出境，或者关起来，而他们实际上早就根据自己的原则进行自我放逐了。这里有逃亡的奴隶、被假释的墨西哥囚徒，要为自己的部落洗刷冤屈的印第安人有幸会在牢房中遇到他们。那是一片虽被隔绝却开满了自由与尊严之花的乐园。在这里，马萨诸塞州政府放置不同意见者，把反对自己的人关进监狱，而就是这里，却成了这个盛行奴隶制的州里唯一一个后花园，崇尚自由的人们可以有尊严地继续。如果有人认为，这些人的影响消失在那里了，他们的声音不会搅得当权者的耳朵不得安宁了，他们在围墙内就不再是敌人了，那就大错特错了。人们不知道和错误比起来，真理的力量有多么强大，他们也不知道，经历过些许不公的人，当不公再次出现时会变得多么有力量和有效果。扔掉你的投票权吧，不只是那张纸，而是扔掉你的全部影响。面对多数，少数无力反抗，只能服从，这样就连少数也算不上了。但当少数使出全力去反抗时却能战无不胜。如果在这两个选项——把全部的正义之人都送入监狱，或放弃战争和奴隶制——之间选择一个的话，州政府会毫不犹豫地做出选择。如果有一千人今年都拒绝交税，这就不是血腥和暴力的措施了。而我们交了税，州政府就有能力实施暴力，出现无辜的鲜血。这就是“和平革命”的定义，如果和平革命是可能的。如果税收官，或其他任何公共官员问我，正如一个人已经这样问过：“我该做点什么？”我回答说：“如果你真的希望做点什么的话，就辞职吧。”当国民拒绝效忠，官员已经辞职，和平革命就完成了。良心受伤了也会流血吧。这种创伤，会剥夺一个人真正的气概，生命随着鲜血流淌，直至精神上的死亡。我现在就看到这种鲜血在不停地流淌。
我曾经目睹一位犯人的关押，而不是没收他的财产（虽然关押和没收财产的目的是一样的），因为坚持最纯真正义的人们，也就是通常对腐败州政府最危险的人，往往没有聚集起过多少财富。使人们富裕起来，政府到从来没用过什么心思，所以一项它觉得非常小的税项，在人们看来都像抢劫，尤其是人们交不起就必须得用双手去进行特殊劳动时 。即使一个人完全靠自给自足，从来没用过钱这种东西，州府也从不犹豫地叫他必须交税。但是富人——这不是在做恶毒的比较——常把自己出卖给那些能使他致富的机构。肯定地说，金钱越多，美德越少；因为金钱连接人与欲望，使人们获得自己想要的东西，而获得金钱也不需要什么美德。钱拿出来，征税官就不会问东问西，没钱的话，无数问题就蜂拥而至了。然而一个新的问题出现了，多余且难以回答，就是怎么花的。这样，有钱人的道德根基就从他的脚下被挖了出来。当所谓赚钱的手段增多时，生活的机会便随之减小。当一个人变得富有，他能为自己的心灵做得最好的一件事，就是完成他做穷人时的美好的愿望。希律王的一个爪牙对耶稣说：“给我贡钱。”他从口袋里拿出一个硬币，接着说：如果你使用这个带有恺撒头像的钱，那就说明你属于这个国家，并享受恺撒的政府带来的好处，那么当恺撒要求时，你就该还给恺撒本属于他的东西，因为正是恺撒使得这些硬币可以流通并有价值。根据当时的情景，基督回答：“把恺撒的东西还给恺撒，把上帝的东西还给上帝。”但希律王的收税官们的智慧并未开光，不知道他到底在说什么，因为他们不想知道他在说什么。
当我和邻居中最向往自由的人们交谈时，我意识到，尽管他们或许谈论到了问题的重要性和严重性，对社会公共稳定表示关注，但关键是他们不能没有当局政府的保护，他们害怕违背政府的后果可能会危及到他的财产和家庭。从我的角度来说，我从不认为我需要来自政府的任何形式的保护。但是，当政府要我交税而我拒交时，我的钱财才会迅速被政府夺走或浪费掉，我和我的家人才将永无安宁之日。生活真艰难，诚实的人要在物质上过上舒服的生活是一件几乎不可能的事。积攒财富是一件划不来的事情，因为说不定哪天你可能又会失去它。所以，你只能受雇于人或蹲在某个地方种一点儿庄稼，赶紧吃完。你必须生活在自己的小天地里，蓄势待发，随时准备好重新开始，所以不能有太多的事情，免得累赘。即使在土耳其，人们也能致富，只要他成为土耳其政府无可挑剔的好臣民。正如孔子所言：“邦有道，贫且贱焉，耻也；邦无道，富且贵焉，耻也。”我断然说不：我绝对不会效忠马萨诸塞州，它无权支配我的财产和生命，除非我的自由在遥远的南部港口受到威胁，而需要求助于马萨诸塞州政府为我提供保护，或者当我一门心思只想通过默默辛劳和正当手段挣钱创一番事业。从各个方面来说，不服从州政府会带来的处罚，都小于忠于它的代价。如果效忠它，我就会感觉自己的价值减少了。
几年前，州政府代表教会来到我这里，要我交一笔钱来支持一位牧师，我父亲参加过他的传教会，但我从来没有去过。税单上写着：“不交就关起来！”我拒绝交付，但很不幸，收税官觉得我应当交。我不明白，为什么教师要交税支持牧师，而不是牧师交税给教师。我不是州立学校的教师，但我接受别人的自主捐赠并以此过活。我不明白，学校为什么不能让州政府支持，为学校捐税，就像对教会那样。我不愿交税，所以在被选出的说客们的要求下，我不得不屈尊写下了这样一段声明：“谨以此言向大家保证：我本人，亨利•梭罗，没参加过任何社会团体，所以不希望任何人把我看作任何团体的一份子。”这份声明我交给了镇上的文书，他现在还保管着呢。这样一来，政府便知道了我不想成为教会的一员，虽然它表示还是要坚持他们最初的假设，但从那时起，它再也没有对我提出过类似要求了。如果我能知道所有社会团体的名称，我就会一一写上，以示我不是任何团体的成员，只可惜我不知道上哪儿去找这样一份清单。
