Read Thoreau’s essay and respond to the following questions.

Henry David Thoreau - “Civil Disobedience”

1. Using the first paragraph as support, briefly describe Thoreau’s ideal concept of government.
2. What does Thoreau cite as an example of government being manipulated by a few dissenting individuals? [Hint: 1849; it’s not slavery.]
3. Thoreau refers to the government as a “wooden gun” and writes, “Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.” What does he mean by this? [He explains this at length in the second paragraph.]
4. “Can there be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?” What is Thoreau’s criticism of majority rule?
5. Thoreau writes, “The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies.” He even goes on to refer to them as “wooden men.” Explain this metaphor.
6. According to Thoreau, what do most men serve the state with? What should they ideally serve the state with?
7. “He who gives himself entirely to his fellow-men appears to them useless and selfish; but he who gives himself partially to them is pronounced a benefactor and philanthropist.” Explain this quote. Do you agree? Explain.
8. Why does Thoreau feel that “it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize?”
9. 17th century British philosopher William Paley believed that the submission to civil government depended upon expediency: “ ‘...that so long as the interest of the whole society requires it, that is, so long as the established government cannot be resisted or changed without public inconveniency, it is the will of God that the established government be obeyed…’ ” What does this mean?
10. Thoreau disagrees with Paley; he cites an example by creating a hypothetical situation involving a drowning man. Explain Thoreau’s point. [Hint: Thoreau values justice over expediency.]
11. “...the opponents to a reform in Massachusetts are not a hundred thousand politicians at the South, but a hundred thousand merchants and farmers here, who are more interested in commerce and agriculture than they are in humanity, and are not prepared to do justice to the slave and to Mexico, cost what it may.” So, who are the opponents to reform in Massachusetts?
12. Thoreau writes, “There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them.” He continues: “At most, they give only a cheap vote…” What is Thoreau’s critique of those opposed to slavery and the war?
13. To what does Thoreau compare voting to?
14. Don’t worry about the lengthy paragraph that begins, “I hear of a convention…” and ends with “which has promised to bury him decently.” However, look up the term, demagogue--what’s it mean?
15. “It is not a man’s duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it… not to give it practically his support.” What is Thoreau expressing here?
16. “...and yet these men have each, directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute.” What does this mean?
17. “Why do they not dissolve it themselves,--the union between themselves and the state…” What is Thoreau suggesting here?
18. Explain this quote: “Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.”
19. Thoreau writes, “Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.” What is Thoreau suggesting?
20. “...while the only new question which it puts is the hard but superfluous one, how to spend it.” What is Thoreau implying about wealth?
21. What is Thoreau’s advice to those who rely upon the state for protection--the same individuals who fear repercussions in regards to their wealth and property?
22. Explain the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Thoreau. [Ha.]
23. So, uh, according to Thoreau, why was his incarceration not an effective punishment? [“As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body; just as boys, if they cannot come at some person against whom they have a spite, will abuse his dog.” Hahaha.]
24. “I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only.” What does this mean?
25. “They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountainhead.” Explain what Thoreau is trying to communicate.