Henry David Thoreau's Resistance To Civil Government

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Recommended: Summary of "Resistance to Civil Government" by Henry David Thoreau

Thomas Jefferson said, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." Fresh from a revolution, Jefferson warned against complacency with one's government. No matter the safeguards or good intentions set in place by founders, the role of a citizen is to hold accountable his leaders.

For that reason, civil disobedience is integral to the continuation of a free society. A government that is not questioned by its citizens is given unjust power. If a mandate is necessary for a thriving democracy, then civil disobedience demonstrates discontent with the powers that be. In the summer of 1846, Henry David Thoreau stayed a night in jail after refusing to pay taxes which would go towards funding the Spanish-American War. As the result of that war would lead to the acquisition of slave territory, Thoreau, an ardent abolitionist, chose imprisonment instead. Although the tax was quickly paid by Thoreau's aunt, the essay he wrote, entitled "Resistance to Civil Government," had wide-reaching effects, inspired revolutionaries from Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr.

The ripples of Thoreau's night in jail are still felt today. While he wrote about the injustice of slavery from his jail cell, today Black Lives Matter protesters occupy police departments and city halls and …show more content…

The historic Women's March which was attended by millions across the world would not be considered civil disobedience in America, where such a protest is protected, but the same is not true in other parts of the world, where freedom of speech does not exist. It is one of the strengths of the US Constitution that there are ways to create change without resorting to lawbreaking, but one must never forget that the founders included those protections because of their own experience with true

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