我拒交人头税已有六年了，还因此在监狱里待了一晚。当我打量着四周两三英尺厚的石墙，一英尺厚的包满了铁皮的木门，还有密不透光的铁栅栏，我被震撼到了，被这个制度的愚蠢，它对待我的方式，仿佛只把我当成一个血肉之躯，可以锁起来。我不知道他们是否想过要利用我做什么事，还是他们最终得出结论，这是处置我的最佳方式。我知道，如果一堵厚厚的石墙把我和我的邻居朋友们隔开，那么还有一堵无形的墙把自由的我和不自由的他们隔开，而无形的墙则更难爬过，更难穿破。对我来说，肉身的监禁根本不算监禁，它毫无作用，这些墙只是一种浪费水泥、浪费砖头的行为。我此时的感觉是，整个城镇只有我一个人交了税。他们很头疼，不知道该怎样对付像我这样的人，他们的行为举止一看就像那种很没教养的人。在他们的威胁或赞美中，都存在着一个错误，即他们认为我最大的愿望就是从监狱中释放。我笑着看他们费心地把牢门锁好，想要锁住我的思考。但我的思绪进出自由，没有任何东西能够阻碍，不需要得到任何人的允许，这才是真正危险的，是锁不住的。当他们无法触及我的思想，就只能惩罚我的身体；这种做法就和小孩子一样，如果他们无法反抗他们讨厌的人，就会去打骂他的狗。我发现我们的州政府是多么愚蠢，它就像一个继承了万贯家财的女人，胆小、孤独，不知道谁是朋友谁是敌人。我丧失了对它仅存的敬意，开始可怜它。
这个州从来没打算去面对人的智慧和道德，只把人看做知道疼痛的躯体，和人的五官打交道。它没有用更高的智慧或道德武装自己，而是用武力。我不是为服从而生的。我按照自己的方式呼吸。让我们看看谁才是最强大的。大部分人都那样做，我就要照做吗？群体有什么力量？我遵循自己的原则。那些遵循更加高尚的原则的人，可以使我屈服，他们可以使我变得和他们一样。但我从没听说过人必须按照主流的活法生活。那样还叫活着吗？当我遇到一个政府官员对我说：“交钱还是交命？” 难道这样我就要急忙交钱吗？也许政府正处在困境中，不知如何是好，但我也帮不上忙。它必须学会自救，就像我帮助自己一样。出现困难，并不值得哭鼻子。我没有责任为社会机器的顺利运转负责，因为我不是工程师的儿子。据我观察，当一颗橡果和一颗栗子同时落地，挨在一起，它们谁也不会为谁让路，它们都遵循自己的法则，竭尽全力地发芽、生长、繁荣，直到也许其中一棵影响了另一棵的生长，甚至使得它死掉。如果植物不能按照自然规律生长，它就会死，人也是一样。
监狱的夜晚新奇而有趣。我进去的时候，人们穿着狱服，正依着门口闲聊，享受着夜晚的空气。狱卒很不识趣地说：“进来吧，伙计们，该锁门了。”于是他们便各分散了，留下的是他们回去空屋子的脚步声。狱卒这样介绍我的室友：“一流好人，且很聪明。”当牢门锁上，他指给我挂帽子的地方，并告诉我他是怎么样在这里过的。这里的房间，一个月粉刷一次，而我们那个房间尤其好，应当是最白的一个了，配备非常简单，看起来像是全镇最整洁的房间。很自然地，他问我从哪里来，怎么坐牢的，我都告诉他了，也反问了他同样的问题。我当然假设他是一个诚实的人，永远相信他说的都是实话。他说：“哎，他们控告我点燃了粮仓，可我根本就没有。”最终我发现，可能他喝醉后在粮仓里睡着了，抽了一袋烟，结果粮仓烧光了。他是公认的聪明人，抓来这里有三个多月了，等着对他的审判，可能还要等得更久。他是个非常温顺的人，很容易满足，他觉得这里待遇不错，可以白吃白住。
他守着一扇窗户，我守着另一扇。我发现，一个人在这里待久了，他主要的事情就是向窗外望着。我仔细阅读过留在这里的所有的只言片语，也仔细观看过犯人的越狱处，哪根栏杆被锯下来过。听着曾经住在这间屋子里的人们发过的故事，我发现这个地方有自己的历史，曾流传过一些轶闻，它们从来没有传出过高墙之外，外面的人对这些故事一无所知。或许这是城里唯一一个产生诗歌的地方，之后以传单的形式流传，只是从来没有出版过。他给我看了一个长长的名单，都是被人发现企图越狱的年轻人，因为没有成功，所以只好唱一些诗歌来抒发自己的郁闷。
我尽可能向我这位室友灌输我的思想，因为我怕以后再也见不到他了，但最后，他的反应只是告诉我该睡哪张床，然后让我别忘了吹灯。
这就像在一个遥远的国度远游，我从来没有想到自己会看到这个国度，而且在这儿睡了一晚。仿佛我以前从未听过城镇的钟声，也没有听过村庄夜晚的声音。难道是因为今晚我们开着窗子睡觉的原因吗，在铁栏内？我仿佛看见了我们的小镇笼罩在中世纪的月光下，康科德河变成了莱茵河，骑士与城堡在眼前若隐若现，我在街上听到一些老者的声音，在村边旅馆的厨房里，我无意听到并看到了一些事情——这些对我来说都是全新的体验，以前很少有过。这是个近距离观察我的小镇的地方，我就在其中。我之前从未看见过它的机构，这是它的机构中比较独特的一个，因为这个镇是个郡级镇。我开始理解它的居民到底是什么样的了。
早上，我们的早餐从门上的洞中送进来，一个专门制作的长方形锡盘上，托着一品脱的巧克力和黑面包，还有个铁勺子。当狱卒叫我们把餐具还给他们时，我很傻地要把剩下的一点面包也一起还给他们，这时我的室友抓住了我，告诉我说，这可以留着在午餐或晚餐时吃。很快，他被叫去在附近的田里割晒干草，那是他天天要做的工作，不到中午不会回来。所以，他和我道别，祝愿我有个美好的一天，不知道还会不会见到我了。
