（金）Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, Part I

Civil Disobedience Part One

The American Government

Paragraphs 2 and 3
Henry David Thoreau thinks that government does not have the power and force of actual human beings. Government is powerless without people themselves. But government is still necessary. Government can enforce the law and should help people to live and to prevent fights among the people. But government never accomplishes anything by itself unless it does so by getting out of the way. As Thoreau says, "It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate (the people)." Henry David Thoreau wants a government that responds to the needs of the people.

Paragraph 4
People follow the law even they think it is not right, because governments are physically strong. If there are six people in a company and two people disagree with some idea, the two have to follow them even their conscience tells them not to. Most people think war is not good in the world. They hope for peace. But most people also think that we need to go fight if a few people in the government decide to go to war. Thoreau thinks it is not desirable to have too much respect for the law, since the law can be abused by only a few men for selfish reasons.

I understand what Henry David Thoreau wanted to say, because I was thinking about Japan. People want to stay with a group all the time, especially in school. They cannot say "no" even if they don't want to do something. I think Japanese people should respect their conscience and say what they think. It is important to respect our own ideas of what is right. If we don't, then we become like machines.

Nozomi Nakamura

The three kinds of men

A slave state was a U.S. state that enslaved African Americans. Slavery was one of the causes of the American Civil War and was abolished by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution in 1865.(Thoreau finished his essay in 1849 and died in 1862.)


The free and slave states as of 1861, with free states in blue and slave states in red. This map shows the United States after the war against Mexico (1846-1848).

My comments on Paragraphs 5-7:

In Paragraph 5, Henry David Thoreau explains that there are 3 types of men. First, there are men, such as soldiers, who use their bodies without their conciences to serve the state. Second, there are men who use only their heads. They are politicians or ministers. They control the first men. Although they use their heads and have power, they also do not act on their moral sense.
The third type of men, who are extremely rare, act on their conscience, on what they believe to be fair and true. They are reformers or political rebels. They try to improve the state when the state is bad. Thoreau says that a "very few... serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part." In other words, most men of conscience serve the state by resisting it.

In Paragraph 6, Thoreau argues that there is a difference in how the three types of men are viewed by society. On the one hand, the first and second types are believed to contribute to the welfare of the country, so they are called benefactors or philanthropists, while, on the other hand, the third type is believed to be useless and selfish. However, Thoreau thinks that the third type is the most useful to society because only the third type uses their body, mind, and their conscience.

In paragraph 7, how did the American government behave then? Henry David Thoreau said that he will not support the government as long as it is a slave state. It would be a disgrace to support it. These are his firm beliefs. Thoreau was jailed for his refusal to pay taxes to support the war, and penned his famous essay, "Civil Disobedience," after he got out of prison.

Shouko Matsumoto

Voting, Political Parties, and Duty

In Paragraph 11, Thoreau argues that voting is weak way to resist the government’s war against Mexico. Voting relies upon other people and requires the majority to vote for what is good or right, but the majority, which has the most power, usually only wants to help itself. People should vote to secure the full rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all, and not simply to support a majority. However, voting is always a weak way to resist because it relies upon chance and the majority.

In Paragraph 12, Thoreau explains why he does not support political parties. The party leaders decide who will be the candidates for the whole party and country. To vote for such candidates is like voting as a foreigner who does not understand the reasons why each candidate has been chosen. It is random and not based on knowledge. Therefore, Thoreau is not interested in the men who are chosen by powerful political parties to be candidates. He does not believe that the government should be composed on the basis of only a few men's opinions.

In Paragraph 13, Thoreau says that although it is not a man’s duty to end bad things, it is a man’s duty not to support them. People who pay taxes in a time of war support the war because their tax money is not only used to pay for the war, it is also a symbol of faithfulness and support. The thinking public say that they will not fight and that the war and slavery are no good, but these men do not act on what they know to be true; through their tax money, they support the war. However, because Thoreau was opposed to the war and to slavery, he did not pay his taxes and was put in jail.

