Civil Disobedience

If I could convince myself that I have any right to be
satisfied with men as they are, and to treat them
accordingly, and not according, in some respects, to my
requisitions and expectations of what they and I ought to
be, then, like a good Mussulman and fatalist, I should
endeavor to be satisfied with things as they are, and say it
is the will of God.  And, above all, there is this
difference between resisting this and a purely brute or
natural force, that I can resist this with some effect; but
I cannot expect, like Orpheus, to change the nature of the
rocks and trees and beasts.

I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation.  I do
not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set
myself up as better than my neighbors.  I seek rather, I may
say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land.
I am but too ready to conform to them.  Indeed, I have
reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the
tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review
the acts and position of the general and State governments,
and the spirit of the people to discover a pretext for conformity.

    "We must affect our country as our parents,
     And if at any time we alienate
     Our love or industry from doing it honor,
     We must respect effects and teach the soul
     Matter of conscience and religion,
     And not desire of rule or benefit."

I believe that the State will soon be able to take all my
work of this sort out of my hands, and then I shall be no
better patriot than my fellow-countrymen.  Seen from a lower
point of view, the Constitution, with all its faults, is
very good; the law and the courts are very respectable; even
this State and this American government are, in many
respects, very admirable, and rare things, to be thankful
for, such as a great many have described them; seen from a
higher still, and the highest, who shall say what they are,
or that they are worth looking at or thinking of at all?

However, the government does not concern me much, and I shall
bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it.  It is not many
moments that I live under a government, even in this world.
If a man is thought-free, fancy-free, imagination-free,
that which _is not_ never for a long time appearing _to be_
to him, unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.

I know that most men think differently from myself; but
those whose lives are by profession devoted to the study of
these or kindred subjects content me as little as any.
Statesmen and legislators, standing so completely within the
institution, never distinctly and nakedly behold it.
They speak of moving society, but have no resting-place
without it.  They may be men of a certain experience and
discrimination, and have no doubt invented ingenious and
even useful systems, for which we sincerely thank them;
but all their wit and usefulness lie within certain not very
wide limits.  They are wont to forget that the world is not
governed by policy and expediency.  Webster never goes behind
government, and so cannot speak with authority about it.
His words are wisdom to those legislators who contemplate no
essential reform in the existing government; but for thinkers,
and those who legislate for all time, he never once glances
at the subject.  I know of those whose serene and wise
speculations on this theme would soon reveal the limits
of his mind's range and hospitality.  Yet, compared with
the cheap professions of most reformers, and the still
cheaper wisdom and eloquence of politicians in general,
his are almost the only sensible and valuable words,
and we thank Heaven for him.  Comparatively, he is always
strong, original, and, above all, practical.  Still, his
quality is not wisdom, but prudence.  The lawyer's truth
is not Truth, but consistency or a consistent expediency.
Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not
concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist
with wrong-doing.  He well deserves to be called, as he has
been called, the Defender of the Constitution.  There are
really no blows to be given him but defensive ones.  He is
not a leader, but a follower.  His leaders are the men of
'87.  "I have never made an effort," he says, "and never
propose to make an effort; I have never countenanced an
effort, and never mean to countenance an effort, to disturb
the arrangement as originally made, by which various States
came into the Union."  Still thinking of the sanction which
the Constitution gives to slavery, he says, "Because it was
part of the original compact--let it stand."
Notwithstanding his special acuteness and ability, he is
unable to take a fact out of its merely political relations,
and behold it as it lies absolutely to be disposed of by the
intellect--what, for instance, it behooves a man to do here
in American today with regard to slavery--but ventures, or
is driven, to make some such desperate answer to the
following, while professing to speak absolutely, and as a
private man--from which what new and singular of social
duties might be inferred?  "The manner," says he, "in which
the governments of the States where slavery exists are to
regulate it is for their own consideration, under the
responsibility to their constituents, to the general laws of
propriety, humanity, and justice, and to God.  Associations
formed elsewhere, springing from a feeling of humanity, or