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Henry David Thoreau



             Only the actions of the just.
             Smell sweet and blossom in the dust- (http://www.walden.org). .
             He placed part of the blame on the government. He spoke against their allowing slavery to continue and writing bills such as the Fugitive Slave Law which said that anyone living in the North should help to return escaped slaves back to their "owners- in the South. But most of the blame he placed upon his fellow townsmen and citizens that "ignored their morals- by allowing slavery to continue. In "Slavery in Massachusetts- he tells of a town meeting he attended in which the topic was meant to be slavery. He talks of how in the courthouse men were holding a man prisoner and having a trial to decide if he really was a slave. He speaks against the judge by saying, "For him to sit there deciding still, when this question is already decided from eternity to eternity, and the unlettered slave himself, and the multitude around, have long since heard and assented to the decision, is simply to make himself ridiculous. We may be tempted to ask from whom he received his commission, and who he is that received it; what novel statutes he obeys, and what precedents are to him of authority- (http://www.walden.org). He proposes a solution to end slavery by saying, "I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,""if ten honest men only,""ay, if one HONEST man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America- (http://www.walden.org). His view on slavery can be summed up by saying that all men are equal and should be treated in an equal manner. He goes on at the end of the essay to compare living with this government and living "wholly in hell."" This essay may have been the beginning of his better known essay, "Civil Disobedience.


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