The mood of Civil Disobedience is passionate and determined, befitting Thoreau’s goal of galvanizing his fellow citizens into acts of peaceful political resistance. Though he believes that American society has become complacent in the century following the American Revolution, Thoreau nevertheless maintains that unjust institutions such as slavery can and must be successfully opposed:
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,—if ten honest men only,—aye, 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 therefor, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever.
Here, as elsewhere in the essay, Thoreau writes with great passion, using repetition and capitalization to emphasize his point. Just one “HONEST” man, he boldly declares, could bring about “the abolition of slavery in America” by refusing to pay his taxes, even at the threat of imprisonment. Even a “small” beginning such as this, he writes, can bring about monumental changes in history, sparking a larger movement of political resistance. The confident and determined mood of the essay suggests that the American people have the power to oppose their government if only they choose to act upon that power.