I first thought that Thoreau was a bad man because he did not pay his taxes and was put in jail. However, I understand that he may be a rare but great person who was right to oppose war and slavery. Also, it is important that he thought that only talking was not enough. And he showed this idea in his own actions. Such thinking is marvelous. I think that his aggressive action was very important and that, with people like him, America can change for the better.

Minami Fukumoto

When and Why Should I Act?

1. A guide to Thoreau-related Internet sites

2. A few words about Thoreau's life and some of his famous words

3. What did Henry look like?

First, I want to say something about the Declaration of Independence (アメリカ合衆国独立宣言). What were its main ideas?

It was necessary for Americans to free themselves from political regulation by England, because people in the American colony paid taxes to England, but they couldn't vote. People living in the colony didn't have full rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some of them wanted to stand up to England and declare their equality as human beings (and some of them did not). In the argument of the Declaration, governments are established among men to protect these rights. However, if the government does not protect people's rights, a new government must be created. It is founded on such principles and organization for and by the people. In this way, the government is most likely to protect and improve their safety and happiness. So, the main idea of the Declaration is that a government is an artificial creation. It is made to help the people. If it does not help the people, the people should reject it.

This is important to understand because, in resisting the government, Thoreau respected the main idea of the United States Declaration of Independence.

My explanation of paragraphs 8-10:

Paragraph 8
Is the time to resist now or should we wait?
One of every six people living in America at the time was a slave. The government taxed the people to its own advantage. Mexico was unfairly overrun and conquered by the America army (in the two-year Mexican-American war), and was controlled by strict military law. For these reasons, Thoreau writes in "Civil Disobedience" that he thinks that "it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and reform." This means that, for him, individuals needed to hurry up in resisting the government. That's is to say, Thoreau believe that, no matter what the consequence, because the government is bad, individuals should resist it now and not wait any longer.

Paragraph 9
Should we act or consequence of resisting the government?
This paragraph compares acting for the good with the idea of acting for good consequences. Thoreau did act, because he didn't pay tax without worrying about the results of his action. Therefore, he was put in jail for one one night. On the other hand, William Paley, an English theologian & philosopher, believed that it was right to consider the consequences of actions before deciding to act. He thought of his own advantage and judged decisions by a standard of convenience, so he didn't reflect too much on the principle. Instead of the question, "Is my act good or is it bad?," he asked,"are the consequences of my act going to be good or bad?" (On Paley) Thoreau, however, was not a practical thinker. For him, the American people must not support slavery and must not support the war against Mexico, no matter if the consequences are terrible (for instance, if the government is destroyed).

Paragraph 10
Who is the enemy?
This paragraph talks about the people of Massachusetts. Americans seem to agree with Paley's thinking. Nobody wants Massachusetts to do the right thing if the consequences are bad. The Union is divided between the free North and the slave South, but few people want them to separate. Merchants and farmers--the people who make money--aren't willing to fight for the equality of slaves and freedom of Mexicans. They returned slaves to the South and thought about their money, so they thought only about their own advantages. However, their thinking gradually changed. Some politicians understood that as one big country, the Union would be powerful. Abraham Lincoln fought the Civil War against the South, because the South wanted to leave the Union. However, he defeated the South to keep the Union together.

But the Civil War came at the end of Thoreau's life. During his life, he saw the North and South cooperate to keep slavery going. That is why Thoreau said that, of 1,000 men, 999 people only talk about what is right to do, while only one does the right thing; 999 people out of 1,000 said that the "government is bad, it's not fair, keeps slaves, etc...", but Thoreau was a rare man because he did not believe that talking was good enough. For him, the people of Massachusetts acted like Paley.


(自由の女神像)

My feeling about these paragraphs and Thoreau.
In reading Thoreau's essay, I understood some historical background for the economy, life, and politics of America and England. Before I understood Thoreau's thinking, I thought he must be a bad man, because he didn't pay his tax (called a "poll-tax"). However, now that I know why he didn't pay it, I see that he was one of the only men who put his ideas into action. The paragraphs I studied were difficult to understand, but the content is interesting and contains a variety of comparisons (analogies or metaphors). In the end, I agree with Thoreau: if a single man does not act on his conscience, then the American government, or any government, will not change for the better.

Rina Ishihara