有人介入，替我付了税钱，所以我被放了出来。但我没有发现外面的世界发生了很大的变化，就像那个年轻时进山出来时成了头发灰白的老头的人发现的那样 。然而，我却又看到了某种变化，这个镇、这个州甚至这个国家，一切都确实发生了某种变化，这种变化是时间的推移所不能产生的。我对这个州看得更加清晰了：我看到同胞们在多大程度上可以被信任为好邻居和好朋友；他们的友谊只在夏天的天气里存在；他们并不那么愿意去做正义的事情；由于偏见和迷信，他们和我简直就不像一个人种，就像中国人和马来人一样；他们认为人性值得捍卫，但不会冒任何风险，甚至财富方面的风险也不可以冒一点点；而且人们并没有那么高尚，因为他们会对小偷以牙还牙，但同时希望通过某种仪式或祷告，或者时不时的在特定的荒路上走直线，借此拯救自己的灵魂。这样说我的邻居们，可能太过严厉了，因为我相信他们很多人都不知道村里还有监狱这样一个机构。
我们村从前有个习惯，当一个穷借债人从监狱里释放，朋友们和他打招呼时，会把手指交叉模仿监狱的窗子，“你好吗？”但我的邻居们没有这样和我打招呼，因为他们都不知道我被关进了监狱。他们看看我，又看看别人，好像我刚刚长途旅行回来一样。我有只鞋修好了，我是在去鞋匠那里取它时被送入监狱的。当我第二天早上被放出来后，我便继续之前的安排。我穿上修好的鞋，准备参加一个越橘派对，它们迫不及待地在等我主持。马已经备好了，一个半小时后我就出现在一片越橘林中了，这里是附近最高的山，在两英里远的郊外，州政府触及不到。
这就是我在监狱里的全部故事。
我从来没有拒绝交纳修路费，因为我希望做一个好邻居，正如我不希望做一个好臣民；我也不拒绝为教育纳税，而我本人也一直在为教育村民进一份力。税单上并没有什么特别的项目让我拒交，我只是不愿愚忠于政府，我想和它撇清关系，离它越远越好。我也并不想去了解上交的钱到底花在了什么地方，哪怕是买了一把杀人的枪，毕竟钱本身是无辜的。但我顾虑的是，我的效忠会有什么后果。事实上，我静静地和州政府宣战，用我自己的方式，虽然我还是会享用它提供的各种优势，并得利于此，一般这很正常。
如果别总总交我之前被要求交的税，那么可能是两种情况，一是出自对政府的同情，二是他们向来如此只是因循前例，但这可能是在遵守甚至煽动不公，比州政府要求的不公更加严重。如果他们交税是从个人的利益出发，比如以此保护他们的财产，或不被抓进监狱，这便是错误的。他们自己根本没有仔细考虑清楚，这种自私的想法会如何干涉整个社会的公正。
这就是我目前的观点。但在我这种情况下，一个人再谨慎也不为过，以免自己的行为被自己的固执引向歧途，或太在意别人的看法。一个人只要确定自己只做自己现在该做的分内事，这就够了。
我有时想：这个民族，心地善良却很无知，如果人们知道怎么做，也许会更好一些。为什么让你的邻居受苦，然后不情愿地反过来折磨你？但我又想：我没有理由像别人一样行动，去允许别人承受另一种更大的痛苦。有时我又会对自己说：当成千上万的人，他们没有热情也没有恶意，总之没有任何个人情感，他们就是想管你要几先令——这就是那个制度——他们不可能撤回或改变要求，你也不可能向另外成千上万的人求情撤回或改变要求，那么，为什么要让自己暴露在这种自然蛮力之中呢？ 你不需要执拗地去抵御饥寒、风浪，数千种其他自然力也都被你默默地接受了，但你不会把头伸进火里。我不认为组织完全是一种自然蛮力，部分是人力。它不只是冷酷的非生命，它包括成千上万的人，我想我和他们都是彼此联系的，所以我想现在立刻祈祷是可能的，首先向上帝祈祷，其次是向自己祈祷。但如果我故意把头伸入火中，那我就不应当祈求火或生火者不要烧我，那是我自己的错。假使我能说服自己应当满意地接受他们本来的样子，并以其人之道还治其人之身，我就应该像一个异教徒或宿命论者一样，努力接受事实，认为那就是上帝的旨意。但我不能，我觉得在某些方面，我对人、对自己的期望和要求是另外一个样子的。最重要的，抗拒这种力和抗拒自然的无情之力，是有区别的：我可以抵抗住这种力，会有效果，而无法像奥菲士 一样改变石头、树木与野兽的性质。
我不想和任何人或任何国家争吵。我不想吹毛求疵，斤斤计较，和邻居们一争高下。我可以说，我只是想找一个借口遵守这片土地上的法律，我非常愿意遵纪守法。事实上，我有理由怀疑自己在这件事上是否做错了；每年当税收官又来的时候，我发现我都愿意去回顾一下州和整体政府的法令和职责，以及这个民族的精神，去寻找一个服从的借口。
我们须热爱自己的国家，如同我们的父母。
如果有一天我们无国可爱，不能再努力为它的荣誉而勤奋工作，
我们必须要接收后果，并让我们的灵魂
充满宗教和良心道德，
不要去渴望统治谁或者获取利益。
我相信州政府很快就能干出什么出格的事，迫使我停下寻找理由的行为，那时，我就会成为比我的乡亲们还差的爱国者了。从较低的视角来看，虽然我们的宪法还存在很多问题，但确实已经很不错了；法律和法庭也都值得尊敬；州政府，甚至美国政府，在很多方面都非常让人敬佩，很难得，让人充满感恩，确实和很多人描述的一样。但从较高标准或最高标准来看呢，有谁还说得出它们算个什么东西，还值得一看或一想吗？
但政府和我的关系并不大，我也尽量不去理它。甚至在这个世界上，我和政府打交道的机会也不多。 如果一个人能自由思考，自由幻想，自由想象，那些愚蠢的统治者或改革家对他就没什么影响，那些对他来说本就不存在的东西，从不会长久地出现在他的脑海中或眼前。
