文档介绍：On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience
by Henry David Thoreau
1
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
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 the 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 paratively 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 his 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 plicated machinery or other, and hear its
din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments
show thus how essfully men can be imposed upon, 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 o