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. 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 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 for a moment, or in the least degree,
resign his conscience to the legislation? 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, ay,
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 movable 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 rampart 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, etc. In most cases there
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 as enemies by it. 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
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
refuse 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 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 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, cooperate 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 today? 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 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 God-speed, 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 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 almshouses 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 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 differed 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 anything which was. It not only divides States and churches, it
divides families; ay, 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 to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the
remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it
worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why
does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before
it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to
point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it
always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and
pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its
authority was the only offence never contemplated by government; else,
why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate,
penalty? If a man who has no property refuses but once to earn nine
shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by
any law that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who
placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine shillings
from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again.
If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of
government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth-
certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a
pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you
may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if
it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice
to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a
counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at
any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.
As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying
the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man's
life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this
world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in
it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but something;
and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should
do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor
or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if
they should not bear my petition, what should I do then? But in this
case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil.
This may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to
treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that
can appreciate or deserves it. So is an change for the better, like
birth and death, which convulse the body. I do not hesitate to say, that
those who call themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually
withdraw their support, both in person and property, from the government
of Massachusetts, and not wait till they constitute a majority of one,
before they suffer the right to prevail through them. I think that it is
enough if they have God on their side, without waiting for that other
one. Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a
majority of one already.
I meet this American government, or its representative, the State
government, directly, and face to face, once a year- no more- in the
person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man
situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly,
Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the present
posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating with it on this
head, of expressing your little satisfaction with and love for it, is to
deny it then. My civil neighbor, the tax-gatherer, is the very man I
have to deal with- for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment
that I quarrel- and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the
government. How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an
officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider
whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a
neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the
peace, and see if he can get over this obstruction to his neighborliness
without a ruder and more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with
his action. 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 copartnership, and be locked up in the
county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America.
For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once
well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we
say is our mission, Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its
service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's
ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question
of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened with
the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of Massachusetts,
that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of slavery upon her
sister- though at present she can discover only an act of inhospitality
to be the ground of a quarrel with her- the Legislature would not wholly
waive the subject the following winter.
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a
just man is also a prison. The proper place today, the only place which
Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less desponding spirits, is
in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of the State by her own
act, as they have already put themselves out by their principles. It is
there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and
the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on
that separate, but more free and honorable, ground, 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. If any think that
their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict
the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its
walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor
how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has
experienced a little in his own person. 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. If the tax-gatherer, or
any other public officer, asks me, as one has done, "But what shall
I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do anything,
resign your office." When the subject has refused allegiance, and
the officer has resigned his office, then the revolution is
accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is there not a sort of
blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's
real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting
death. I see this blood flowing now. I have contemplated the
imprisonment of the offender, rather than the seizure of his goods-
though both will serve the same purpose-because they who assert the
purest right, and consequently are most dangerous to a corrupt State,
commonly have not spent much time in accumulating property. To such the
State renders comparatively small service, and a slight tax is wont to
appear exorbitant, particularly if they are obliged to earn it by
special labor with their hands. If there were one who lived wholly
without the use of money, the State itself would hesitate to demand it
of him. But the rich man- not to make any invidious comparison- is
always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely
speaking, the more money, the less virtue; for money comes between a man
and his objects, and obtains them for him; and it was certainly no great
virtue to obtain it. It puts to rest many questions which he would
otherwise be taxed to answer; while the only new question which it puts
is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground
is taken from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished
in proportion as what are called the "means" are increased.
The best thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to
endeavor to carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was
poor.
Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition.
"Show me the tribute-money," said he;- and one took a penny
out of his pocket;- if you use money which has the image of Caesar on
it, and which he has made current and valuable, that is, if you are men
of the State, and gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar's government,
then pay him back some of his own when he demands it. "Render
therefore to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God those things
which are God's"- leaving them no wiser than before as to which was
which; for they did not wish to know.
When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that,
whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the
question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and the
short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of the
existing government, and they dread the consequences to their property
and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should not like
to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State.
But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its
tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass me
and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible for
a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in outward
respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate property; that
would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat somewhere, and raise
but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must live within yourself, and
depend upon yourself always tucked up and ready for a start, and not
have many affairs. A man may grow rich in Turkey even, if he will be in
all respects a good subject of the Turkish government. Confucius said:
"If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and
misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the
principles of reason, riches and honors are the subjects of shame."
No: until I want the protection of Massachusetts to be extended to me in
some distant Southern port, where my liberty is endangered, or until I
am bent solely on building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise,
I can afford to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my
property and life. 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. Some years ago, the State met me in
behalf of the Church, and commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the
support of a clergyman whose preaching my father attended, but never I
myself. "Pay," it said, "or be locked up in the
jail." I declined to pay. But, unfortunately, another man saw fit
to pay it. I did not see why the schoolmaster should be taxed to support
the priest, and not the priest the schoolmaster; for I was not the
State's schoolmaster, but I supported myself by voluntary subscription.
