1025 lines
62 KiB
Plaintext
1025 lines
62 KiB
Plaintext
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Civil Disobedience
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by Henry David Thoreau
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I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best
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which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up
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to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally
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amounts to this, which also I believe--"That government is
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best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared
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for it, that will be the kind of government which the will
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have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most
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governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes,
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inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against
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a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve
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to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing
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government. The standing army is only an arm of the
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standing government. The government itself, which is only
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the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will,
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is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the
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people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war,
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the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
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standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the
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people would not have consented to this measure.
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This American government--what is it but a tradition,
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though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself
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unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its
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integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single
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living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is
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a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is
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not the less necessary for this; for the people must have
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some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to
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satisfy that idea of government which they have.
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Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed
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upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.
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It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government
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never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the
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alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep
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the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not
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educate. The character inherent in the American people has
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done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done
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somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in
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its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would
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fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been
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said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let
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alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of
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india-rubber, would never manage to bounce over obstacles
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which legislators are continually putting in their way; and
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if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of
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their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would
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deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievious
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persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
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But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike
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those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not
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at one no government, but at once a better government. Let
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every man make known what kind of government would command
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his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
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After all, the practical reason why, when the power is
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once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted,
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and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they
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are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems
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fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the
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strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in
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all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men
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understand it. Can there not be a government in which the
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majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but
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conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions
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to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the
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citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign
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his conscience to the legislator? WHy has every man a
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conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and
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subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a
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respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only
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obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any
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time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a
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corporation has no conscience; but a corporation on
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conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law
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never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their
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respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the
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agents on injustice. A common and natural result of an
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undue respect for the law is, that you may see a file of
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soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates,
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powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over
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hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against
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their common sense and consciences, which makes it very
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steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the
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heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in
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which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined.
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Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and
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magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
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Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an
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American government can make, or such as it can make a man
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with its black arts--a mere shadow and reminiscence of
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humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as
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one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniment,
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though it may be,
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"Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
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As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
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Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
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O'er the grave where out hero was buried."
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The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men
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mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the
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standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse
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comitatus, etc. In most cases there is no free exercise
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whatever of the judgement or of the moral sense; but they
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put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones;
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and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve
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the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men
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of straw or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of
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worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are
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commonly esteemed good citizens. Others--as most
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legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and
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office-holders--serve the state chiefly with their heads;
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and, as the rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as
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likely to serve the devil, without intending it, as God. A
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very few--as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the
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great sense, and men--serve the state with their consciences
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also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and
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they are commonly treated as enemies by it. A wise man will
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only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be "clay,"
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and "stop a hole to keep the wind away," but leave that
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office to his dust at least:
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"I am too high born to be propertied,
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To be a second at control,
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Or useful serving-man and instrument
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To any sovereign state throughout the world."
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He who gives himself entirely to his fellow men appears
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to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself
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partially to them in pronounced a benefactor and
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philanthropist.
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How does it become a man to behave toward the American
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government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace
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be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize
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that political organization as my government which is the
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slave's government also.
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All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the
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right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the
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government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great
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and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the
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case now. But such was the case, they think, in the
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Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a
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bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities
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brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not
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make an ado about it, for I can do without them. All
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machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough
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good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a
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great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction
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comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are
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organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer.
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In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation
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which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves,
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and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a
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foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it
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is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.
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What makes this duty the more urgent is that fact that the
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country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading
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army.
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Paley, a common authority with many on moral questions,
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in his chapter on the "Duty of Submission to Civil
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Government," resolves all civil obligation into expediency;
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and he proceeds to say that "so long as the interest of the
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whole society requires it, that it, so long as the
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established government cannot be resisted or changed without
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public inconveniencey, it is the will of God. . .that the
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established government be obeyed--and no longer. This
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principle being admitted, the justice of every particular
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case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the
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quantity of the danger and grievance on the one side, and of
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the probability and expense of redressing it on the other."
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Of this, he says, every man shall judge for himself. But
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Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to
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which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a
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people, as well and an individual, must do justice, cost
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what it may. If I have unjustly wrested a plank from a
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drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown
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myself. This, according to Paley, would be inconvenient.
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But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose
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it. This people must cease to hold slaves, and to make war
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on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.
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In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does
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anyone think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right
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at the present crisis?
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"A drab of stat, a cloth-o'-silver slut,
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To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the
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dirt."
