The Resistance Of Civil Government - 1556 Words

ginally titled Resistance to Civil Government, has had a wide influence on many later practitioners of civil disobedience. The driving idea behind the essay is that citizens are morally responsible for their support of aggressors, even when such support is required by law. In the essay, Thoreau explained his reasons for having refused to pay taxes as an act of protest against slavery and against the Mexican–American War. He writes, 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, I should like to have them order me out to help put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico;—see if I would go; and yet these very men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. By the 1850s, a range of minority groups in the United States—blacks, Jews, Seventh Day Baptists, Catholics, anti-prohibitionists, racial egalitarians, and others—employed civil disobedience to combat a range of legal measures and public practices that to them promoted ethnic, religious, and racial discrimination. Public and typically peaceful resistance to public power would remain an integral tactic in modern American minority-rights politics. Etymology Thoreau s 1849 essay ResistanceShow MoreRelatedResistance To Civil Government : Civil Disobedience1806 Words   |  8 PagesCivil Disobedience is classified as the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest. This idea was brought into focus in the essay â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)† by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s opinion on the subject was that the government was involved in everyone’s business, trying to make the country better yet they had the opposite effect. His opinion was that there is a need to prioritizeRead MoreResistance to Civil Government: Thoreau Essay1096 Words   |  5 Pagesaspect that should be considered and not misinterpreted. When this essay was first published it was under the title â€Å"Resistance to Civil Government†. The resistance in his title is later used as metaphor that compares the government to that of a machine. The machine is producing injustice therefore he says â€Å"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.† He furthers this metaphorRead MoreCivil Disobedience, By Henry David Thoreau1650 Words   |  7 Pagescannot accept. Nonviolent resistance has, in many ways, defined the resistance to authoritarian governments and decisions in the past century or so. But is it the most effective way to defeat authoritarian governments? Doesn’t defeating a truly authoritarian government -- a government led by a ruthless leader like Hitler -- require violence? Is using nonviolent resistance actually a way to acquiesce to the controlling powers, a way to show weakness? In his 1849 essay â€Å"Civil Disobedience,† AmericanRead MoreEssay on The Political Principles of Thoreau807 Words   |  4 Pagescentury. Ironically, Civil Disobedience, the anti-war, anti-slavery essay for which he is probably best known, has become a manual for social protest by giving support to the passive resistance of Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other conscientious objectors (Paul 233). Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience was mainly a protest against slavery: I cannot for an instant recognize the political organization as my government which is the slave’s government also (854). On aRead MoreEssay about Civil Disobedience935 Words   |  4 Pagesis commonly known today as civil disobedience. Due to the works of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King Jr. civil disobedience is a well-known political action to Americans; first in the application against slavery and second in the application against segregation. Thoreau’s essay â€Å"Civil Disobedience† and King’s â€Å"Letter from Birmingham Jail† are the leading arguments in defining and encouraging the use of civil disobedience to produce justice from the government despite differences in theirRead MoreCivil Disobedience Extended Definition1405 Words   |  6 PagesMichael D. Tiong ENGLCOM 11/12/12 11216964 C38-B Thesis Statement: Civil Disobedience, though often taken as a refusal to obey governmental instruction, was in fact an appropriate gesture of the people during the People Power Revolution because the people demonstrated democratic action when they felt that they were being oppressed. Outline: I. Overview of Civil Disobedience A. Brief History 1. Origins of the word B. Definition of Terms 1. Dictionary Read MoreThe Other Civil War of a Peoples History of The United States1454 Words   |  6 PagesIn chapter â€Å"The Other Civil War† of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn described the underlying class tensions caused by industrialization during the nineteenth century. He claimed that these tensions would have led to radical labor reforms if the working class’s anger had not been directed towards other issues. Zinn used The Age of Enterprise by Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller to show the upper class’s indifference towards the problems of the lower class and to prove thatRead MoreThe Need For Civil Disobedience Essay1172 Words   |  5 PagesThus, conscience has to be a main driving force when people encounter unjust laws of government. One of the philosophers who favored this idea was Henry David Thoreau. Specifically, he proposed a theory that a personal conscience is the main sense, which is responsible for bas ic rudiments of social principles and argued that if complying the law forces to support and be a part of unjust affairs of the government then people should make their own decisions founded on morality. Therefore a person shouldRead MoreWhite Resistance to the Civil Rights Movement Essay1503 Words   |  7 PagesCivil Rights Throughout Reconstruction, southern whites felt constantly threatened by legislation providing rights for former slaves. The Civil Rights Bill of 1875 was the last rights bill passed by congress during reconstruction. It protected all Americans’ (including blacks) access to public accommodations such as trains. With the threat of complete equality constantly looming, violence toward former slaves gradually increased in the years following the Civil War. Beatings and murdersRead MoreCivil Disobedience: Cost of Change1469 Words   |  6 PagesMarch 4, 2013 Civil Disobedience: The cost of change More than 40,000 strong activists from the Sierra Club protested at the White House to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline proposal. They protested because they the extraction of tar sand oil and moving it from Canada to Texas will pollute the groundwater in the surface (Hammel). Civil disobedience is â€Å"the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power† (Civil Disobedience)