ON THE DUTY OF
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
BY
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Essay: “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience”
Author: Henry David Thoreau, 1817–62
First published: 1849
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3
I HEARTILY accept the motto,—“That government is best which
governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly
and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which
also I believe,—“That government is best which governs not at
all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of
government which they will have. Government is at best but an
expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments
are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been
brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty,
and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a
standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the
standing government. The government itself, which is only the
mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is
equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act
through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of
comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as
their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented
to this measure.
This American government,—what is it but a tradition,
though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to
posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not
the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can
bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people
themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest as a real one
against each other, it will surely split. But it is not the less
necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated
machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of
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Government-------To make sure the common good
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when people can all act good, government do not need to punish or rule them
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should WIN
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 4
government which they have. Governments show thus how
successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves,
for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow; yet this
government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the
alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the
country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The
character inherent in the American people has done all that has
been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the
government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is
an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one
another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the
governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they
were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce
over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their
way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of
their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve
to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who
put obstructions on the railroads.
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 cannot be based on justice,
even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in
which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but
conscience?—in which majorities decide only those questions to
which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever
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HENRY DAVID THOREAU 5
for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the
legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we
should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to
cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only
obligation which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what
I think right. It is truly enough said, that a corporation has no
conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation
with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by
means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made
the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue
respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel,
captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys and all, marching in
admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills,
aye, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it
very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the
heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which
they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are
they? Men at all? or small moveable forts and magazines, at the
service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard,
and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can
make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts,—a mere
shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and
standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with
funeral accompaniments, though it may be
“Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O’er the grave where our hero we buried.”
The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but
as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the
militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus, &c. In most cases there
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Law makes people more unjust.
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 6
is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense;
but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones;
and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the
purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of
straw, or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as
horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly esteemed
good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers,
ministers, and office-holders, serve the State chiefly with their
heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as
likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few,
as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men,
serve the State with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist
it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as
enemies. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not
submit to be “clay,” and “stop a hole to keep the wind away,” but
leave that office to his dust at least:—
“I am too high-born to be propertied,
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world.”
He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to
them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to
them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
How does it become a man to behave toward this American
government to-day? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be
associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political
organization as my government which is the slave’s government
also.
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
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morally wrong
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If you do not fight against the devil, you are supporting it.
HENRY DAVID THOREAU 7
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 counterbalance the evil. At any
rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction
comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are
organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In
other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has
undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole
country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and
subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest
men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more
urgent is the fact, that the country so overrun is not our own, but
ours is the invading army.
Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions, in
his chapter on the “Duty of Submission to Civil Government,”
resolves all civil obligation into expediency; and he proceeds to
say, “that so long as the interest of the whole society requires it,
that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or
changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God, that
the established government be obeyed, and no longer.”—“This
principle being admitted, the justice of every particular case of
resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the danger
and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense
of redressing it on the other.” Of this, he says, every man shall
judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated
those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in
which a people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what
it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I
must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to
Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in
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I must do justice even if I have to die
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CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 8
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 any one
think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the present
crisis?
“A drab of state, a cloth-o’-silver slut,
To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt.”
Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts
are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred
thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in
commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not
prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may.
I quarrel not with far-off foes, but with those who, near at home,
co-operate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without
whom the latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that
the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow, because
the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so
important that many should be as good as you, as that there be
some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole
lump. There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery
and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them;
who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin,
sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know
not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of
freedom to the question of free-trade, and quietly read the prices-
current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner,
and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-
current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and
they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in
earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to
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HENRY DAVID THOREAU 9
remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most,
they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and
Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred
and ninety-nine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man; but it is
easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the
temporary guardian of it.
All voting is a sort of gaming, like 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 his
wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some
independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country
who do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable
man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position, and
despairs of his country, when his country has more reason to
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 10
despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus
selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself
available for any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no
more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling
native, who may have been bought. Oh for a man who is a man,
and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot
pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population
has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square
thousand miles in this country? Hardly one. Does not America
offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American has
dwindled into an Odd Fellow,—one who may be known by the
development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of
intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern,
on coming into the world, is to see that the alms-houses are in good
repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to
collect a fund for the support of the widows and orphans that may
be; who, in short, ventures to live only by the aid of the mutual
insurance company, which has promised to bury him decently.
It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself
to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may
still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty,
at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought
longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to
other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I
do not pursue them sitting upon another man’s shoulders. I must
get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See
what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my
townsmen say, “I should like to have them order me out to help put
down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico,—see if
I would go;” and yet these very men have each, directly by their
allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a
substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an
unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust
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like to talk a lot
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HENRY DAVID THOREAU 11
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 the
same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And
have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the
Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?
How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely,
and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is that he
is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your
neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing that you are
cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with
petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at
once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated
again. Action from principle,—the perception and the performance
of right,—changes things and relations; it is essentially
revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with any thing which
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE 12
was. It not only divides states and churches, it divides families;
aye, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from
the divine.
Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall
we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have
succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally,
under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until
they have persuaded the majority t
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