Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience

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Outline

Thesis: The Ferguson protestors of 2015 were justified in their assembly and protest; they should not have been suppressed by the police. More specifically, Justin Hansford was wrongfully arrested in 2014 for legally observing a protest which started in a Walmart 10 miles outside of Ferguson.

Protesting is not illegal in the USA
The first Amendment states “Congress shall make no law… prohibiting… the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances”
The government is the USA is not lawfully allowed to deny citizens the right to come together and verbally denote their disagreement with the government and its laws. Its a given right that citizens of the USA are able to speak up …show more content…

While the Bill of Rights outlines Americans citizen born rights, Thoreau talked about the need for American citizens to act on their judgment. A responsibility they have to protecting their rights and ultimately using those rights to bring light to situations were the government allows for wrongdoing; in hopes that the wrongdoing can be corrected before more damage can be done. Furthermore Thoreau delves into the rights given to Americans and they impact Americans can make when they exercise those rights they have been …show more content…

This is something that is heavily touched upon in Civil Disobedience.
While the police may have attempted to stop protesting Thoreau states that this is a normal occurrence when a society attempted to ignore the wants of the government. “Men- serve the state with their conscience also, and so necessarily rests it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it” (3). He gives light to the notion that revolting and sending unrest when you are unhappy with your government can often bring you negative light.
Regardless of consequence, Thoreau talks in Civil Disobedience about the importance of acting on your right to revolution. “All men recognize the right of resolution; that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable” (4) he goes on to state that “A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority”

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