我知道大多数人和我想的不一样，但那些专门研究该类或类似问题的专家们很少让我满意。政治家和立法者完全立足于制度内，故从未真正把它看透看清。他们总说要促进社会发展，但除了“说说要促进社会发展”也没别的可干了。也许，他们都经验丰富、智慧过人，毫无疑问创建了天才的实用体系，对此我们必须衷心感谢。但他们的智慧与能力只局限在一个非常小的范围内。他们总愿忘记这个事实，即世界并非仅由政策和权宜之计统治。韦伯斯特 从没有深入研究过政府，自然对它的理论也不具权威性。对于那些没有打算对政府进行必要改革的立法者们来说，他的话是十分有用的；在思想家们看来，在那些从永恒角度考虑立法的人们看来，他则从未正视过这一问题。我认识一些人对这个主题进行过冷静和智慧的思考，不久即将揭示韦伯斯特的思想广度有局限性，且偏袒一方。比起大部分低贱的职业改革家，比起所有智慧与口才都更低贱的政客，韦伯斯特的言论还是强大有力并有开创性的，而且讲究实际，我们感谢上苍将他赐予我们。但智慧并不是他的本质，而是谨慎小心。
律师口中的真理并不是真正意义上的真理，它只是一种协调，或者某种协调的权宜。真理本身是和谐的，它最关心的不是去揭露恶行中的正义。韦伯斯特被称为“宪法的保卫者”，这是名副其实的。他没有任何可指责的地方，有也是情有可原的。他不是个领导者，而是追随者，领袖是1787年宪法 的制定者们。他说：“我从未做出过任何努力，也不建议别人去努力，我没有支持过任何努力，也不打算去支持任何努力，去打乱最初的决定，宪法的安排使我们各个州组成了一个国家。”当提到宪法支持奴隶制时，他说：“既然这是最初契约的一部分，那就让它继续存在吧。”虽然他有敏锐的洞察力和过人的能力，却无法把一个事实从繁杂的政治联系中剥离，把它视作只能靠理智解决的问题。例如，当今的美国人对于奴隶制这一问题应该尽一些什么样的义务？他只是冒险，或者被迫说出了让人这样沮丧的话，还坚定地宣称这样说是把你当成了私底下的朋友。他说这样的话，到底想让人该承担什么样的新颖而特殊的社会义务呢？他说：“存在奴隶制的各州政府，治理本州的方式是它们自己的事情，由他们自己考虑，因为它们对自己的选民负责，对适当、人性、公正及上帝的普遍律法负责。”“非政府组织，无论生发自共同的人类情感或其他什么原因，都与之无关，我从未鼓励过他们，永远也不会。”
有些人不知真理之源要更加纯洁得多，他们从未沿着真理的溪流走得更高，只是聪明地守在圣经和宪法旁边，尊敬地、谦恭地掬水解渴；但有些人发现，这只是一个湖或池塘，注入其中的水自有他处来源，于是他们再次抖擞精神，继续他们寻找真理水源的朝圣之旅。
美国就没出现过一个立法的天才，世界历史上也很少有这样的人。演说家、政治家、雄辩家成千上万，但真正有能力解决这难题的人还没开始张口说话。我们因为喜欢雄辩所以喜欢雄辩，而不是因为它会说出真理，或能激起某种英雄主义。我们的立法者还没有真正认识到自由贸易、自由联盟、操守端正对一个国家的巨大价值，他们也没有天赋和才能去解决税收、金融、商业、制造业还有农业这些更世俗的问题。如果我们完全以议会立法者们的空洞理论为指导，而不根据人民的实际经历和普遍抱怨做出纠正，那么美国将很快失去它目前的国际地位。《新约》存世1800年了，或许我无权这么说，但我还是想问一问，那些具有大智慧和足够的实际能力能根据《新约》之光指导立法科学的人究竟在哪里呢？
我愿服从某些政府权威，因为我会欣然服从那些知道得比我多、做得比我好的人，甚至在许多事情上愿意服从那些懂得和做得都不如我的人，但现在这个权威是不纯洁的。严格地讲，它必须得到被统治者的赞同。政府无权干涉我的人身自由和财产，除非我承认它。从绝对的君主制到受限君主制，从受限君主制到民主制，每一步都是对人的尊重的进步。一位睿智的中国哲学家甚至说过这样的话：人民才是国家的基础。 那么，我们所了解的这个民主制，是不是政府的终极发展形式呢？是否可能在人权的认知和组织上更进一步呢？直到国家把个人作为更高而独立的力量，认为个人的这种力量是国家力量和权威的来源，并能正确地对待每个人，才会出现真正自由和文明的国家。我还很开心地描绘出这样一幅画面：最后，国家可以公正地对待每个人，国家对待个人就像邻里之间那样相互尊敬。如果有人愿意离群索居，不愿隶属于它，只要他尽到邻居和国民的责任，不干涉它，那它就可以处之泰然，任其自由。如果一个国家可以结出这样的果实，直到它成熟落地，那么，一条通往我所设想的、更加辉煌的完美国家的道路就修好了，尽管现在任何地方还见不到这样一个理想的州。
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe—”That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. 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 mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation 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 corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot,
