The Role Of Civil Disobedience In The United States

Throughout the history of the United States, dissent and debate about, both the structure of the government, and the laws created by that government have been an integral part of the growth and development of the United States. Peaceful opposition to laws is one of the most important tenets of a free and just nation, however, resistance to legally passed laws is something that has been debated since the beginning of this nation. Despite this debate, peaceful resistance to laws, by people willing to accept the consequences of their actions, is an important, positive, contributor to a free society.
This action, known more popularly as civil disobedience, has been throughout the history of our nation an important method of change towards a more
One of the first cases of this happened almost instantly as the nation was born. Starting in Western Pennsylvania, the Whiskey Rebellion was one of the first outright opposition to US laws, and some could say that removing the judges and tax collectors who enforced what was seen as an unfair tax act may have been the first American act of civil disobedience. As the name suggests, the rebellion was quickly violent, seizing weapons and arming themselves against the US Government. George Washington, marched to Pennsylvania with his army to quickly put down this rebellion, as he believed that if some people could choose to follow the law only when it suited them, that laws had no meaning, and so, the government must enforce all laws (Mirkin). This is the key in the argument against civil disobedience, that if the law is only selectively applied and enforced, then it is no longer a law. Protest against a law does not have to be synonymous with disobeying that law. Due to this fact, in order to practice proper civil disobedience
The most popular examples of civil disobedience all come from the civil rights movement of the 1960’s and for good reason. The entire movement was designed around civil disobedience and its leader, Martin Luther King Jr, is famed for his use of the tactic to bring awareness and action to the segregated south. Martin Luther King was famed for his advocacy and action in using non-violent protest and civil disobedience to spread freedom in the southern United States (Frankel). This civil disobedience clearly was pivotal in bringing both public attention and pressure but also bringing it to the forefront of the government's mind and cumulating in the civil right bill of 1964. One of the best theories of civil disobedience comes from Henry David Thoreau who argued that the movement from absolute monarchy and government, to limited monarchy, to democracy was a series of steps in the movement towards pure respect for the individual, and that by the idea of consent of the governed, the government must respect each and every individual (Thoreau). In Thoreau’s mind, civil disobedience was just a movement along those steps in order to get the government to recognise and individuals right to govern themselves and create a purely