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Authorial figuresIntroduction
American thinkers have also participated in the emergence of American Democracy in their quest of freedomand equality. Among them, Henry David Thoreau author of Civil Disobedience and Walt Whitman the poetof democracy.
Thoreau’s
Civil disobedience
Thoreau was an American essayist and philosopher who contributed to the development of a nationalconsciousness. Like the transcendentalists, he believed that the spiritual reality (God) was embedded in physical reality (Nature). Thoreau's essay is both an abstract work of political theory and a practical andtopical work addressing the issues of the day. On the one hand, Thoreau is making several theoretical claimsabout the nature of democracy and the relationship between citizen and government. On the other hand, heapplies this theory to criticize American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and theMexican-American War.
Section I: Government and DemocracyCriticism of government and democracy
-
Government does not achieve its duties
The American government is necessary because
"the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have."
However, the only times whengovernment has been useful has been when it has stood aside. Thoreau says that government does not, infact, achieve its duties: it does not keep the country free, settle the West, or educate. Rather, theseachievements come from the character of the American people, and they would have been even moresuccessful in these actions had government been even less involved. Thoreau views government as afundamental obstruction to the people that it claims to represent. Thoreau cites as a prime example theregulation of trade and commerce, and its negative effect on the forces of the free market.
-
Government is perverted and abused
His distrust of government stems from the tendency of the latter to be
"perverted and abused"
before the people can actually express their will through it. A case in point is the Mexican war, orchestrated by a smallélite of individuals who have manipulated government to their advantage against popular will. Governmentinherently lends itself to oppressive and corrupt uses since it enables a few men to impose their will on themajority and to profit economically from their own position of authority.-
Majority rule
Deeply skeptical of government, Thoreau objects
to the notion of majority rule
on which democracy istheoretically founded, noting that the position of the majority, however legitimate in democratic terms, is nottantamount to a moral position. A wise man will not leave justice to the chance of a majority vote. Themajority will end up voting their interest, voting for what will benefit them. In this sense, Thoreau criticizesthe integrity of politicians and the voting process, which significantly limits the ability of ordinary citizens toexpress their will in the first place.
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Individual duty
Therefore, a man has an obligation to act according to the dictates of his conscience, even if the latter goesagainst majority opinion, the presiding leadership, or the laws of the society. Thoreau writes,
“I think we
should be men first, and subjects afterward."
Thoreau evokes the figure of soldiers marching to their deathsin the cause of a conflict that they perceive as unjust because they consider service to their country to be anautomatic virtue. However, any act of service must always be conjoined with the exercise of conscience.
Utopic vision
Saying that he agrees with the motto,
"That government is best which governs least."
expresses Thoreau'slibertarian political sentiments and the idea that the most ideal form of government is one which exercisesthe least power and control over its citizens. Thoreau goes further to envision a society in which governmentis eliminated altogether because men have the capacity to be self-regulating and independent. The implieddissolution of the State is as much an expression of Thoreau's idealism a utopic vision. However, Thoreauthen says that speaking
"practically and as a citizen,"
he is not asking for the immediate elimination of government. Rather, for the moment, he is asking for a better government.
Section II: Resistance to Civil Government
Everyone agrees that unjust laws exist. The question is whether we should be content to obey them, weshould try to change them but obey until they are changed or we should disobey them at once.
Primacy of justice over expediency
Most people in a democracy believe that the second course is best. They believe that if they resist, therevolution would be worse than the injustice. Thoreau criticizes this attitude which aims at maintaining civilobligation for the sake of expediency and preserving the services offered by the government. ExpediencyThoreau argues, does not take precedence over justice. People must do what justice requires even if the costis greater than the injustice to be remedied.