O’er the grave where our 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 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,” 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 is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
How does it become a man to behave toward the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also.
All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case, they think, in the Revolution of ‘75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.
Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the “Duty of Submission to Civil Government,” resolves all civil obligation into expediency; and he proceeds to say that “so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconvenience, it is the will of God. . .that the established government be obeyed—and no longer. This principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other.” Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a people, as well and an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does anyone think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present crisis?
A drab of stat, a cloth-o’-silver slut,
To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt.
Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, neat at home, co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and without whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because the few are not as materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for other to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give up only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.
All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.
I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision they may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of this wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and despairs of his country, when his country has more reasons to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought. O for a man who is a man, and, and my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow—one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is to see that the 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 an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you are never cheated again. Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided States and churches, it divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by its government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate penalty? If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who put him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again.
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should be petitioning the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better, like birth and death, which convulse the body.
I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
I meet this American government, or its representative, the State government, directly, and face to face, once a year—no more—in the person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly, Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with—for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel—and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever know well that he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he will treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborlines without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name—if ten honest men only—ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission. Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State’s ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her sister—though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her—the Legislature would not wholly waive the subject of the following winter.
Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. The proper place today, the only place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less despondent spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on that separate but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her—the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, “But what shall I do?” my answer is, “If you really wish to do anything, resign your office.” When the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned from office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man’s real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.
