Instead, Thoreau advocates not for no government but for a “better government” (4).

However, he notes the US government really does not do anything the people do not do themselves: “It does not keep the country free,” “settle the West,” or “educate,” as these achievements stem from the “character inherent” to the American people, who would have accomplished even more if the government had not slowed their progress (4). Thoreau clarifies that he does not mean to get rid of government altogether, since people must have some entity-he uses the metaphor of the government as a machine-to hear their voices. Thoreau also argues that government is harmful because it can be bent to the will of one person, though it was established to serve the will of the collective people.

Government is often not beneficial, as has been proven in the Mexican-American War, the work of a small group of people who have used the government as their tool despite public dissent. This is because the government often does not serve the public’s interest and can be “abused and perverted before the people can act through it” (3). The essay opens with Thoreau declaring that he believes in the adage “that government is best which governs least,” which he says amounts to “that government is best which governs not at all” (3). This guide utilizes the version found at ( ). Today it can be found in the public domain. The essay’s final form was published in 1866 under the title “Civil Disobedience” in a posthumous collection of Thoreau’s work. The text was originally published in an 1849 essay collection titled Resistance to Civil Government edited by Transcendental writer and educator Elizabeth Peabody.

The duty of civil disobedience