Thoreau And Civil Disobedience

One night in July, 1846, while Henry David Thoreau was keep a quiet life on the shores of Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, he was jailed for failing to buy off his taxes. He was released the next mean solar day because some ace, probably his aunt, paid the tax. He gave a public bait in 1848 at the Concord Lyceum to explain to his lodge his reasons for refusing to pay the tax. The text of that lecture was first published in 1849, under the title Resistance to Civil Government. The essay, now cognise as Civil disobedience, was written to argue the deterrent example need of resisting the institution of slavery, which the United States war against Mexico sought to ext revoke. Civil Disobedience has become one of the ethical cornerstones of nonviolent resistance tendencys. It is cognize to have been an inspiration to Mohandas Gandhi, who led the passive resistance movement for the liberation of India from British colonial rule. Thoreaus ideas also influenced Martin Luther King, jr.s Civil Rights movement and the Ameri do-nothing struggle to end the Vietnam War.

Thoreau did not find his identity in association with another(prenominal) people who sh atomic number 18d his background. Rather, he believed his truest identity would be found in differentiating himself from the common herd of humanity, which he saw as mediocre, mor in ally lazy, and cowardly.



He was an individualist; he held that each individuals responsibility is to follow the highest leadings of personal conscience. Ultimate moral authority emanates from individual judgment, and getting out of its way is one of the most important things a just government can do. Civil law and the power of the democratic majority are secondary to the higher moral law as it is discerned by the individual. In cases in which civil government conflicts with personal conscience, Thoreau advocates withdrawing all support from that government immediately, without waiting to change the law or public opinion. Withdrawal of supportsuch as the refusal to pay taxes or to serve...If you want to get a full essay, dedicate it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com



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