Civil Disobedience

2023 Reprint of the 1903 Edition. Thoreau’s famous essay was published originally with the title On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, now often referred to as Civil Disobedience. He wrote it as a protest against an unjust but popular war and the immoral but popular institution of slave owning. He did more than write–he declined to pay his taxes and was hauled off to jail as a consequence. Thoreau asserts that because governments are typically more harmful than helpful, they therefore cannot be justified. Democracy is no cure for this, as majorities simply by virtue of being majorities do not also gain the virtues of wisdom and justice. The judgment of an individual’s conscience is not necessarily inferior to the decisions of a political body or majority. The government, according to Thoreau, is not just a little corrupt or unjust in the course of doing its otherwise important work, but in fact the government is primarily an agent of corruption and injustice. Because of this, it is “not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize”.