Blog 3

The values that Thoreau describes is that the government should not be too powerful. The government should be for the people and with the people. He also states that the majority overrides in government and some people don't get their choice. This is overall correct because even if you have a say, if everyone else doesn't agree with it than it is said for nothing.  He says government rules by majority and not justice. If it was ruled by Justice than it wouldn't be based on certain people's decisions. Thoreau was talking about how if you don't follow what the government says to do your wrong. But he says men should stand up against their government. If they deem something as wrong stand up for it no matter what. In his time there was slavery. Now slavery is abolished but we still have instances of sex trade and bad things happening around the world. His time and our time is not much different at all, because majority still overrides singles and the government is still "powerful."

I think the reason Thoreau thought all this is because America thought they were powerful enough to just take whatever they wanted. The Mexican War was fought between the US and Mexico because we wanted to expand west and take over Texas. The whigs and the Democrats were against each other. The Democrats favored conflict and the whigs didn't. Polk had a lot of control in this time and after the War they accused him of illegally starting  a war. Thoreau was right about how much power the government had over the people in this time period. Polk was all about war because he wanted what he thought was ours.