地坑Civil Resistance to Government 论人民的不服从

2021年1月20日发(作者：受压)
A
RT
. X.
—
RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

I
HE
ARTILY
accept the motto,
—

more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I
believe,
—

which governs not at all;
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are somet
imes,
inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and
deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the
standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will,
is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the
work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would
not have consented to this measure.

This American government,
—
what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to
posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single
man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves; and, if ever they should use it in earnest
as a real one against each other, it will surely split. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have
some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have.
Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own
advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow; yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the
alacrity with which it got out of its way.
It
does not keep the country free.
It
does not settle the West.
It
does not educate.
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done
somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient by which men
would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are
most let alone by it. Trade and commerce, if they were not made of India rubber, would never manage to bounce over
the obstacles which legislators are continually putting in their way; and, if one were to judge these men wholly by the
effects of their actions, and not partly by their intentions, they would deserve to be classed and punished with those
mischievous persons who put obstructions on the railroads.
But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once
no government, but
at once
a better goverment. Let every man make known what kind of government would command
his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.
After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for
a long period continue, to rule, is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to
the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases
cannot be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which majorities do not
virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?
—
in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of
expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his c
onscience to the
legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not
desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to as
sume,
is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said, that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of
conscientious men is a corporation
with
a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their
respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue
respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder
-monkeys and all,
marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, aye, against their common sense and
consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt
that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at
all?or small moveable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard,
and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or suc
h as it can make a man with its black
arts, a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say,
buried under arms with funeral accompaniments, though it may be


As his corse to the ramparts we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.

The mass of men serve the State thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing
army, and the militia, jailers, constables,
posse comitatus
, &c. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the
judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men
can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw,
or a lump of dirt. They have the same sort of worth only as horses and dogs. Yet such as these even are commonly
esteemed good citizens. Others, as most legislators, politicians, lawyers, ministers, and office-holders, serve the State
chiefly with their heads; and, as they rarely make any moral distinctions, they are as likely to serve the devil, without
intending it, as God. A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and
men
, serve the State
with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated by it as
enemies. A wise man will only be useful as a man, and will not submit to be
op a hole to keep the wind
away,
—


To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man and instrument
To any sovereign state throughout the world.

He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially
to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.
How does it become a man to behave toward this American government to-day? I answer that he cannot without
disgrace be associated with it. I cannot for an instant recognize that political organization as

my
government which is
the
slave's
government also.

All men recognize the right of revolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to and to resist the government, when its
tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable. But almost all say that such is not the case now. But such was the
case, they think, in the Revolution of '75. If one were to tell me that this was a bad government because it taxed certain
foreign commodities brought to its ports, it is most probable that I should not make an ado about it, for I can do without
them: all machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counterbalance the evil. At any rate, it is
a
great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are
organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation
which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a
foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What
makes this duty the more urgent is the fact, that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.

Paley
, a common authority with many on moral questions, in his chapter on the
Civil Government,
the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without
public inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed, and no longer.
—

being admitted, the justice of every particular case of resistance is reduced to a computation of the quantity of the
danger and grievance on the one side, and of the probability and expense of redressing it on the other.
every man shall judge for himself. But Paley appears never to have contemplated those cases to which the rule of
expediency does not apply, in which a people, as well as an individual, must do justice, cost what it may. If I have
unjustly wrested a plank from a drowning man, I must restore it to him though I drown myself. This, according to Paley,
would be inconvenient. But he that would save his life, in such a case, shall lose it. This people must cease to hold
slaves, and to make war on Mexico, though it cost them their existence as a people.

In their practice, nations agree with Paley; but does any one think that Massachusetts does exactly what is right at the
present crisis?

To have her train borne up, and her soul trail in the dirt.

Practically speaking, the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the
South,
but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they
are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico,

cost what it may
. I quarrel not with far-off
foes, but with those who, near at home, co- operate with, and do the bidding of those far away, and without whom the
latter would be harmless. We are accustomed to say, that the mass of men are unprepared; but improvement is slow,
be cause the few are not materially wiser or better than the many. It is not so important that many should be as good as
you, as that there be some absolute goodness somewhere; for that will leaven the whole lump. There are thousands
who are
in opinion
opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect, do nothing to put an end to them; who,
esteeming themselves children of
Washington
and
Franklin
, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that
they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free-trade,
and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep
over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to- day? They hesitate, and they regret, and
sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to
remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble
countenance and God-speed, to the right, as it goes by them. There are nine hundred and ninety- nine patrons of virtue
to one virtuous man; but it is easier to deal with the real possessor of a thing than with the temporary guardian of it.

All voting is a sort of gaming, like chequers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and
wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my
vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing t
o leave it to the
majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting
for the right
is
doing
nothing for it. It is
only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the m
ercy of
chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery, or

because there is but little slavery left to be abolished by their vote.
They
will then be the only slaves. Only
his
vote can
hasten the abolition of slavery who asserts his own freedom by his vote.

I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhe
re, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made
up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent, intelligent,
and respectable man what decision they may come to, shall we not have t
he advantage of his wisdom and honesty,
nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who do
not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his position,
and despairs of his country, when his country has more reason to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of the
candidates thus selected as the only
available
one, thus proving that he is himself
available
for any purposes of the
demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have been
bought. Oh for a man who is a
man
, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your
hand through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many
men
are there to a
square thousand miles in this country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The
American has dwindled into an Odd Fellow,
—
one who may be known by the development of his organ of
gregariousness, and a manifest lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming
into the world, is to see that the alms-houses are in good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully do
nned the virile garb,
to collect a fund for the support of the widows and orphans that may be; who, in short, ventures to live only by the aid of
the mutual insurance company, which has promised to bury him decently.

It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong;
he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he
gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I
must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he
may pursue his contemplations too. See what gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say,

—
see if I
would go;
furnished a substitute. The soldier is applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to
sustain the unjust government which makes the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards
and sets at nought; as if the State were penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to
that degree that it left off sinning for a moment. Thus, under the name of order and civil government, we are all made at
last to pay homage to and support our own meanness. After the first blush of sin, comes its indifference; and from
immoral it becomes, as it were,
un
moral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made.

The broadest and most preval
ent error requires the most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which
the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the
character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most
conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to
dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the President. Why do
they not dissolve it themselves,
—
the union
between themselves and the State,
—
and refuse to pay their quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in the same
relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And have not the same reasons prevented the State from
resisting the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State?

How can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy

it
? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is
that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing
that you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take
effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle,
—
the
perception and the performance of right,
—
changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not
consist wholly with any thing which was. It not only divides states and churches,
it divides families; aye, it divides
the
individual
, separating the diabolical in him from the divine.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have
succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they
ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy
would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the gove
rnment itself that the remedy
is
worse than the evil.
It
makes
it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why
does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its cit
izens to be on the alert to point out its faults,
and
do
better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate
Copernicus
and
Luther
,
and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

One would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated
by
government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate penalty? If a man who has no
property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law that I
know, and determined only by the 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 e
vil; 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 every thing to do, but something; and
because be cannot do
every thing
, 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 hear 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 all 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 governm
ent, 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 t
he 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,
—
aye, if
one
HONE
ST
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 for ever.
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 bein
g 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 qua
rrel 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
to-day, 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,
wish to do any thing, resign your office.
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