Duty of revolting against injustice
In the American tradition, men have a recognized and cherished right of revolution. Thoreau argues that onehave not only the right, but indeed the duty, to rebel against injustices. In cases where the governmentsupports unjust or immoral laws, Thoreau's notion of service to one's country paradoxically takes the form of resistance against it. Resistance is the highest form of patriotism because it demonstrates a desire not tosubvert government but to build a better one in the long term.
Form of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience does, however, involve at least three restrictions.
-First
,
The act of resistance should specifically target the injustice to be remedied
. Thoreau does notadvocate a wholesale rejection of government, but resistance to those specific features deemed to be unjustor immoral. For instance, moral objection to a particular law does not authorize non-observance of all laws.Later in the essay, he will qualify his position by refusing to pay a poll tax (used to fund the Mexican war), but readily pays taxes for education and road maintenance.
-Second
,
the only effective and sincere way to express opposition is through concrete deeds and acts of resistance.
Thoreau believes that the real obstacle to reform lies with those who disapprove of the measuresof government while lending it their practical allegiance. He attacks those in his native state who profess to be against slavery in the South while participating in the commerce and agricultural trade that supports it.Anti-slavery sentiment by itself does not exempt someone from the charge of moral responsibility.
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At the very least, if an unjust government is not to be directly resisted, a man of true conviction must
"washhis hands"
of injustice and
avoid associating with it altogether
. Furthermore, he argues that if an individualsupports the unjust government in any way--even by simply respecting its authority as a government-- thenthat person is involved in injustices forwarded by the government. Thoreau declares,
"I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government which is the slave's government also."
A mandisgraces himself by associating with a government that treats even some of its citizens unjustly, even if he isnot the direct victim of its injustice.Thoreau turns to the issue of
effecting change through democratic means
. Voting for politicians opposedto slavery, and thus for justice, does not in itself qualify as a moral commitment to the abolition of an unjust practice; it simply registers the desire of the people that the right prevail.
-Third,
The means of resistance advocated and practiced by Thoreau are
nonviolent
. This attitude explainhis passive reaction to imprisonment.
Consequence of civil disobedience
Thoreau maintains,
"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is alsoa prison."
He calls on his fellow citizens to withdraw their support from the government of Massachusettsand risk being thrown in prison for their resistance. Forced to keep all men in prison or abolish slavery, theState would quickly exhaust its resources and choose the latter course of action. For Thoreau, out of theseacts of conscience flows
"a man's real manhood and mortality."
Thoreau explains that he has previously focused on imprisonment instead of confiscation of goods, primarily because those who are most committed to justice have typically avoided accumulating property and thus theyhave the greatest liberty to resist because they depend the least on the government for their own welfare and protection. However, the rich man is always sold to the institution that made him rich. The consequences of disobedience often seem too great, either to his property or to personal standing in society.Thoreau sees a paradoxically inverse relationship between money and freedom. As money increases, virtuedecreases. Money is a generally corrupting force because it binds men to the institutions and governmentresponsible for unjust practices and policies.
The legitimate use of civil disobedience
Thoreau faces the difficult philosophical task of circumscribing the legitimate uses of civil disobedience
.
While the essay focuses specifically on slavery in the United States, the logic behind civil disobediencecould be applied more generally to any number of grievances against government. Thoreau then returns tothe metaphor of the government-as-machine.He says that if an injustice is part of the
"necessary friction"
of the
"machine of government,"
then it should be left alone. Perhaps the machine will wear smooth; in any case, it will eventually wear out.However, if the government requires one to be an agent of injustice toward another, then Thoreau says onemust break the law
regardless of the outcomes. He urges the reader to be a
"counter-friction"
to the machineand not to participate in the wrong.
Section III: A Night in Prison
Thoreau now turns to his personal experiences with civil disobedience. He says that he hasn't paid a poll taxfor six years and that he spent a night in jail once because of this. His contemplation of the prison walls leadshim to reflect on the split between mind and body. Whereas the State considers physical confinement a formof punishment Thoreau realizes that the punishment is inadequate and useless in his case, since his thoughts
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