Henry David Thoreau's Milestone Essay

In his milestone essay Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau takes a stand against the government that he deems unfit for respect after such acts as its entrance into the Mexican-American War and his “unjust imprisonment.” Through his use of metaphor and the development of central ideas, like ethics and the relationship between the individual and the state, Thoreau describes what he believes a “better government” is, why America is not there yet, and what the common people can do in order to achieve that system. Throughout the essay, Thoreau uses the metaphor of a machine to describe both the government and the people who give themselves fully to its service. By calling the government a “wooden gun,” Thoreau is commenting on how it appears

By expressing support for the belief that the government should serve the people and that it should be dismantled if it fails to achieve that goal and for individual liberties in general, Thoreau likely believed that democracy was a suitable form of government, though does question if it is the final stage in a long line of political evolution. Ethics also play a major role in what Thoreau calls a “good government,” specifically in the sense that it should be just to its citizens. Though it is used to support many of his arguments, one in particular that Thoreau emphasises is that only those with “superior wit or honesty” have the right to rule over him. He explains that it is the responsibility of conscious men to determine en masse what they believe is right and just and to force their government to adopt those definitions and to “progress toward a true respect for the individual.” This is an important point to make because Thoreau asserts, in the closing lines of his essay, that “there will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.” In his mind, only the efforts of men of conscience can make the changes needed to create a more