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Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in
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Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the
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South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here,
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who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than
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they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to
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the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may. I quarrel not
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with far-off foes, but with those who, neat at home,
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co-operate with, and do the bidding of, those far away, and
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without whom the latter would be harmless. We are
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accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but
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improvement is slow, because the few are not as materially
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wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that
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many should be good as you, as that there be some absolute
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goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump.
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There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery
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and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end
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to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington
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and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets,
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and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who
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even postpone the question of freedom to the question of
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free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with
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the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may
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be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current
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of an honest man and patriot today? They hesitate, and they
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regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in
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earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for
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other to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to
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regret. At most, they give up only a cheap vote, and a
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feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by
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them. There are nine hundred and ninety-nine patrons of
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virtue to one virtuous man. But it is easier to deal with
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the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary
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guardian of it.
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All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or
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backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with
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right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally
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accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked.
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I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not
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vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am
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willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation,
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therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting
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for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only
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expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail.
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A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance,
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nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.
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There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
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When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of
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slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery,
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or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished
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by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his
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vote can hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own
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freedom by his vote.
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I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or
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elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the
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Presidency, made up chiefly of editors, and men who are
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politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any
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independent, intelligent, and respectable man what decision
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they may come to? Shall we not have the advantage of this
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wisdom and honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon
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some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in
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the country who do not attend conventions? But no: I find
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that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted
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from his position, and despairs of his country, when his
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country has more reasons to despair of him. He forthwith
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adopts one of the candidates thus selected as the only
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available one, thus proving that he is himself available for
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any purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth
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than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native,
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who may have been bought. O for a man who is a man, and,
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and my neighbor says, has a bone is his back which you
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cannot pass your hand through! Our statistics are at fault:
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the population has been returned too large. How many men
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are there to a square thousand miles in the country? Hardly
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one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to
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settle here? The American has dwindled into an Odd
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Fellow--one who may be known by the development of his organ
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of gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and
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cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on
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coming into the world, is to see that the almshouses are in
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good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the
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virile garb, to collect a fund to the support of the widows
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and orphans that may be; who, in short, ventures to live
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only by the aid of the Mutual Insurance company, which has
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promised to bury him decently.
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It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to
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devote himself to the eradication of any, even to most
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enormous, wrong; he may still properly have other concerns
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to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his
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hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to
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give it practically his support. If I devote myself to
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other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at
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least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's
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shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his
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contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is
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tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should
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like to have them order me out to help put down an
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insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico--see if I
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would go"; and yet these very men have each, directly by
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their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their
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money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who
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refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse
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to sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is
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applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards
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and sets at naught; as if the state were penitent to that
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degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but
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not to that degree that it left off sinning for a moment.
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Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are
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all made at last to pay homage to and support our own
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meanness. After the first blush of sin comes its
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indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were,
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unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we
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have made.
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The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most
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disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to
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which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble
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are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove
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of the character and measures of a government, yield to it
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their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most
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conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious
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obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to
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dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the
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President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves--the
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union between themselves and the State--and refuse to pay
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their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in same
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relation to the State that the State does to the Union? And
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have not the same reasons prevented the State from resisting
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the Union which have prevented them from resisting the
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State?
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How can a man be satisfied to entertain and opinion
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merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his
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opinion is that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of
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a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied
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with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are
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cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due;
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but you take effectual steps at once to obtain the full
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amount, and see to it that you are never cheated again.
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Action from principle, the perception and the performance of
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right, changes things and relations; it is essentially
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revolutionary, and does not consist wholly with anything
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which was. It not only divided States and churches, it
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divides families; ay, it divides the individual, separating
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the diabolical in him from the divine.
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Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or
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shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have
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succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men,
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generally, under such a government as this, think that they
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ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to
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alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the
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remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of
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the government itself that the remedy is worse than the
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evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to
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anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish
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its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is
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hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its
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faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it
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always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and
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Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
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One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial
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of its authority was the only offense never contemplated by
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its government; else, why has it not assigned its definite,
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its suitable and proportionate, penalty? If a man who has
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no property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the
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State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law
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that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those
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who put him there; but if he should steal ninety times nine
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shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at
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large again.
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If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of
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the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance
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it will wear smooth--certainly the machine will wear out.
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If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a
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crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider
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whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if
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it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent
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of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let
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your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I
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have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself
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to the wrong which I condemn.
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As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for
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remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too
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much time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other
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affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly
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to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be
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it good or bad. A man has not everything to do, but
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something; and because he cannot do everything, it is not
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necessary that he should be petitioning the Governor or the
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Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and
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if they should not hear my petition, what should I do then?
