If others pay the tax which is demanded of me, from a sympathy
with the State, they do but what they have already done in their own
case, or rather they abet injustice to a greater extent than the State
requires. If they pay the tax from a mistaken interest in the
individual taxed, to save his property, or prevent his going to
jail, it is because they have not considered wisely how far they let
their private feelings interfere with the public good.
This, then, is my position at present. But one cannot be too much on
his guard in such a case, lest his action be biased by obstinacy or an
undue regard for the opinions of men. Let him see that he does only
what belongs to himself and to the hour.
I think sometimes, Why, this people mean well, they are only
ignorant; they would do better if they knew how: why give your
neighbors this pain to treat you as they are not inclined to? But I
think again, This is no reason why I should do as they do, or permit
others to suffer much greater pain of a different kind. Again, I
sometimes say to myself, When many millions of men, without heat,
without ill will, without personal feeling of any kind, demand of
you a few shillings only, without the possibility, such is their
constitution, of retracting or altering their present demand, and
without the possibility, on your side, of appeal to any other
millions, why expose yourself to this overwhelming brute force? You do
not resist cold and hunger, the winds and the waves, thus obstinately;
you quietly submit to a thousand similar necessities.
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