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This is a fairly accurate description of not only Thoreau’s life but his writings, as
well. In his essay Civil Disobedience, these transcendentalist ideals are clarified via
Thoreau’s personal philosophy and become the core point of the speech: it is the
duty of the individual to remedy the inexpediency of government. A night in jail is
oft-times a powerful inspiration, and Thoreau’s night of incarceration (for not
paying a poll tax intended to fund war with Mexico) is no different. His struggle to
do right and be heard resulted in his penning Civil Disobedience, first as a speech and
then later as an essay.
It is important to note here that Thoreau does not strictly adhere to classical
oratorical arrangement; in fact, he seems to toss it about like so much salad.
However, upon close reading, it can be argued that he does, in fact, employ a micro-
arrangement technique within particular sections of the essay. Thoreau employs
this micro-arrangement technique much in the way a boxer weaves and slips in a
match. The back-and-forth structure of the essay moves the audience in close to
Thoreau’s true point, yet pulls safely away at the last moment to avoid damning
confrontation. The essay’s structure and its argument against inexpedient
government simultaneously obscure and reveal Thoreau’s implicit thesis, his attack
upon the audience themselves.
Theses
The explicit thesis of Civil Disobedience is simple. It is the duty of the people
to act when government has become inexpedient. This is made plain in the
introductory paragraph. “Government is at best but an expedient; but most
governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient…Witness
the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not have
consented to this measure.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶1)
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Had Thoreau announced this outright in a lyceum full of colleagues,
neighbors, and friends, he most likely would have been tossed out on his ear. Most
people do not take kindly to being told they are not only unethical, but are also
immoral cogs in a machine of their own making. “The government itself, which is
only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to
be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” (Thoreau,
1993/1894, ¶ 1) This idea explains why the original title of the speech is ‘On the
Duty of Civil Disobedience’ and not ‘the really good idea of Civil Disobedience’.
Paragraph 18 seems to state this idea most clearly:
“If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government,
let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth—certainly the machine will
wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank,
exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will
not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be
the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a
counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate,
that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.” (Thoreau,
1993/1894, ¶ 18)
Essay Analysis
Thoreau begins the essay by stating, “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That
government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more
rapidly and systematically.” (Thoreau, 1849/1993, ¶ 1) It is a shout to his
audience, a request that they sit up and pay careful attention to what he is about to
discuss.
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“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…[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.” (Thoreau, 1849/1993, ¶
36)
“I have paid no poll tax for six years…[The State] 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.” (Thoreau, 1849/1993, ¶ 26)
“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
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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 should flow. Is there not a sort of blood shed when the
conscience is wounded? Through this wound a man's real manhood and
immortality flow out, and he bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood
flowing now.” (Thoreau, 1849/1993, ¶ 22)
Yet, just as we will see how he ignores the strict rules of classical oratorical
arrangement, he also disregards the strict rules of rhetorical discourse. His speech is
judicial, deliberative, and ceremonial by turns. One moment he is exhorting the
immorality of inexpedient government, the next he is epideictic, discussing a
pastoral huckleberry hunt and providing a poignant counterpoint to his night in jail.
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“When I was let out the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and,
having put on my mended shoe, joined a huckleberry party, who were
impatient to put themselves under my conduct; and in half an hour—for the
horse was soon tackled—was in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our
highest hills, two miles off, and then the State was nowhere to be seen.”
(Thoreau, 1849/1993, ¶ 34)
Section Analysis
Civil Disobedience, the version we are now most familiar with (Thoreau,
1849/1993), is an essay consisting of 45 paragraphs. For this paper, the essay has
been divided into eight sections, excluding Thoreau’s introduction and conclusion:
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current, and yet his obstinate personal sense of right and wrong eventually results
in the effective breaking of classical rules.
Sections 2 and 3 employ all of the above oratorical tools but they are not
arranged in the classical order. Combined, these two sections make up a complete
oratory within the overall speech due to Thoreau’s micro-arrangement of the
classical oratorical tools. Section 2 discusses Resistance—the Individual’s moral
obligation to resist an unjust government and section 3 addresses Thoreau’s attack
upon government and upon the People—why they are both immoral.
When sections 2 and 3 are read closely they are found to begin and end in the
classical tradition, beginning with exordium and concluding with peroratio.
