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discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal
ninety times nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go
at large again.

  If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of
government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear
smooth- certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a
spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself,
then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse
than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to
be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have
to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong
which I condemn.

  As for adopting the ways which the State has provided for
remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much
time, and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend
to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to
live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not
everything to do, but something; and because he cannot do
everything, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong.
It is not my business to be petitioning the Governor or the
Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and if they
should not bear my petition, what should I do then? But in this case
the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil. This
may seem to be harsh and stubborn and unconciliatory; but it is to
treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only spirit
that can appreciate or deserves it. So is an change for the better,
like birth and death, which convulse the body.

  I do not hesitate to say, that those who call themselves
Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their support,
both in person and property, from the government of Massachusetts, and
not wait till they constitute a majority of one, before they suffer
the right to prevail through them. I think that it is enough if they
have God on their side, without waiting for that other one.
Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority
of one already.

  I meet this American government, or its representative, the State
government, directly, and face to face, once a year- no more- in the
person of its tax-gatherer; this is the only mode in which a man
situated as I am necessarily meets it; and it then says distinctly,
Recognize me; and the simplest, the most effectual, and, in the
present posture of affairs, the indispensablest mode of treating
with it on this head, of expressing your little satisfaction with
and love for it, is to deny it then. My civil neighbor, the
tax-gatherer, is the very man I have to deal with- for it is, after
all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel- and he has
voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government. How shall he ever
know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a
man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his
neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed
man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace, and see if he can
get over this obstruction to his neighborliness without a ruder and
more impetuous thought or speech corresponding with his action. I know
this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I
could name- if ten honest men only- ay, if one HONEST man, in this
State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to
withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county
jail therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it
matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once
well done is done forever. But we love better to talk about it: that
we say is our mission, Reform keeps many scores of newspapers in its
service, but not one man. If my esteemed neighbor, the State's
ambassador, who will devote his days to the settlement of the question
of human rights in the Council Chamber, instead of being threatened
with the prisons of Carolina, were to sit down the prisoner of
Massachusetts, that State which is so anxious to foist the sin of
slavery upon her sister- though at present she can discover only an
act of inhospitality to be the ground of a quarrel with her- the
Legislature would not wholly waive the subject the following winter.

  Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place
for a just man is also a prison. The proper place today, the only
place which Massachusetts has provided for her freer and less
desponding spirits, is in her prisons, to be put out and locked out of
the State by her own act, as they have already put themselves out by
their principles. It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican
prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his
race should find them; on that separate, but more free and
honorable, ground, where the State places those who are not with
her, but against her- the only house in a slave State in which a
free man can abide with honor. If any think that their influence would
be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the
State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do
not know by how much truth is stronger than error, nor how much more
eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced
a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper
merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it
conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is
irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative
is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the
State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to
pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and
bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to
commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the
definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible. If
the tax-gatherer, or any other public officer, asks me, as one has
done, "But what shall I do?" my answer is, "If you really wish to do
anything, resign your office." When the subject has refused
allegiance, and the officer has resigned his office, then the
revolution is accomplished. But even suppose blood should flow. Is
there not a sort of blood shed when the conscience is wounded? Through
this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he
bleeds to an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now.

