Joaquin Novoa
American Literature 1500
Mrs. De Aguiar
14 March 2015
A Call to Disobedience: The American Legacy of Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
When Henry David Thoreau separated himself from society in order to live at his cozy cabin at Walden Pond, he wanted to understand more about living in true liberty. One day, Thoreau decided to take a walk into town. His contemporary Ralph Waldo Emerson once remarked that taking a walk with Thoreau was like “walking with an encyclopedia”—Thoreau “recognized every animal track, every wildflower, and every bird call” (“Thoreau Spends Night in Jail”). Little did he know that he would end up arrested and in jail for his failure to pay poll taxes. Thoreau had resisted paying poll taxes for six years, and he had no intentions of starting. As he sat contemplating the freedom of the birds flying outside from his jail cell in the Concord Jail the seeds of one of his most famous works, an essay titled “Civil Disobedience,” were planted in his mind. He was only in jail for one day, but “it was not the brevity of his stay that angered him, but the interference with his act of conscience.” Thoreau discovered he was bailed out of jail by an anonymous person who paid his overdue poll taxes. Upon hearing the news that someone else had paid his taxes for him, Thoreau wasn’t really thankful for the help. Instead, he was actually upset. His decision to not pay poll taxes had been completely conscientious, so he was furious when a stranger foiled his plans and broke his defiance of a dishonest government Thoreau channeled this fury into his groundbreaking essay “Civil Disobedience” which challenged accepted authority, causing a stir in the American mind, and precipitating a hurricane of new thinking.
“Civil Disobedience” awakened the dormant American spirit of revolution, encouraging Americans to “fight the power.” Henry David Thoreau believed that the the problems of the society were that citizens would obey the State robotically instead of using critical thinking and moral judgments. “The roots of passive resistance which found their greatest expression in Thoreau’s writing influenced important historical figures around the world such as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to stand up to their oppressive governments” (xxx). Governments had historically expected uncritical cooperation from their citizenry, or else they faced the violent power of government. These men were influenced by Thoreau’s words when they rejected this notion. For example, the Russian Orthodox Tolstoy believed in Christian anarchy and that people should live by Christian morals instead of laws. However, Thoreau did not invite blind followers, preferring his beliefs to be considered slowly and accepted by the conscience. “The modern concept of civil disobedience was perhaps most clearly formulated by [Mahatma] Gandhi” (“Civil Disobedience”). Gandhi, a fearless defender of nonviolence, organized his famous Salt March to the sea in order to protest the British salt monopoly that was a symbol for British domination of India. His nonviolent march was vindicated when India achieved independence from Great Britain in 1947, but he would be assassinated less than a year later. More Americans have heard the story of the Baptist minister Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. During the Civil Rights era in the 1960s, Dr. King fought for equality for all Americans. His Christianity motivated him to stage the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches. Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and was assassinated in 1968 the day after his electrifying “Mountaintop” speech. He famously closed that speech saying, “I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” It was this unshakeable confidence in the triumph of good over evil and right over might that empowered Dr. King to speak those words. Henry David Thoreau would never pay the ultimate price for his civil disobedience, but his writings emboldened future leaders to make even greater sacrifices for the cause of human liberty.
These leaders were inspired by Thoreau’s writings, but weren’t frightened to challenge the government’s platform. Henry David Thoreau said that slavery was bad for the society even if the government was still in favor of slavery. In other words, the government was not an ultimate moral authority and could be wrong. Since the government could do whatever they want in terms of passing legislation it did not mean that its individual citizens have to follow them if they are morally wrong. Thoreau argued that the only correct way to challenge the government was to peacefully employ “civil disobedience”—“a form of sociopolitical protest consisting of the deliberate and intentional breaking of law that is believed to be unjust” (“Civil Disobedience”). There are certain criteria that must be met for an act to be considered civil disobedience. First, people should try to find remedies via traditional legal and political channels. If nothing changes, then the only way to proceed is by breaking the law conscientiously in order to follow what is right. Genuine civil disobedience is also not a private act, but rather an act usually in the public square that has the ability to show others the injustice that is being protested. Protesters also need to tell others the reason why they are doing this in order to change people’s minds. Dissidents should never use any violent means or instigate chaos to accomplish their goal. Instead, dissidents should be ready to take legal responsibility for their actions rather than resist arrest or attempt retaliation. Thoreau’s believed that “[putting] conscience at the service of law is to deny conscience and therefore ultimately to vitiate the law and the government behind it” (Bankston).
Like many libertarians, Thoreau held the view that less taxation would help people because taxes kept people from realizing their full liberty. He quipped that the tax-gatherer could only accomplish justice by resigning his post. In “Civil Disobedience” he writes:
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.”
Thoreau’s writing caused a stir in the American consciousness that sometimes excused immoral behavior on the part of its government. “Civil Disobedience” underlined the supremacy of conscience over law. One needs to stay true to oneself and one’s beliefs. “Actions such as Thoreau’s are sometimes described as ‘conscientious refusal,’ refusing to obey a law that requires one to act immorally” (Nathanson). Through his criticism people started to follow in his footsteps by also civilly disobeying the authorities. As a result, “Civil Disobedience is frequently described as one of the founding documents of modern political activism” (Bankston).
The government cannot tell people what is right and wrong, even though they try to do so; this is why Henry David Thoreau believed that man was given a conscience. When governments commit injustice, “to act in ways that cause ‘friction’ in the ‘machinery’ of injustice is not itself unjust, but rather quite the contrary” (“Civil Disobedience”).
By saying this, “[Thoreau’s] refusal to pay the poll tax does not come from any moral compulsion to right the wrongs of the world, but from the ethical desire to avoid doing wrong himself” (“Civil Disobedience”). Thoreau thought that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” so by shining light on the government’s corruption he would able to change the minds of Americans to join him. By not paying poll-taxes, Thoreau did not want to support slavery in Mexico which could come as a result of the Mexican-American War.
“Civil Disobedience” precipitated a hurricane of new thinking in American society by challenging people to find the truth for themselves and live according to it. By Thoreau’s measure, the revolution is over once citizens achieve “critical” allegiance of their government and the government’s officials have resigned all unjust offices. To do this everyone must go by their own moral compass and not by government policies. If one believes that the government is always right, then one surrenders his brain to the government.
Henry David Thoreau left Concord Jail fuming because his civil disobedience was cut short. Instead of being happy about it, he felt that his right to commit civil disobedience had been taken away. Thoreau’s anger ultimately became the seed of “Civil Disobedience,” his essay that would challenge accepted authority, causing a stir in the American mind, and precipitating a hurricane of new thinking. Thoreau’s words continue to remind us, “Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also prison.
Works Cited
Bankston, Carl L. III. “Thoreau’s Case for Political Disengagement.” Modern Age 52.1 (2010): Gt. General OneFile. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
“Civil Disobedience.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.
“Civil Disobedience.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Ed. William A. Darity, Jr. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillian Reference USA, 2008. U.S. History in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
Disalvo, Charles. “Civil Disobedience: An American Tradition.” Political Science Quarterly 129.4 (2014): 723. General OneFile. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
“Henry David Thoreau.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 04 Mar. 2015.
“Henry David Thoreau Spends Night in Jail.” Mass Moments: Henry David Thoreau Spends Night in Jail. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
Nathanson, Stephen. “Civil Disobedience.” Encyclopedia of Philosophy Ed. Donald M. Bochert. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2006. Opposing Viewpoint in Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2015.
Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” Civil Disobedience: Henry David Thoreau. 1849. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.