ON THE DUTY OF CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

I heartily accept the motto -That government is best which governs least; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out it finally amounts to this which also I believe-That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually and all governments are sometimes 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 4with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. Itdoes 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 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 railroad