heartily accept the
motto, ―"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like
to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.1 Carried out, it
finally amounts to this, which also I believe― "That government is best
which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will
be the kind of government which they will have.
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are
usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections
which have been brought against a
standing army, and they are many and
weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a
standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing
government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the
people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused
and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present
Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the
standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would
not have consented to this measure.
This American government―what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves. But it is not the less necessary for this; for the people must have some complicated machinery or other, and hear its din, to satisfy that idea of government which they have. Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed upon, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage. It is excellent, we must all allow. Yet this government never of itself furthered any enterprise, but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way. For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one
1 "Resistance to Civil Government" was delivered as a lecture at the Concord Lyceum on January 26, 1848 under the title, "Of the Rights and Duties of the Individual in Relation to Government." It was published in 1849 in Elizabeth Peabody's Aesthetic Papers as "Resistance to Civil Government," with the subtitle, "a Lecture delivered in 1847."
Documentary Resources: Related writings by Thoreau. Initial response to Thoreau's essay. Miscellaneous commentary, 1866 -1900. Thoreau's motto. Mexican War. Debate about standing armies.
