henry david thoreau on the duty of civil disobedience 1849

Resistance also served as part of Thoreau's metaphor comparing the government to a machine: when the machine was producing injustice, it was the duty of conscientious citizens to be 'a counter friction' (i.e., a resistance) 'to stop the machine'. Nonetheless, Thoreau was initially inspired by the Christian anarchist ideals espoused by Ballou and Garrison. The latter title distinguished Thoreau's program from that of ' non-resistants' or Christian anarchists like Adin Ballou and William Lloyd Garrison, as Thoreau argued that their insistence on nonresistance as praxis against the state was grossly ineffectual. This formed the basis for his essay, which was first published under the title Resistance to Civil Government in an 1849 anthology by Elizabeth Peabody called Æsthetic Papers. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience but a corporation on conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience….In 1848, Thoreau gave lectures at the Concord Lyceum entitled 'The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government'.

The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. 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….Ĭan 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. 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. Thoreau believed that nonviolence or passive disobedience was necessary whenever government edict conflicted with higher moral law- the ideal natural law, from which human law was derived. This work of his has become the basis of non-violent protest throughout history and the world. Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American naturalist and writer.

Henry david thoreau on the duty of civil disobedience 1849