I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods—though both will serve the same purpose—because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property. To such the State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains them for him; it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in proportion as that are called the “means” are increased. The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor. Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. “Show me the tribute-money,” said he—and one took a penny out of his pocket—if you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar’s government, then pay him back some of his own when he demands it. “Render therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God those things which are God’s”—leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they did not wish to know.
When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that, whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State. But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its tax bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said: “If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects of shame.” No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I were worth less in that case.
Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. “Pay,” it said, “or be locked up in the jail.” I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster; for I was not the State’s schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the lyceum should not present its tax bill, and have the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, as the request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in writing: “Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any society which I have not joined.” This I gave to the town clerk; and he has it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on me since; though it said that it must adhere to its original presumption that time. If I had known how to name them, I should then have signed off in detail from all the societies which I never signed on to; but I did not know where to find such a complete list.
I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did nor for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it.
Thus the state never intentionally confronts a man’s sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being forced to live this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, “Your money or your life,” why should I be in haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot live according to 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 man, of course; and as the world goes, I believe he was. “Why,” said he, “they accuse me of burning a barn; but I never did it.” As near as I could discover, he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and thought that he was well treated.
He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off, and heard the history of the various occupants of that room; for I found that even there was a history and a gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of young men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.
I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed, and left me to blow out the lamp.
It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I never had heard the town clock strike before, not the evening sounds of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the grating. It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of knights and castles passed before me. They were the voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent village inn—a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.
In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the door, in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called for the vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left, but my comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for lunch or dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a neighboring field, whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he bade me good day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again.
When I came out of prison—for some one interfered, and paid that tax—I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a gray-headed man; and yet a change had come to my eyes come over the scene—the town, and State, and country, greater than any that mere time could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the Chinamen and Malays are; that in their sacrifices to humanity they ran no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a particular straight through useless path from time to time, to save their souls. This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that many of them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in their village.
It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking through their fingers, which were crossed to represent the jail window, “How do ye do?” My neighbors did not this salute me, but first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the shoemaker’s to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour—for the horse was soon tackled—was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
This is the whole history of “My Prisons.”
I have never declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow countrymen now. It is for no particular item in the tax bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man a musket to shoot one with—the dollar is innocent—but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get what advantages of her I can, as is usual in such cases.
If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere with the public good.
This, then is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on his guard in such a case, lest his actions be biased by obstinacy or an undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what belongs to himself and to the hour.
I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are only ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think again, This is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to suffer much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, When many millions of men, without heat, without ill will, without personal feelings of any kind, demand of you a few shillings only, without the possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider that I have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men, and not of mere brute or inanimate things, I see that appeal is possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the Maker of them, and, secondly, from them to themselves. But if I put my head deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire or to the Maker for fire, and I have only myself to blame. If I could convince myself that I have any right to be satisfied with men as they are, and to treat them accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it is the will of God. And, above all, there is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or natural force, that I can resist this with some effect; but I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people to discover a pretext for conformity.
We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate
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.
I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even this State and this American government are, in many respects, very admirable, and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a great many have described them; seen from a higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are, or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all?
However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.
I know that most men think differently from myself; but those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred subjects content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain experience and discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency. Webster never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject. I know of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon reveal the limits of his mind’s range and hospitality. Yet, compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are almost the only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all, practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer’s truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he has been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There are really no blows to be given him but defensive ones. He is not a leader, but a follower. His leaders are the men of ‘87. “I have never made an effort,” he says, “and never propose to make an effort; I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement as originally made, by which various States came into the Union.” Still thinking of the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, “Because it was part of the original compact—let it stand.” Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect—what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here in American today with regard to slavery—but ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer to the following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man—from which what new and singular of social duties might be inferred? “The manner,” says he, “in which the governments of the States where slavery exists are to regulate it is for their own consideration, under the responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They have never received any encouragement from me and they never will. [These extracts have been inserted since the lecture was read.—HDT]
They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humanity; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountainhead.
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians, and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufactures and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years, though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of legislation.
The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to—for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well—is still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. Even the Chinese philosopher was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men. A State which bore this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened, would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which I have also imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.
