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 they will have.” 

This paradoxical description of limited government is Thoreau’s opening line, but it also represents what he hopes will be the end result of the civil disobedience he espouses. Citizens must be willing to break the law to purge the government of its impurities and injustices. Then, citizens must prepare themselves for a new form of government in which they are their own rulers and can follow the higher moral laws they believe and government can trust them to govern themselves. Or, if not that, Thoreau at least believes he and other self-reliant people ought to be free to escape the control of the government. Regardless, by opening the essay with these lines, Thoreau establishes the view he spends the rest of the essay defending.

“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.” 

The government is created by the people and derives all its power from the will of the people. However, Thoreau argues that the will of the people can easily be corrupted by a powerful few, as has been the case with the Mexican-American War, which was created by a few people using the government as its tool. The people’s will is not reflected in all that the government does, and so the people must no longer support the corrupt and perverted aspects of government (or potentially the government as a whole).