The following statements generally summarize some of Thoreau's basic points in "Civil Disobedience." Take any three statements with which you strongly agree or disagree and

€ underline several citations in your book where Thoreau makes these assertions,

€ decide whether you agree or disagree with Thoreau, and

€ prepare to either defend or attack Thoreau in an in-class debate.

1. Governments can become corrupt and lack the integrity of individual men. Moreover, those who are in the position of power are the least likely to see the need for change or to effect any changes.

2. There is a higher law than that of a national or state constitution, namely, moral law which we know through our consciences.

3. "To be strictly just, [a government] must have the sanction and consent of the governed. It can have no pure right over my person and property but what I concede to it . . . [because] the individual [is] a higher and independent power from which all [the state's] own power and authority are derived. . ." Moreover, the best government does not impose the will of the majority on the minority, but allows an individual to act based upon his or her conscience.

4. Most men surrender their moral freedom to the state, serving it not with their souls, but with their minds or bodies.

5. Some people act according to their consciences and "so necessarily resist [the government] for the most part."

6. The American government is acting unjustly in its institution of slavery and in its desire to expand the number of slave states through its war with Mexico. Similarly, Massachusetts is wrong to directly support the war and to indirectly support slavery.

7. All men have the right to resist or ignore wicked governments. Moreover, we do not need majority approval in order to act as long as we have God on our side.

8. We must resist wicked governments even if it is inconvenient or costly for us. Similarly, we must disobey unjust laws.

9. We shouldn't worry about the practicability of resisting unjust governments because the goodness we practice will spread.

10. Voting accomplishes little and is a sorry substitute for action; "even voting for the right is doing nothing for it.."

11. While we aren't obligated to rid the world of all its wrongs, we must not personally participate in anything wrong.

12. "Those who, while they disapprove of the character and measures of a government, yield to it their allegiance and support are undoubtedly its most conscientious supporters, and so frequently the most serious obstacles to reform."

13. Governments are to blame if they provide no legal means for their citizens to resist their decrees.

14. The best way to separate yourself from unjust governments is to not pay taxes. Moreover, this can be an effective way to end the injustice.

15. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."

16. Don't worry about any material loss you will suffer when the state fines you or seizes your property because "absolutely speaking, the more money [you have], the less virtue [you have]." Moreover, the personal costs of acting immorally outweigh the material costs the state can impose on you with imprisonment or fines.

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