Henry David Thoreau Quotes
I do not wish to quarrel with any man or nation. I do not wish to split hairs, to make fine distinctions, or set myself up as better than my neighbors. I seek rather, I may say, even an excuse for conforming to the laws of the land. I am but too ready to conform to them. Indeed, I have reason to suspect myself on this head; and each year, as the tax-gatherer comes round, I find myself disposed to review the acts and position of the general and State governments, and the spirit of the people, to discover a pretext for conformity.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Resistance to Civil Government." Æsthetic Papers, edited by Elizabeth P. Peabody, The Editor, 1849, p. 208.
Dodge was a hotbed of violence, gun-fighting, drinking, gambling and prostitution. At one point they had 19 saloons serving liquor for a total population of only 1200. The Governor wrote to the mayor demanding change but the newspaper documented what really happened.
His recipe for mediating disputes.
The Iroquois had a very successful confederacy of 6 tribes in a relatively democratic government with a written constitution. They dominated the Eastern part of North America for years. The were able to maintain a permanent unity with a unified and decentralized combination of government—much like the United States would become. At the time of this advice, each American colony was a government unto itself. The three Iroquois Indian delegates were Canassatego, Tachanoontia, and Gachradodow.
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay "Civil Disobedience" (originally published as "Resistance to Civil Government"), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state.