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But in this case the State has provided no way: its very
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Constitution is the evil. This may seem to be harsh and
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stubborn and unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the
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utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit that can
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appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better,
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like birth and death, which convulse the body.
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I do not hesitate to say, that those who call
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themselves Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw
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their support, both in person and property, from the
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government of Massachusetts, and not wait till they
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constitute a majority of one, before they suffer the right
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to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they
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have God on their side, without waiting for that other one.
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Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes
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a majority of one already.
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I meet this American government, or its representative,
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the State government, directly, and face to face, once a
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|
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 that he is
|
|
and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until
|
|
he is obliged to consider whether he will 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
|
|
neighborlines 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 co-partnership, 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 of
|
|
the following winter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Under a government which imprisons 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 despondent 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 from office, then
|
|
the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose 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; 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
|
|
that 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 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, as 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 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 such 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 my 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 nor 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 with 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 live
|
|
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 our 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
|
|
nature, it dies; and so a man.
|
|
The night in prison was novel and interesting enough.
|
|
The prisoners in their shirtsleeves 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
|
|
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 neatest
|
|
apartment in 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 an, 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 there 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 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, not 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 emerged a gray-headed man; and yet a change had
|
|
come 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 through
|
|
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 jail window, "How do ye do?" My neighbors did
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
not this 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 mender. When I was let out the next morning,
|
|
I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my
|
|
mended show, 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 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 use and get what advantages 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 on his guard in such a case, lest his actions 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
|
|
only ignorant; 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 feelings of any kind, demand of you 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 for 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
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not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set
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myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may
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say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land.
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I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have
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reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the
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tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review
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the acts and position of the general and State governments,
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and the spirit of the people to discover a pretext for
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conformity.
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"We must affect our country as our parents,
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And if at any time we alienate
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Out love or industry from doing it honor,
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We must respect effects and teach the soul
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Matter of conscience and religion,
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And not desire of rule or benefit."
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I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my
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work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no
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better patriot than my fellow-countrymen. Seen from a lower
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point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is
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very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even
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this State and this American government are, in many
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respects, very admirable, and rare things, to be thankful
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for, such as a great many have described them; seen from a
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higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are,
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or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all?
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However, the government does not concern me much, and I
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shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not
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many moments that I live under a government, even in this
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world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free,
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imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time
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appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot
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fatally interrupt him.
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I know that most men think differently from myself; but
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those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of
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these or kindred subjects content me as little as any.
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Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the
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institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it. They
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speak of moving society, but have no resting-place without
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it. They may be men of a certain experience and
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discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and
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even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them; but
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all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very
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wide limits. They are wont to forget that the world is not
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governed by policy and expediency. Webster never goes
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behind government, and so cannot speak with authority about
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it. His words are wisdom to those legislators who
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contemplate no essential reform in the existing government;
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but for thinkers, and those who legislate for all tim, he
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never once glances at the subject. I know of those whose
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serene and wise speculations on this theme would soon reveal
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the limits of his mind's range and hospitality. Yet,
|
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compared with the cheap professions of most reformers, and
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the still cheaper wisdom an eloquence of politicians in
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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,
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his quality is not wisdom, but prudence. The lawyer's truth
|
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is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
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Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not
|
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concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist
|
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with wrong-doing. He well deserves to be called, as he has
|
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been called, the Defender of the Constitution. There are
|
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really no blows to be given him but defensive ones. He is
|
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not a leader, but a follower. His leaders are the men of
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'87. "I have never made an effort," he says, "and never
|
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propose to make an effort; I have never countenanced an
|
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effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to disturb
|
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the arrangement as originally made, by which various States
|
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came into the Union." Still thinking of the sanction which
|
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the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because it was
|
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part of the original compact--let it stand."
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Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is
|
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unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations,
|
|
and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the
|
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intellect--what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here
|
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in American today with regard to slavery--but ventures, or
|
|
is driven, to make some such desperate answer to the
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following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a
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private man--from which what new and singular of social
|
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duties might be inferred? "The manner," says he, "in which
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the governments of the States where slavery exists are to
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regulate it is for their own consideration, under the
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responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of
|
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propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God. Associations
|
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formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or
|
|
any other cause, have nothing whatever to do with it. They
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have never received any encouragement from me and they never
|
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will. [These extracts have been inserted since the lecture
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was read -HDT]
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They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have
|
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traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by
|
|
the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with
|
|
reverence and humanity; 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
|
|
fountainhead.
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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
|
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legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of
|
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free trade and of freed, 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 last 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
|
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|
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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 I have also imagined, but not yet
|
|
anywhere seen.
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Typed by:
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Sameer Parekh (zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM) 1-12-91
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