Through this essay, originally titled “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau explained his individual non-violent tax protest that resulted in him spending one night in the county jail. Here in this paragraph, he described the kinds of taxes he did pay: the highway tax and the school tax. These taxes made sense to him, for he was in favor of keeping good roads and providing for the education of children.
The one he had not paid – and ended up never paying during his lifetime – was the Massachusetts poll tax. Every man of voting age was supposed to pay $1.50 per year in order to be allowed to vote in elections, or to be able to “go to the polls.” Since Thoreau had no intention of ever voting in these elections, he didn’t believe the tax applied to him. Besides, it was unclear what the state needed this money for. Authorities could use the funds to send fugitive slaves back to southern states. Or, they could use the money to support the newly-begun war with Mexico. Thoreau was opposed to both of these initiatives. Therefore, the fact that the money was untraceable was yet another reason to oppose the poll tax. Shouldn’t citizens know where their payments were headed? As he wrote:
I do not care to trace the course of my dollar, if I could, till it buys a man or a musket to shoot one with – the dollar is innocent – but I am concerned to trace the effects of my allegiance.
He couldn’t control where his $1.50 would go, if he paid it. But he could always control which way his own moral compass pointed. His adherence to this higher law meant that his loyalties lay first with himself, and not with the political region in which he lived.
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