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Henry David Thoreau's Unjust Government

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Government systems are set in place to provide leadership and sustainability for citizens in times of need. The way in which citizen’s view the government depends; on the action taken by the government to make fair laws. They aren’t met to make unjust laws in order to suit themselves. Henry David Thoreau was a citizen of Massachusetts and saw how the government made unjust laws. Thoreau believes civil disobedience is the only way to fight back against the government. The way you determine if something is unjust is if it only favors one party. If it only favors one party they are doing something to get out of it. No one is going to do something that favors both sides. Thoreau states, “ I have paid no poll-tax for six years. I was put into jail once on this account, for one night”(316). This quote shows that he didn’t feel he needed to pay taxes because it was all used toward the war in Mexico. Thoreau didn’t agree with going to war with Mexico, so he believed it was not his duty to support them by paying poll tax’s. This quote also proves that the government is only taxing people in order to pay for the war. It is unjust to tax the people who didn’t want to go to war in the first place. The only reason they went to war in the first place was to gain land in order to have more slaves to work in the south. The government went to …show more content…

Thoreau states, “ It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much for the right. The only obligation which I have to assume to do at any time what I think is right”(306). This indicating that Thoreau only followed laws that he believed were right and fair. He didn’t believe he needed to pay attention to unjust laws. Also he doesn’t believe you need to pay respect to unjust laws. It’s better just to avoid the broken laws. You should live life with rules you believe are right in your heart and follow our

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