I did not see why the lyceum should not present its tax-bill, and have
the State to back its demand, as well as the Church. However, at the
request of the selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as
this in writing:- "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry
Thoreau, do not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated
society which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk;
and he has it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be
regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on me
since; though it said that it must adhere to its original presumption
that time. If I had known how to name them, I should then have signed
off in detail from all the societies which I never signed on to; but I
did not know where to find a complete list.
I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on
this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of
solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot
thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help
being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated me
as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered
that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it
could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in
some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my
townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through
before they could get to be as free as I was. I did not for a moment
feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar. I
felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had paid my tax. They plainly did
not know how to treat me, but behaved like persons who are underbred. In
every threat and in every compliment there was a blunder; for they
thought that my chief desire was to stand the other side of that stone
wall. I could not but smile to see how industriously they locked the
door on my meditations, which followed them out again without let or
hindrance, and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could
not reach me, they 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. I saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a
lone woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends
from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied
it.
Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense,
intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed
with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was
not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see
who is the strongest. What force has a multitude? They only can force me
who obey a higher law than I. They force me to become like themselves. I
do not hear of men being forced to have this way or that by masses of
men. What sort of life were that to live? When I meet a government which
says to me, "Your money or your life," why should I be in
haste to give it my money? It may be in a great strait, and not know
what to do: I cannot help that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is
not worth the while to snivel about it. I am not responsible for the
successful working of the machinery of society. I am not the son of the
engineer. I perceive that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by
side, the one does not remain inert to make way for the other, but both
obey their own laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can,
till one, perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant
cannot live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man. The night in
prison was novel and interesting enough. The prisoners in their
shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the evening air in the doorway,
when I entered. But the jailer said, "Come, boys, it is time to
lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I heard the sound of their
steps returning into the hollow apartments.
My room-mate was introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate
fellow and a clever man." When the door was locked, he showed me
where to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms were
whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest, most
simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment in the town.
He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought me
there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he came
there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world
goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me
of burning a barn; but I never did it." As near as I could
discover, he had probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked
his pipe there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being
a clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial to
come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite
domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and
thought that he was well treated.
He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one stayed
there long, his principal business would be to look out the window. I
had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and examined where
former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate had been sawed off,
and heard the history of the various occupants of that room; for I found
that even here there was a history and a gossip which never circulated
beyond the walls of the jail. Probably this is the only house in the
town where verses are composed, which are afterward printed in a
circular form, but not published. I was shown quite a long list of
verses which were composed by some young men who had been detected in an
attempt to escape, who avenged themselves by singing them.
I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should
never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed, and
left me to blow out the lamp.
It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never
expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I
never had heard the town clock strike before, nor the evening sounds of
the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were inside the
grating. It was to see my native village in the light of the Middle
Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and visions of
knights and castles passed before me. They were the voices of old
burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an involuntary spectator and
auditor of whatever was done and said in the kitchen of the adjacent
village inn- a wholly new and rare experience to me. It was a closer
view of my native town. I was fairly inside of it. I never had seen its
institutions before. This is one of its peculiar institutions; for it is
a shire town. I began to comprehend what its inhabitants were about.
In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the door,
in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint of
chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called for the
vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had left; but
my comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for lunch or
dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a neighboring
field, whither he went every day, and would not be back till noon; so he
bade me good-day, saying that he doubted if he should see me again.
When I came out of prison- for some one interfered, and paid that
tax- I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the
common, such as he observed who went in a youth and merged a tottering
and gray-headed man; and yet a change had to my eyes come over the
scene- the town, and State, and country- greater than any that mere time
could effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. I
saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as
good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather
only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a
distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions, as the
Chinamen and Malays are; that in their sacrifices to humanity they ran
no risks, not even to their property; that after all they were not so
noble but they treated the thief as he had treated them, and hoped, by a
certain outward observance and a few prayers, and by walking in a
particular straight though useless path from time to time, to save their
souls.
This may be to judge my neighbors harshly; for I believe that many of
them are not aware that they have such an institution as the jail in
their village. It was formerly the custom in our village, when a poor
debtor came out of jail, for his acquaintances to salute him, looking
through their fingers, which were crossed to represent the grating of a
jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did not thus salute
me, but first looked at me, and then at one another, as if I had
returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I was going to the
shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out the next
morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended
shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were impatient to put themselves
under my conduct; and in half an hour- for the horse was soon tackled-
was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills,
two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
This is the whole history of "My Prisons." I have never
declined paying the highway tax, because I am as desirous of being a
good neighbor as I am of being a bad subject; and as for supporting
schools, I am doing my part to educate my fellow-countrymen now. It is
for no particular item in the tax-bill that I refuse to pay it. I simply
wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from
it effectually. I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I
could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with- the dollar is
innocent- but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance. In
fact, I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I
will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is
usual in such cases.
If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy with
the State, they do but what they have already done in their own case, or
rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State requires.
