Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Resistance to Civil Government also called On the Duty of Civil Disobedience or Civil Disobedience for short is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau. In it Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). Thoreau asserts that because governments are typically more harmful than helpful they therefore cannot be justified. Democracy is no cure for this as majorities simply by virtue of being majorities do not also gain the virtues of wisdom and justice.