Standing Government Essay

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A standing government and a standing army are ones that are in power and prepared to implement force and authority. A standing army comes with a standing government. Thoreau objects to both because they can be easily manipulated and abused by only a few individuals versus allowing the power to come from the people.
A wooden gun like an awaiting weapon that can be used when needed and when we give it power but is more for show, which Thoreau related to the government because it is only as dangerous as we allow it to be. He describes legislators to be like those “mischievous persons” (paragraph 2) who should be punished for their destruction.
Thoreau distinguished himself apart from non-government men because he is not altogether disregarding …show more content…

He is saying that we should not give up our conscience to the government and become just merely “subjects” (4), but we have the right to decide for ourselves what we think is just. When soldiers resign their consciences to their officers, they are neglecting their consciousness and becoming liable to the law and the law alone.
The three types of men who serve the state are the army men, the legislators, and the men. The most heroic of these groups, according to Thoreau, are the men for are the patriots and reformers. They are the ones who stick with their conscience and are not afraid to resist the state, even if that makes them the enemy.
His main objective to the government of 1848 is identifying with a government that allows slavery to be legal. To associate with a slave's government would be shameful. It is the right time to rebel against the government when the people know that is has become a dictatorship and no longer effective. When it is of a most urgent matter and the country has become corrupt, men should revolutionize.
Thoreau describes Paley’s thoughts on how it is necessary to break the law when the “interest of the whole of society require it” (9). In order to do good, it may come at a

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