 This is Classics of Liberty from Libertarianism.org and the Cato Institute, narrated by Caleb Brown. Today's classic is Selections from Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. A fiercely independent thinker, Henry David Thoreau beat his own path literally and metaphorically, often in defiance of the social, political, and legal norms of his time. Thoreau passionately believed that each individual should have the freedom and the space to form his own opinions, make his own judgments, and choose the lifestyle that inspired him. Thoreau was one of a group of forward-thinking philosophers known as the transcendentalists, which put him at the vanguard of libertarian agitation opposing war, slavery, and taxation. This essay was first published in 1849 as Resistance to Civil Government. Today, the essay known as Civil Disobedience is a classic of libertarian thought. Thoreau subversively argues that the individual need not resign his conscience to the legislator, that instead he should be activated at all times by the obligation simply to do what he believes is right, even if that means violating the law. Although we have no affirmative duty to resist it, we should nevertheless withdraw our support from injustice rather than continuing to be complicit in it. Unlike other philosophical thinkers whose ideas are confined to the page, Thoreau lived his life in accordance with his principles. When he deemed attacks unjust, he simply didn't pay it. When he preached self-reliance, he took to the woods, embracing a life of austere solitude. Because of the eloquence of its language and its forceful defense of freedom and self-determination in the face of tyrannical government, Civil Disobedience is destined to remain a libertarian classic. 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. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, that government is best which governs not at all. And when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best, but an expedient. But most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. 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. 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. This American government, what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity. But each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man, for a single man can bend it to its will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this. For the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished, and it would have done somewhat more if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone. And, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way. And if one were to judge these men wholly by the effects of their actions and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads. But to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no government men, I ask for not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it. After all, the practical reason why when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted and for a long period continue to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases cannot be based on justice even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience, in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a wit more just, and by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as my government, which is the slaves government also. All machines have their friction, and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance 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 the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army. It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong. He may still properly have other concerns to engage him, but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. Unjust laws exist. Shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? 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. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go. Per chance 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. As for adopting the ways which the state has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not everything to do but something, and because he cannot do everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account for one night. 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. I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the state to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually. In fact, I quietly declare war with the state after my fashion, though I will still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as is usual in such cases. However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free, that which is not never for a long time appearing to be to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him. I know that most men think differently from myself, but those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of these or kindred subjects content me as little as any. Statesmen and legislators standing so completely within the institution never distinctly and nakedly behold it. No man with a genius for legislation has appeared in America. Our legislators have not yet learned the comparative value of free trade and of freedom, of union and of rectitude to a nation. They have no genius or talent for comparatively humble questions of taxation and finance, commerce and manufacturers, and agriculture. If we were left solely to the wordy wit of legislators in Congress for our guidance, uncorrected by the seasonable experience and the effectual complaints of the people, America would not long retain her rank among the nations. The authority of government, even such as I am willing to submit to, or I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things, even those who neither know nor can do so well, is still an impure one. To be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property, but what I concede to it. The progress from an absolute to a limited monarchy, from a limited monarchy to a democracy, is a progress toward a true respect for the individual. There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power from which all its own power and authority are derived and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a state at least which can afford to be just to all men and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor, which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men. A state which bore this kind of fruit and suffered it to drop off as fast as it ripened would prepare the way for a still more perfect and glorious state, which also I have imagined, but not yet anywhere seen. That was Selections from Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. Find more classics of liberty at libertarianism.org.