Resistance to Civil Government - WordPress.com.
Thoreau believed civil disobedience is the best way of fighting unjust policies because the government can only punish a person’s body but not his spirit. Although some people might see Thoreau as an anti-government person, he is not. He does not desire a government-free society, but rather a country that supports only the policies that are created based on justice. I agree with Thoreau’s.
When Thoreau first delivered the essay as a lecture before the Concord Lyceum on January 26, 1848, he entitled it “On the Relation of the Individual to the State.” When it was first printed, in Elizabeth Peabody’s Aesthetic Papers in May, 1849, it was entitled “Resistance to Civil Government.” It did not receive its present title of “Civil Disobedience” until it was published in.
This incident prompted Thoreau to write his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience” (originally published in 1849 as “Resistance to Civil Government”). Thoreau's minor act of defiance caused him to conclude that it was not enough to be simply against slavery and the war. A person of conscience had to act.
Thoreau was especially critical of the United States government because it supported slavery and because of its militaristic aggression toward Mexico. To Thoreau, those actions delegitimized the United States government. As a result, he believed that individuals had a right to disobey the government. His essay promotes conscience over patriotism, conviction over politics, and individuality.
Whereas this theoretical tension remains largely unresolved in the essay, it is important to keep in mind from a purely historical standpoint that Thoreau is writing Civil Disobedience some twenty years before passage of the Fourteenth Amendment (guaranteeing equal protection and due process under the law), which substantially increased the role of the federal government in enforcing.
Resistance to Civil Government Civil Disobedience is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. Kasturba Gandhi, South African History Online. 1 Definitions The term civil disobedience was coined by Henry David Thoreau in his 1848 essay to describe his refusal to pay the state poll tax implemented by. Gandhi Leads Civil Disobedience - Mar 12.
Thoreau's Life by Richard J Schneider Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 was born and lived nearly all his life in Concord, Massachusetts, a small town about twenty. Henry David Thoreau Quotes - Shmoop Resistance to Civil Government Civil Disobedience is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849.