Lincoln Martin Luther King Henry David Thoreau Term Paper

Letter From a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr., and "Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. Specifically it will explain the reasoning of Thoreau's argument for civil disobedience and his general understanding of our obligation to law. Thoreau did not like too much government, or too many laws, and he felt people had a moral obligation to stand up to unjust laws, just as King did. Both men employed "creative protest" to get their message across to the public and gain support for their ideas and beliefs.

Thoreau believed in the ability of people to make their own decisions, not necessarily because of laws, but because of their own understanding of what is right and wrong. He wrote, "It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right" (Thoreau). Therefore, his understanding of our obligation to laws was to follow them when they made sense, and not follow them when they go against our own moral compass.He believes it is a person's right to rebel when they see tyranny or abuse, and that civil disobedience in those cases is called for, and even welcomed. In fact, he believes it is a person's duty to right wrongs. He writes, "It is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong?" (Thoreau). Thoreau was really an early war protester, who gained prominence in the 1960s protesting the Vietnam War. Those protesters, and King too, where just participating in something that had been going on for centuries, civil disobedience in the name of righting wrongs.

There is a saying that "laws are meant to be broken," and maybe some of them are. When you see something that is legal, but you know is not right, you should question the law rather than blindly follow it. To follow a suspicious law is not taking responsibility for standing up for things you know are not right,….....