[1849, original title: Resistance to Civil Government]
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
government 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 citizens to put 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?
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 evil; 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…
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name--if ten honest men only--ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this co-partnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefore, 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 forever. But we love better to talk about it: that we say is our mission.