Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" and The Mexican-American War

 Thoreau through quotes

    "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music he hears, however measured or far away." Thoreau is expressing, in this quote, that he believes that the individual is important and should be let alone to do his own thing. This may end up leading to something great versus living in a society that is afraid to do what they want because there will be severe repercussions from their government.

      "Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are not good?"  Here he expresses that there will always be the possibility of the government acting in the wrong. If the government is doing so then the people should be able to speak up without fear. If laws were made with many flaws and are believed to be good for the country however they are not then the people should have the ability to persuade the government to change said law by presenting the issues.

    Thoreau's style of government would have been pretty laid back because he believed that the government exists to help the people not to hurt them. If something was unjust he wanted the people to speak up and take charge. The government would not be allowed to charge their people money for something that they were not involved with. He believed that a man should only be imprisoned if he was truly guilty of a worthy crime. He wanted a government actually pretty close to democracy however sometimes there are still flaws in such a government.

The Mexican American War

    The Mexican American War is unclear on who actually started the fighting however the Mexican troops were the ones to attack first. The American troops were toying with their limits on the border of Texas at the time of the attack because President Polk wanted the land that the Mexicans had. Thoreau probably would not have been happy with this war because it was immoral to provoke the owners of the land because they wanted it for themselves.