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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Oops, or, Eric's Fractured History
Message-ID: <2051@peora.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 20:45:18 EST
Article-I.D.: peora.2051
Posted: Wed Mar 26 20:45:18 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 28-Mar-86 07:37:46 EST
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Earlier today, talking about Thoreau's civil disobedience, I wrote:

> ...because [Thoreau] refused to pay his taxes due to his objection to a
> war (I think the Spanish-American war ...)

Well, my friend Joel Upchurch points out that the Spanish-American war
didn't occur until after Thoreau died, and suggested it was the Mexican
war.  So I looked, and sure enough, it was the Mexican war... so also
my comments about yellow journalism don't apply.

But, to substantiate my point, here is Philip Van Doren Stern's account,
quoted from his "Detailed Chronology of Thoreau's Life" and his introduction
to Thoreau's essay on Civil Disobedience, of what actually happened... as
you can see, there wasn't a whole lot of antagonism involved, at least on
the part of the authorities:

July 23 (or 24).  Thoreau is arrested and imprisoned overnight for not
having paid his poll tax.  He would not support a government that was
fighting the Mexican War to extend slavery.
		...
... He was going to get a shoe mended when he was accosted by Sam Staples,
the tax collector -- and jailer -- who asked him to pay his poll tax,
which he had ignored for six years.
    There was no conflict, no antagonism between the two men.  They knew
each other very well, and they realized that they were playing the parts
assigned to them by the State of Things as They Are.
    According to young Edward Emerson, Staples said, "I'll pay your tax,
Henry, if you're hard up."  But Thoreau explained that it was a matter of
principle and suggested that Staples resign.  When he refused he said that
if Thoreau didn't pay his tax he would have to lock him up "pretty soon".
This brought the answer: "As well now as any time, Sam."  And with that,
Thoreau went to jail.

[From Stern's _The_Annotated_Walden_, New York, Bramhall House, 1970.]
-- 
E. Roskos

"It's Halley's comet!"