What are the two government policies thoreau most objects to? explain this objection?

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was a US poet and philosopher. He was an active abolitionist during his whole life. He is even sometimes described as an anarchist.

He drastically opposed slavery and more specifically, for instance, he opposed the Fugitive Slave Laws enacted in 1793 and 1850, that regulated the devolution of slaves who scaped from one state to another, to their owners.

He also positioned himself against the Mexican-American War, that took place between 1846 and 1848, after the US had annexed to its territories the independent Republic of Texas,

Thoreau really objected to supporting the Federal Government's policies on slavery and the war against Mexico. He felt both to be an offense against human dignity and the scope of government.

EXPLANATION:  

The United States announced a war on Mexico in 1846. Thoreau and other Northern people of the war saw it as a conspiracy by Southerners to enlarge slavery to the Southwest. Thoreau had stopped purchasing taxes in objection against slavery. Local tax collectors had passed over their tax evasion but determined to act when Thoreau openly convicted the attack and occupation of the U.S. in Mexico.

The sheriff arrested and imprisoned Thoreau for his tax mischief in July 1846. Someone, maybe a relative, paid Thoreau taxes anonymously after he spent one night in prison. This incident provoked Thoreau to compose his famous essay, "Civil Disobedience" (initially published in 1849 as "Resistance to Civil Government").

Thoreau's small act of defiance led him to conclude that it was not enough to simply fight slavery and war. Someone who has a conscience must act. Thoreau believed that the government must end its unfair actions to obtain the right to collect taxes from its people. If the government does unjust actions, he continued, conscious individuals must choose whether to pay taxes or refuse to pay them and oppose the government.  

Thoreau stated that if the government needed people to participate in unfairness by complying with "unjust laws," then people must "break the laws" even if they ended up in jail. Unlike some supporters of civil disobedience such as Martin Luther King, Thoreau did not exclude the use of violence against an unfair government., Thoreau protected John Brown's bloody assault on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in his failed try to initiate a slave rebellion in 1859.

LEARN MORE:  

If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, we recommend you to also take a look at the following questions:

•Which colony legalized slavery in 1661?

•During the colonial period, most of the slaves sent to the North American colonies were supplied by the?

KEYWORDS: David Thoreau, Slavery, Mexican War

Subject  : History

Class  : 10-12

Sub-Chapter: David Thoreau’s Objections

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