By Henry Thoreau
American Transcendentalsim Web
Webtext
created by Jessica Gordon and Ann Woodlief,
Virginia Commonwealth University,
1999
[1] I 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. 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.
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