Essay Database

1. Does Henry Thoreau want a revolution? Would his new government, based on his ideas set forth in "Civil Disobedience," be compatible with democracy? In Civil Disobedience and Other Essays, Thoreau declared that the American government 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." (1), causing him to conclude that the best government is the …

…I will fight for them, if need by; but show mw Massachusetts, and I refuse her my allegiance, and express contempt for her courts." (28) Thoreau has such abhorrence toward the courts of Massachusetts because of their decision, among other cases, on the case of George Sims. In that case, injustice reared its ugly head, and a former slave was sent back to Georgia to once again have his freedom and liberty stripped away from him.