“Resistance to Civil Government” or “Civil Disobedience”

1. “Resistance to Civil Government”or“Civil Disobedience” Henry David Thoroeau

2. Write for three minutes: Do you agree with Thoreau’s statement, “That government is best which governs not at all”? Would such an idea be workable in a complex society?

3. July 1846 • Thoreau’s stay at Walden pond interrupted by a night in jail • He refused to pay tax to the state • Was opposed to government’s support of slavery • Police offered to pay the tax-Thoreau refused • Finally someone paid it for him-presumably his aunt

4. “That government is best which governs least.” • That government is best which governs not at all • Government is at its best but an expedient • Expedient: a means to an end • Government is liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it

5. “This American government…” • A tradition endeavoring to transmit itself to unimpaired posterity • Impaired: weakened, diminished, or damaged • Posterity: succeeding or future generations • (Alacrity: cheerfulness) • It does not keep the country free, settle the West, or educate • All this has been done by American people, and more could have been accomplished if the government were not in the way • Men can impose on others, or themselves, to their ultimate advantage [through government]. • This is a positive observation

6. “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.” • Transcendentalists believed in using writing to communicate ideas; however, the next step was action

7. Power in the hands of the people • Majority rules because they are physically strongest • Government based on majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice • Resist what your conscience can not support, even if you are the in the minority; do not yield all of your decisions to a legislator • “Why has every man a conscience then?” • Thoreau presumes that every man has a conscience • He is saying that the law can be wrong, especially when it asks individuals to do things that go against their own individual morality.

8. Conscience and law • “It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.” • Is being conscientious the same as having a conscience? • “Law never made men a whit more just” • Whit: a particle or bit • Do you agree with this? • Undue respect for law may cause soldiers to fight against their will, for a cause in which they do not believe.

9. Do Now: • Take out your open-book quizzes that you completed last night. • Take out your copies of “Civil Disobedience” and your notes. • Today we will start part two of our lecture/discussion of this work.

10. All people have the right to pursuits and contemplations* • 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.  • Thoreau shows people, in apparent innocence, comfortably enjoying the protection of a system of government founded upon the exclusion and exploitation of others. *contemplations: full or deep considerations

11. Furnishing a substitution [for direct warfare or participation in slavery]… • “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.” • While the masses of men believe that by not fighting in a war or owning a slave they are protesting it, they neglect that by paying taxes they are actually supporting it.

12. “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.” • We are led to sin by obedience to an unjust government • As we repeat the sin we become indifferent to it • It loses its moral sting

13. The Tax Man • The only way I meet my government in any real way is by way of paying annual taxes • This is the best way to show my dissatisfaction with it • Will he treat me as “his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace”

14. Changing the state [of slavery] … • “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 therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America.” • “It matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever.”

15. Talk and talk and talk and talk… • We love better to talk about it • “Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its service, but not one man.”

16. On being jailed… • “[I was]struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up.” • He was free to think even though his body was in jail • “[T]hey 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.”

17. The night in the prison • Was jailed with a man accused of burning a barn • Found the writing on the walls and the gossip of the inmates a source of history that he had never before imagined • Asked his roommate many questions • Experienced life anew [through sound]: clock striking, heard sounds of adjacent kitchen, sounds of burghers in the streets Burgher: inhabitant of a town

18. How his views changed • “saw more distinctly the state in which I lived” • “the people among whom I lived […] their friendship was for summer weather only” • “that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions”

19. What happened after • His neighbors all gave him strange looks • He went into the field to pick huckleberries • He still stands behind: • Highway construction • Public schools • Spending money (he won’t trace it until it goes to support slavery or unjust war)

20. Where he might contradict himself… • “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.” • He has not had to pay a tremendous price for his rebellion, and he does not hesitate to take advantage of what a government might offer him. • Is this inconsistent? Or is it honest and realistic?

21. Closing thoughts… • “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” • “[The government] to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.” • “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.”

22. Questions (From Take-Home quiz) • Explain what Thoreau thinks is wrong with majority rule. What does he say is the only obligation he has a right to assume? • What does Thoreau predict about slavery in America? • Explain why Thoreau was put in jail. What were his feelings about the government when he was in jail? • How does Thoreau describe his sensations and thoughts as he lies in the jail during the night? • At the end of the essay, what qualities does Thoreau envision in an ideal “perfect and glorious state”?