However, it is how Thoreau realigns the other classical oratorical tools within this
structure that is interesting. When the paragraphs of the sections are broken down,
the following sectional structure is found:
Section 2
¶ 8 Exordium
narratio
confirmatio
¶ 9 Refutatio
Section 3
¶ 10 Narratio
¶ 11 Confirmatio
¶ 12 Partitio
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¶ 13 Confirmatio
¶ 14 Partitio
¶ 15 Peroratio
¶ 16 Peroratio
This structure lends to Thoreau’s approach to both of the essay’s theses, leading the
audience to one, then backing away and diverting their attention to the other. In this
way he is able to overtly express the problem of government and subtly express the
true cause of inexpedient government: the People or, more exactly, the actions and
inactions of the Individual.
“All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance
to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great
and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was
the case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was
a bad government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its
ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do
without them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough
good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir
about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and
robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In
other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken
to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun
and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it
is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty
the more urgent is that fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but
ours is the invading army.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 8)
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The first sentence of paragraph 8 is the exordium of sections 2 and 3. “All
men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to
resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and
unendurable.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 8) But paragraph 8 also includes confirmatio
and peroratio.
“But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the case,
they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad
government because it taxed certain foreign commodities brought to its ports,
it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without
them. All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to
counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it.”
(Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 8)
Here Thoreau is offering up a logical argument, the confirmatio, “it is a great evil
make a stir about it.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 8) He is pointedly saying that the
current government is just as inexpedient as the government Americans rebelled
against in 1775. He then states a peroratio, issuing a call to action and an appeal
through pathos:
“But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery
are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer…[In] other
words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be
the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and
conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not
too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶
8)
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philosopher, and utilitarian, is best known for his God as a Watchmaker analogy.
(William Paley)) Paley’s counter is, “so long as the interest of the whole society
requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or
changed without public inconvenience, it is the will of God . . . that the established
government be obeyed...” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 9) and effectively stating that cost
analysis is the proper measure for contemplating the value of obeying government.
Thoreau counters with a demand for justice, “Paley appears never to have
contemplated those cases to which the rule of expediency does not apply, in which a
people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. “ (Thoreau,
1993/1849, ¶ 9) Thoreau intimates that the Individual’s duty of obtaining justice
cannot be ignored because of perceived “ public inconvenience”.
“A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to
prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the
action of masses of men. When the majority shall at length vote for the
abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or because
there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote. They will then be the
only slaves.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 11)
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“[The respectable man] forthwith adopts one of the candidates thus selected as
the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any
purposes of the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any
unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been bought.
(Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 12)
These paragraphs are stating that the individual makes himself submissive to
government through both inaction (not voting) and action (voting). Yet Thoreau
provides the individual with what he announces as the only redemptive action,
available and reminds him of his moral duty to take on this recommended action in
the confirmatio of paragraph 13:
Thoreau again uses partitio in paragraph 14, again stating the point at issue,
“The broadest and most prevalent error requires the most disinterested virtue to
sustain it.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 14)
“If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest
satisfied with knowing you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or
even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take effectual steps at
once to obtain the full amount, and see to it that you are never cheated again.
Action from principle, the perception and the performance of right, changes
things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not consist wholly
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with anything which was. It not only divided States and churches, it divides
families; ay, it divides the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the
divine.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 15)
“All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance
to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great
and unendurable…[Men], generally, under such a government as this, think
that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil.
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But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the
evil. It makes it worse.“ (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 8, 16)
This, then, establishes the overall argument expressed within sections 2 and
3, which is Thoreau’s explicit thesis. However, Thoreau’s micro-arrangement
method also brings to light his implicit thesis: the People must cease their immoral
actions by ceasing to support the machine. “Let your life be a counter-friction to stop
the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the
wrong which I condemn.” (Thoreau, 1993/1849, ¶ 18)
In Conclusion
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References
Levin, J. (2003). Introduction. In G. Stade (Ed.), Walden and Civil Disobedience (pp.
xii-xxxiv). New York: Barnes & Noble Books.
Mott, W. (2009). Civil disobedience. The Walden Woods Project. Retrieved October
12, 2010 from
http://www.walden.org/Library/About_Thoreau's_Life_and_Writings:_The_Researc
h_Collections/Civil_Disobedience
Witherell, E., Dubrulle, E. (1995). Life and times of Henry David Thoreau. The
Writings of Henry D. Thoreau. Retrieved October 13, 2010 from
http://www.library.ucsb.edu_thoreau_thoreau_life.html.html?
s=9ca9170a0ca10d1cc52b14861abbe7b5
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