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10 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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"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.
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This PARADOX means that governments should trust their citizens to make their own decisions or that, in an ideal world, people would not need governments at all.
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The objections which have been brought against a standing army... 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 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.
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Thoreau uses a logical comparison, or analogy. Because a standing government is like a standing army, it should be disbanded as soon is it is no longer needed. He ends the paragraph with another logical point: a government is subject to being manipulated by a few powerful people, contrary to the wishes of the majority of individuals.
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... 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.
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He is saying that the government is not as forceful as one individual and can accomplish nothing on its own. He is essentially pointed a finger at the government and saying that it cannot take credit for much, because the American people get more done when it gets out of their way.
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I ask for, not at once no government, but at once better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
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Thoreau is making the assumption that all citizens bear the responsibility of communicating their ideas about the kind of government they want. This is an underlying principle of civil disobedience.
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Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?... Must the citizen ever for a moment,... 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.
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Thoreau sees that majority rule can go against a person's conscience. If he feels something is not right, he cannot follow it. The only law that can rule over him is law that he believe is right according to his conscience.
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It is not a man's duty... to devote himself to the eradication of any 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...
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Thoreau means that it is not necessarily a man's duty to destroy all wrongs in the world, but at the very least he must not do anything to support any wrongs. For example, he disapproves of slavery and will not buy products from the South, because he will not add to the profits of slave owners.
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I know this well, that,...--- if ten HONEST men only... ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this [paying of taxes], and be locked up in the county jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: What is once well done is done forever...
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Thoreau says that if men would give up slaves, and would start to refuse to pay taxes to support a government that supports slavery, that more people would be inspired and slavery would be abolished.
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On being put in prison, he writes:
I could not help but smile to see how industriously they locked the door,... and they were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; ... I saw that the State was half-witted, ... and that it does not know its friends from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and pitied it... |
Thoreau finds it ironic that the state locks him up, when in his opinion, it is the state that is the one that is dangerous. He feels the state is foolhardy and doesn't know right from wrong, so he cannot respect it.
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To be strictly just, [the government] 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.
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Thoreau is saying that the government gets its power from the people: if the people don't give it rights over them, it has no power.
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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.
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Thoreau is saying that the government can only become closer to its ideal when it recognizes the importance and power of the individual, and treats the individual with respect. He wants a government that is fair to all people. He is thinking of slavery.
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