It was forced on him by his calm but radical opposition
to negro slavery. "Voting for the right is doing nothing for
it," he saw; "it is only expressing to men feebly your desire
that it should prevail." For his part, he would not "for an
instant recognise that political organisation for HIS
government which is the SLAVE'S government also." "I do not
hesitate to say," he adds, "that those who call themselves
Abolitionists should at once effectually withdraw their
support, both in person and property, from the government of
Massachusetts." That is what he did: in 1843 he ceased to
pay the poll-tax. The highway-tax he paid, for he said he
was as desirous to be a good neighbour as to be a bad
subject; but no more poll-tax to the State of Massachusetts.
Thoreau had now seceded, and was a polity unto himself; or,
as he explains it with admirable sense, "In fact, I quietly
declare war with the State after my fashion, though I will
still make what use and get what advantage of her I can, as
is usual in such cases." He was put in prison; but that was
a part of his design. "Under a government which imprisons
any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if
ten men whom I could name - 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 gaol therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in
America.
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