Summary
Thoreau asserts that
because governments are typically more harmful than helpful, they therefore
cannot be justified. Democracy is no cure for this, as majorities simply by
virtue of being majorities do not also gain the virtues of wisdom and justice. The judgment of an individual's conscience is not necessarily
inferior to the decisions of a political body or majority, and so "[i]t 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... 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."[5] He adds, "I cannot for an instant recognize as my government
[that] which is the
slave's government also."[6]
The government, according
to Thoreau, is not just a little corrupt or unjust in the course of
doing its otherwise-important work, but in fact the government is primarily
an agent of corruption and injustice. Because of this, it is "not
too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize."[7]
Political philosophers
have counseled caution about revolution because the upheaval of revolution
typically causes a lot of expense and suffering. Thoreau contends that such a
cost/benefit analysis is inappropriate when the government is actively
facilitating an injustice as extreme as slavery. Such a fundamental immorality
justifies any difficulty or expense to bring to an end. "This people must
cease to hold slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a
people."[8]
Thoreau tells his audience
that they cannot blame this problem solely on pro-slavery Southern politicians, but must put the blame on those in,
for instance, Massachusetts, "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... 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."[9] (See also: Thoreau's Slavery
in Massachusetts which also advances this
argument.)
He exhorts people not to
just wait passively for an opportunity to vote for justice, because
voting for justice is as ineffective as wishing for justice; what you
need to do is to actually be just. This is not to say that you have an
obligation to devote your life to fighting for justice, but you do have
an obligation not to commit injustice and not to give injustice your practical
support.
Paying taxes is one way in which
otherwise well-meaning people collaborate in injustice. People who proclaim
that the war in Mexico is wrong and that it is wrong to enforce slavery
contradict themselves if they fund both things by paying taxes. Thoreau points
out that the same people who applaud soldiers for refusing to fight an unjust
war are not themselves willing to refuse to fund the government that started
the war.
In a constitutional
republic like the United States, people often think that the proper response to
an unjust law is to try to use the political process to change the law, but to
obey and respect the law until it is changed. But if the law is itself clearly
unjust, and the lawmaking process is not designed to quickly obliterate such
unjust laws, then Thoreau says the law deserves no respect and it should be
broken. In the case of the United States, the Constitution itself enshrines the institution of slavery, and
therefore falls under this condemnation. Abolitionists, in Thoreau's opinion, should completely withdraw their support of
the government and stop paying taxes, even if this means courting imprisonment.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly,
the true place for a just man is also a prison.… 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.… 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.[10]
Because the government
will retaliate, Thoreau says he prefers living simply because he therefore has
less to lose. "I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts…. 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."[11]
He was briefly imprisoned
for refusing to pay the poll tax, but even in jail felt freer than the people
outside. He considered it an interesting experience and came out of it with a
new perspective on his relationship to the government and its citizens. (He was
released the next day when "someone interfered, and paid that tax.")[12]
Thoreau said he was
willing to pay the highway tax, which went to pay for something of benefit to
his neighbors, but that he was opposed to taxes that went to support the
government itself—even if he could not tell if his particular contribution
would eventually be spent on an unjust project or a beneficial one. "I
simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from
it effectually."[13]
Because government is
man-made, not an element of nature or an act of God, Thoreau hoped that its makers could be reasoned with. As
governments go, he felt, the U.S. government, with all its faults, was not the
worst and even had some admirable qualities. But he felt we could and should
insist on better. "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.… 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."[14]
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