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1I hear of a convention to be held at Baltimore, or elsewhere, for the selection of a candidate for the Presidency, made
2up chiefly of editors, and men who are politicians by profession; but I think, what is it to any independent,
3intelligent, and respectable man what decision they may come to, shall we not have the advantage of his wisdom and
4honesty, nevertheless? Can we not count upon some independent votes? Are there not many individuals in the country who
5do not attend conventions? But no: I find that the respectable man, so called, has immediately drifted from his
6position, and despairs of his country, when his country has more reasons to despair of him. He forthwith adopts one of
7the candidates thus selected as the only available one, thus proving that he is himself available for any purposes of
8the demagogue. His vote is of no more worth than that of any unprincipled foreigner or hireling native, who may have
9been bought. Oh for a man who is a man, and, as my neighbor says, has a bone in his back which you cannot pass your hand
10through! Our statistics are at fault: the population has been returned too large. How many men are there to a square
11thousand miles in the country? Hardly one. Does not America offer any inducement for men to settle here? The American
12has dwindled into an Odd Fellow,--one who may be known by the development of his organ of gregariousness, and a manifest
13lack of intellect and cheerful self-reliance; whose first and chief concern, on coming into the world, is to see that
14the alms-houses are in good repair; and, before yet he has lawfully donned the virile garb, to collect a fund for the
15support of the widows and orphans that may be; who, in short, ventures to live only by the aid of the Mutual Insurance
16company, which has promised to bury him decently. It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to
17the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is
18his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his
19support. If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them
20sitting upon another man's shoulders. I must get off him first, that he may pursue his contemplations too. See what
21gross inconsistency is tolerated. I have heard some of my townsmen say, "I should like to have them order me out to help
22put down an insurrection of the slaves, or to march to Mexico,--see if I would go;" and yet these very men have each,
23directly by their allegiance, and so indirectly, at least, by their money, furnished a substitute. The soldier is
24applauded who refuses to serve in an unjust war by those who do not refuse to sustain the unjust government which makes
25the war; is applauded by those whose own act and authority he disregards and sets at naught; as if the State were
26penitent to that degree that it hired one to scourge it while it sinned, but not to that degree that it left off sinning
27for a moment. Thus, under the name of Order and Civil Government, we are all made at last to pay homage to and support
28our own meanness. After the first blush of sin, comes its indifference; and from immoral it becomes, as it were,
29unmoral, and not quite unnecessary to that life which we have made. The broadest and most prevalent error requires the
30most disinterested virtue to sustain it. The slight reproach to which the virtue of patriotism is commonly liable, the
31noble are most likely to incur. Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to
32it their allegiance and support, are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious
33obstacles to reform. Some are petitioning the State to dissolve the Union, to disregard the requisitions of the
34President. Why do they not dissolve it themselves,--the union between themselves and the State,--and refuse to pay their
35quota into its treasury? Do not they stand in same relation to the State, that the State does to the Union? And have not
36the same reasons prevented the State from resisting the Union, which have prevented them from resisting the State? How
37can a man be satisfied to entertain an opinion merely, and enjoy it? Is there any enjoyment in it, if his opinion is
38that he is aggrieved? If you are cheated out of a single dollar by your neighbor, you do not rest satisfied with knowing
39you are cheated, or with saying that you are cheated, or even with petitioning him to pay you your due; but you take
40effectual steps at once to obtain the full amount, and see that you are never cheated again. Action from principle,--the
41perception and the performance of right,--changes things and relations; it is essentially revolutionary, and does not
42consist wholly with anything which was. It not only divided states and churches, it divides families; aye, it divides
43the individual, separating the diabolical in him from the divine. Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them,
44or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men
45generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to
46alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the
47government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and
48provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it
49not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does
50it always crucify Christ, and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels? One
51would think, that a deliberate and practical denial of its authority was the only offence never contemplated by
52government; else, why has it not assigned its definite, its suitable and proportionate penalty? If a man who has no
53property refuses but once to earn nine shillings for the State, he is put in prison for a period unlimited by any law
54that I know, and determined only by the discretion of those who placed him there; but if he should steal ninety times
55nine shillings from the State, he is soon permitted to go at large again. If the injustice is part of the necessary
56friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth,--certainly the machine will
57wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you
58may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to
59be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the
60machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. As for
61adopting the ways which the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time,
62and a man's life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a
63good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad. A man has not every thing to do, but something; and because
64he cannot do every thing, it is not necessary that he should do something wrong. It is not my business to be petitioning
65the Governor or the Legislature any more than it is theirs to petition me; and, if they should not hear my petition,
66what should I do then? But in this case the State has provided no way: its very Constitution is the evil. This may seem
67to be harsh and stubborn and unconcilliatory; but it is to treat with the utmost kindness and consideration the only
68spirit that can appreciate or deserves it. So is all change for the better, like birth and death which convulse the
69body.
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