  I have contemplated the imprisonment of the offender, rather than
the seizure of his goods- though both will serve the same purpose-
because they who assert the purest right, and consequently are most
dangerous to a corrupt State, commonly have not spent much time in
accumulating property. To such the State renders comparatively small
service, and a slight tax is wont to appear exorbitant, particularly
if they are obliged to earn it by special labor with their hands. If
there were one who lived wholly without the use of money, the State
itself would hesitate to demand it of him. But the rich man- not to
make any invidious comparison- is always sold to the institution which
makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less
virtue; for money comes between a man and his objects, and obtains
them for him; and it was certainly no great virtue to obtain it. It
puts to rest many questions which he would otherwise be taxed to
answer; while the only new question which it puts is the hard but
superfluous one, how to spend it. Thus his moral ground is taken
from under his feet. The opportunities of living are diminished in
proportion as what are called the "means" are increased. The best
thing a man can do for his culture when he is rich is to endeavor to
carry out those schemes which he entertained when he was poor.
Christ answered the Herodians according to their condition. "Show me
the tribute-money," said he;- and one took a penny out of his pocket;-
if you use money which has the image of Caesar on it, and which he has
made current and valuable, that is, if you are men of the State, and
gladly enjoy the advantages of Caesar's government, then pay him
back some of his own when he demands it. "Render therefore to Caesar
that which is Caesar's, and to God those things which are God's"-
leaving them no wiser than before as to which was which; for they
did not wish to know.

  When I converse with the freest of my neighbors, I perceive that,
whatever they may say about the magnitude and seriousness of the
question, and their regard for the public tranquillity, the long and
the short of the matter is, that they cannot spare the protection of
the existing government, and they dread the consequences to their
property and families of disobedience to it. For my own part, I should
not like to think that I ever rely on the protection of the State.
But, if I deny the authority of the State when it presents its
tax-bill, it will soon take and waste all my property, and so harass
me and my children without end. This is hard. This makes it impossible
for a man to live honestly, and at the same time comfortably, in
outward respects. It will not be worth the while to accumulate
property; that would be sure to go again. You must hire or squat
somewhere, and raise but a small crop, and eat that soon. You must
live within yourself, and depend upon yourself always tucked up and
ready for a start, and not have many affairs. A man may grow rich in
Turkey even, if he will be in all respects a good subject of the
Turkish government. Confucius said: "If a state is governed by the
principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a
state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors
are the subjects of shame." No: until I want the protection of
Massachusetts to be extended to me in some distant Southern port,
where my liberty is endangered, or until I am bent solely on
building up an estate at home by peaceful enterprise, I can afford
to refuse allegiance to Massachusetts, and her right to my property
and life. It costs me less in every sense to incur the penalty of
disobedience to the State than it would to obey. I should feel as if I
were worth less in that case.

  Some years ago, the State met me in behalf of the Church, and
commanded me to pay a certain sum toward the support of a clergyman
whose preaching my father attended, but never I myself. "Pay," it
said, "or be locked up in the jail." I declined to pay. But,
unfortunately, another man saw fit to pay it. I did not see why the
schoolmaster should be taxed to support the priest, and not the priest
the schoolmaster; for I was not the State's schoolmaster, but I
supported myself by voluntary subscription. I did not see why the
lyceum should not present its tax-bill, and have the State to back its
demand, as well as the Church. However, at the request of the
selectmen, I condescended to make some such statement as this in
writing:- "Know all men by these presents, that I, Henry Thoreau, do
not wish to be regarded as a member of any incorporated society
which I have not joined." This I gave to the town clerk; and he has
it. The State, having thus learned that I did not wish to be
regarded as a member of that church, has never made a like demand on
me since; though it said that it must adhere to its original
presumption that time. If I had known how to name them, I should
then have signed off in detail from all the societies which I never
signed on to; but I did not know where to find a complete list.

  I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on
this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls
of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron,
a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could
not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which
treated me as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked
up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was
the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself
of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone
between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to
climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I
did not for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste
of stone and mortar. I felt as if I alone of all my townsmen had
paid my tax. They plainly did not know how to treat me, but behaved
like persons who are underbred. In every threat and in every
compliment there was a blunder; for they thought that my chief
desire was to stand the other side of that stone wall. I could not but
smile to see how industriously they locked the door on my meditations,
which followed them out again without let or hindrance, and they
were really all that was dangerous. As they could not reach me, they
had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at
some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog. I
saw that the State was half-witted, that it was timid as a lone
woman with her silver spoons, and that it did not know its friends
from its foes, and I lost all my remaining respect for it, and
pitied it.

  Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense,
intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not
armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical
strength. I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own
fashion. Let us see who is the strongest. What force has a
multitude? They only can force me who obey a higher law than I. They
force me to become like themselves. I do not hear of men being
forced to have this way or that by masses of men. What sort of life
were that to live? When I meet a government which says to me, "Your
money or your life," why should I be in haste to give it my money?
It may be in a great strait, and not know what to do: I cannot help
that. It must help itself; do as I do. It is not worth the while to
snivel about it. I am not responsible for the successful working of
the machinery of society. I am not the son of the engineer. I perceive
that, when an acorn and a chestnut fall side by side, the one does not
remain inert to make way for the other, but both obey their own
laws, and spring and grow and flourish as best they can, till one,
perchance, overshadows and destroys the other. If a plant cannot
live according to its nature, it dies; and so a man.

  The night in prison was novel and interesting enough. The
prisoners in their shirt-sleeves were enjoying a chat and the
evening air in the doorway, when I entered. But the jailer said,
"Come, boys, it is time to lock up"; and so they dispersed, and I
heard the sound of their steps returning into the hollow apartments.
My room-mate was introduced to me by the jailer as "a first-rate
fellow and a clever man." When the door was locked, he showed me where
to hang my hat, and how he managed matters there. The rooms were
whitewashed once a month; and this one, at least, was the whitest,
most simply furnished, and probably the neatest apartment in the town.
He naturally wanted to know where I came from, and what brought me
there; and, when I had told him, I asked him in my turn how he came
there, presuming him to be an honest man, of course; and, as the world
goes, I believe he was. "Why," said he, "they accuse me of burning a
barn; but I never did it." As near as I could discover, he had
probably gone to bed in a barn when drunk, and smoked his pipe
there; and so a barn was burnt. He had the reputation of being a
clever man, had been there some three months waiting for his trial
to come on, and would have to wait as much longer; but he was quite
domesticated and contented, since he got his board for nothing, and
thought that he was well treated.

  He occupied one window, and I the other; and I saw that if one
stayed there long, his principal business would be to look out the
window. I had soon read all the tracts that were left there, and
examined where former prisoners had broken out, and where a grate
had been sawed off, and heard the history of the various occupants
of that room; for I found that even here there was a history and a
gossip which never circulated beyond the walls of the jail. Probably
this is the only house in the town where verses are composed, which
are afterward printed in a circular form, but not published. I was
shown quite a long list of verses which were composed by some young
men who had been detected in an attempt to escape, who avenged
themselves by singing them.

  I pumped my fellow-prisoner as dry as I could, for fear I should
never see him again; but at length he showed me which was my bed,
and left me to blow out the lamp.

  It was like travelling into a far country, such as I had never
expected to behold, to lie there for one night. It seemed to me that I
never had heard the town clock strike before, nor the evening sounds
of the village; for we slept with the windows open, which were
inside the grating. It was to see my native village in the light of
the Middle Ages, and our Concord was turned into a Rhine stream, and
visions of knights and castles passed before me. They were the
voices of old burghers that I heard in the streets. I was an
involuntary spectator and auditor of whatever was done and said in the
kitchen of the adjacent village inn- a wholly new and rare
experience to me. It was a closer view of my native town. I was fairly
inside of it. I never had seen its institutions before. This is one of
its peculiar institutions; for it is a shire town. I began to
comprehend what its inhabitants were about.

  In the morning, our breakfasts were put through the hole in the
door, in small oblong-square tin pans, made to fit, and holding a pint
of chocolate, with brown bread, and an iron spoon. When they called
for the vessels again, I was green enough to return what bread I had
left; but my comrade seized it, and said that I should lay that up for
lunch or dinner. Soon after he was let out to work at haying in a
neighboring field, whither he went every day, and would not be back
till noon; so he bade me good-day, saying that he doubted if he should
see me again.

  When I came out of prison- for some one interfered, and paid that
tax- I did not perceive that great changes had taken place on the
common, such as he observed who went in a youth and emerged a