Article Review" Thoreau's On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

This famous essay was attached to my copy of the book, and it is fitting. Along with Walden, it is the most famous of Thoreau's works, having influenced Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped to provide a spark of influence for both the movement for Indian independence, as well as the Civil Rights movement, both of which were nonviolent in nature.

This is a piece that should be seen, rightly, as a companion piece to Walden, since Thoreau wrote this during his time at Walden, after having spend a night in jail.

In many respects, it is in the same spirit of withdrawal from the power of society that Walden has, only this more specifically addresses the crime of institutionalized slavery, which itself was legal at the time (in some states).

Thoreau talks of the need to stand up to injustice (it is not called "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience for nothing, after all) where one finds it, and that when the power of government is utilized to justify or reinforce something that we know is wrong, then it is our responsibility to stand up to that wrong, because moral right is on our side.

He does not restrict injustice to slavery alone, but also rails against the unjust Mexican War (which was then often disparagingly referred to as Mr. Polk's War, after President Polk, who largely initiated it), and he describes how these actions, and the power of the government behind them, were actually reminiscent of the abusive and tyrannical power of the British Empire that the colonists fought for independence against.

Thoreau also mentions, in some detail, a night that he spent in jail, during which he speaks as if he were the one that was free within the jail cells, and those on the outside, unbeknownst to them, were the real prisoners, although they may have been unaware of it. Thoreau speaks of Concord during that night that he spent in jail, and how it was all very different. He paid attention to noises that he had never quite paid attention to before, including the sounds of passing traffic on the roadway, and he could recognize the relation between this town and an Old World town during the days of feudalism, with the residents like peasants tied to the land. He famously says that in any society that imprisons people unjustly, the just place for a man is behind bars.

This piece was published after his death, but the power of the message carried Thoreau to a fame, and even perhaps some measure of immortality, following his actual death. The essay grew in popularity, and within a few years of it's widespread circulation, the term "civil disobedience" became a commonplace expression, as it has largely been ever since.

It is also here that Thoreau famously said, "That government is best that governs not at all."

Thoreau wrote this essay during the time when he was staying in the woods at Walden, and since it, along with Walden, constitutes his most famous work, they are often viewed as companion pieces.