If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the individual taxed, to
save his property, or prevent his going to jail, it is because they have
not considered wisely how far they let their private feelings interfere
with the public good.
This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much
onhis guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an
undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only what
belongs to himself and to the hour.
I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are onlyignorant;
they would do better if they knew how: why give your neighbors this pain
to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I think again, This is no
reason why I should do as they do, or permit others to suffer much
greater pain of a different kind. Again, I sometimes say to myself, When
many millions of men, without heat, without ill will, without personal
feeling of any kind, demand ofyou a few shillings only, without the
possibility, such is their constitution, of retracting or altering their
present demand, and without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to
any other millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute
force? You do not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus
obstinately; you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities. You
do not put your head into the fire. But just in proportion as I regard
this as not wholly a brute force, but partly a human force, and consider
that I have relations to those millions as to so many millions of men,
and not of mere brute or inanimate things, I see that appeal is
possible, first and instantaneously, from them to the Maker of them,
and, secondly, from them to themselves. But if I put my head
deliberately into the fire, there is no appeal to fire or to the Maker
of fire, and I have only myself to blame. If I could convince myself
that I have any right to be satisfied with men as they are, and to treat
them accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my
requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to be, then, like
a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should endeavor to be satisfied with
things as they are, and say it is the will of God. And,above all, there
is this difference between resisting this and a purely brute or natural
force, that I can resist this with some effect; but I cannot expect,
like Orpheus, to change the nature of the rocks and trees and beasts.
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to
split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than
my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to
the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I
have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the
tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and
position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the
people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
"We must affect our country as our parents,
And if at any time we alienate
Our love or industry from doing it honor,
We must respect effects and teach the soul
Matter of conscience and religion,
And not desire of rule or benefit."
I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my work of
this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no better a patriot than
my fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower point of view, the Constitution,
with all its faults, is very good; the law and the courts are very
respectable; even this State and this American government are, in many
respects, very admirable, and rare things, to be thankful for, such as a
great many have described them; but seen from a point of view a little
higher, they are what I have described them; seen from a higher still,
and the highest, who shall say what they are, or that they are worth
looking at or thinking of at all?
However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow
the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live
under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free,
fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time
appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally
interrupt him.
I know that most men think differently from myself; but those whose
lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred
subjects content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators,
standing so completely within the institution, never distinctly and
nakedly behold it. They speak of moving society, but have no
resting-place without it. They may be men of a certain experience and
discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and even useful
systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but all their wit and
usefulness lie within certain not very wide limits. They are wont to
forget that the world is not governed by policy and expediency. Webster
never goes behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about
it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no
essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers, and those
who legislate for all time, he never once glances at the subject. I know
of those whose serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon
reveal the limits of his mind's range and hospitality.
Yet, compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and the
still cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general, his are
almost the only sensible and valuable words, and we thank Heaven for
him. Comparatively, he is always strong, original, and, above all,
practical. Still, his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's
truth is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency. Truth is
always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal
the justice that may consist with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be
called, as he has been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There
are really no blows to be given by him but defensive ones. He is not a
leader, but a follower. His leaders are the men of '87- "I have
never made an effort," he says, "and never propose to make an
effort; I have never countenanced an effort, and never mean to
countenance an effort, to disturb the arrangement as originally made, by
which the various States came into the Union." Still thinking of
the sanction which the Constitution gives to slavery, he says,
"Because it was a part of the original compact- let it stand."
Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is unable to take
a fact out of its merely political relations, and behold it as it lies
absolutely to be disposed of by the intellect- what, for instance, it
behooves a man to do here in America today with regard to slavery- but
ventures, or is driven, to make some such desperate answer as the
following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a private man-
from which what new and singular code of social duties might be
inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which the
governments of those States where slavery exists are to regulate it is
for their own consideration, under their responsibility to their
constituents, to the general laws of propriety, humanity, and justice,
and to God. Associations formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of
humanity, or any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They
have never received any encouragement from me, and they never
will."
They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its
stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the
Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but
they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool,
gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its
fountain-head.
No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. They
are rare in the history of the world. There are orators, politicians,
and eloquent men, by the thousand; but the speaker has not yet opened
his mouth to speak who is capable of settling the much-vexed questions
of the day. We love eloquence for its own sake, and not for any truth
which it may utter, or any heroism it may inspire. Our legislators have
not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of
union, and of rectitude, to a nation. They have no genius or talent for
comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and
manufactures and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of
legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable
experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not
long retain her rank among the nations. For eighteen hundred years,
though perchance I have no right to say it, the New Testament has been
written; yet where is the legislator who has wisdom and practical talent
enough to avail himself of the light which it sheds on the science of
legislation?
The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit
to-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-is
still an impure one: to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and
consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and
property but what I concede to it. 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. Even the Chinese philosopher
was wise enough to regard the individual as the basis of the empire. 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. I please
myself with imagining a State at least which can afford to be just to
all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which
even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were
to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who
fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow-men. A State which bore
this kind of fruit, and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened,
would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious State, which
also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen.