On the Duty of Civil Disobedience | Page 7

resign your office." When
the subject has refused allegiance, and the officer has resigned from
office, then the revolution is accomplished. But even suppose 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;
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