Henry David Thoreaus On the Duty of Civil Disobedience By: Salma Bah

1. By stating That government is best which governs least That government is best which governs not at all. Thoreau is revealing his view on the government. In other words, Thoreau does not believe the government is the best option for control and stability, throughout the text; it is evident that Thoreau believes that each their own should follow their own conscience versus the government deciding their conscience for them. Obviously, from this statement, the audience is able to identify that Thoreau is not exactly fond of the government. Thoreau uses slavery and the Mexican-American War as an example to back up his argument.

2. The central argument Thoreau mainly focuses on is the conscience of the people. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong but conscience? With this Thoreau is asking the audience, is there a way decisions can be made without laws deciding the right from wrong but from a conscience? Thoreau believes that I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterwards. Thoreau uses an example of soldiers, colonel, captains, corporal, privates, and powder-monkeys for this, stating all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their own will, ay, against their common sense and consciences expressing how these men are completely clueless to what theyre doing or why, this is not their conscience speaking to them, but rather a system telling them to do this action; If these men were to act from their conscience maybe of them would not be marching those hill for theyll find it pointless.

3. Thoreau states how unjust laws exist and questions whether shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? by this Thoreau is making the audience question the acceptance of unjust laws. Thoreau wants to fuel their imagination and make them question unjust laws and its effects on the population by showing them that doing or not doing anything allows government to take advantage of their authority. Thoreau shows the people that if they do not question the amount of power they allow the government; it can cost them their freedom and liberties under a unjust government that abuses laws. For this reason, Thoreau asks Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?. Thoreau wants to influence the citizens to a rational and critical mindset to not bow down to authority out of laziness or fear, but instead be able to question everything a government does before it turns into a abusive and eventually powerful.

4. Thoreaus periodic sentence I know this well, that if one thousandslavery in America, Thoreau was specifically stating that if a certain number of men ranging first from thousands to even as low as one honest man, refuses to hold slaves, it would create a drive that naturally would change the status quo. The change would make more people who wanted to hold on to the slaves do the same thing as this honest man, and naturally the domino effects will take place from this honest man or group of thousands. The honest man or group of thousands going to jail for choosing to go against the grain and the status quo would be exactly what builds up the force of abolition of slavery in America.

5. Concluding Civil Disobedience Thoreau discusses the criteria for a perfect and glorious state and the hopes of the government in the future. Starting off, Thoreau mentions how he wishes that as the US, we can do better for ourselves by expressing, for I will cheerfully obey those who know and can do better than I, and in many things even those who neither know nor can do so well. In hopes of improving ourselves Thoreau questions whether democracy is the best of our ability, Is a democracy, such as we know it, the last improvement possible in government? Is it not possible to take a step further towards recognizing and organizing the rights of man? and with this, Thoreau does not believe that it is. Rather, Thoreau believes that we can stretch further than democracy and recognize the individuals as a higher and independent power, in other words, we as the people, can rule ourselves.