Civil Disobedience

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; 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
that 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 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 such 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