On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
by Henry David Thoreau
[1849, original title: Resistance to Civil Goverment]
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to e 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 the 猪脚黄豆汤
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 derve 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 itlf, which is only the mode which the
people have chon to execute their will, is equally liable to be abud and perverted before the people can act
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through it. Witness the prent Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing
government as their tool; for in the outt, the people would not have connted to this measure.
This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itlf
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 themlves. But it is
not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to
颤动的反义词satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be impod
upon, even impo on themlves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this
government never of itlf furthered any enterpri, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does
not keep the country free. It does not ttle 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 the men wholly by the effects of their
actions and not partly by their intentions, they would derve to be clasd and punished with tho mischievious
persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike tho who call themlves no-government men, I ask for, not a
t
one 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, 真假人生
and for a long period continue, to rule is not becau they are most likely to be in the right, nor becau this
ems fairest to the minority, but becau they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the
majority rule in all cas can not be bad 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 tho 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-dispod
are daily made the agents on injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for the law is, that you
may e 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 n 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 rvice 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,
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"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, As his cor to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his
farewell shot O'er the grave where out hero was buried."
The mass of men rve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the
standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, pos comitatus, etc. In most cas there is no free exerci
whatever of the judgement or of the moral n; but they put themlves on a level with wood and earth and
stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufacture
d that will rve the purpo 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 hors and dogs. Yet
such as the even are commonly esteemed good citizens. Others--as most legislators, politicians, lawyers,
商业合作计划书ministers, and office-holders--rve the state chiefly with their heads; and, as the rarely make any moral
distinctions, they are as likely to rve the devil, without intending it, as God. A very few--as heroes, patriots,
martyrs, reformers in the great n, and men--rve 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 wi man will only be uful 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 cond at control, Or uful rving-man and instrument To any
sovereign state throughout the world."
He who gives himlf entirely to his fellow men appears to them uless and lfish; but he who gives himlf
partially to them in 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 refu 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 ca now.
But such was the ca, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government
becau 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.
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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 it, so long as the
established government cannot be resisted or changed without
public inconveniencey, it is the will of God. . .that the established government be obeyed--and no longer. This
principle being admitted, the justice of every particular ca of resistance is reduced to a computation of the
quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expen of redressing it on the
other." Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himlf. But Paley appears never to have contemplated tho
cas 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 mylf. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a ca,
shall lo it. This people must cea 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 Massachutts does exactly what is right at
the prent 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 Massachutts 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 tho who, neat at home, co-operate with, and do the bidding of, tho 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, becau the few are not as materially wir 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 oppod to slavery and to the war, who yet
in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themlves 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 dispod, 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-n
ine patrons of virtue to one virtuous man. But it is
easier to deal with the real posssor 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 宝宝身高体重表
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 wi 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 mass of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery,
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it will be becau they are indifferent to slavery, or becau 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 asrts his own
freedom by his vote.
I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elwhere, for the lection 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 lected as the only available one, thus proving that he is
himlf available for any purpos 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, 农家妙媳妇儿
地理故事
has a bone is 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 ttle 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 lf-reliance; who first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is to e that the almshous 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 liv
