With a wounded conscience, I find solace in these words by Thoreau....please
reflect:


"Can there not be a government in which majorities do not virtually decide
right and wrong, but conscience?—in which majorities decide only those
questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen
ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the
legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be
men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a
respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I
have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly
enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of
conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a
whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the
well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural
result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers,
colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all, marching in
admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay,
against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep
marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt
that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all
peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts
and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?"



"Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor
to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress
them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that
they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them.
They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the
evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse
than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and
provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it
cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to
be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have
them?"



"If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of
government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth—certainly
the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a
rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider
whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I
say, break the law. Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.
What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the
wrong which I condemn."



"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just
man is also a prison."



"If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no
longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy
within its walls, they do not know by how much truth is stronger than error,
nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has
experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of
paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it
conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is
irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight."



"Is there not a sort of bloodshed when the conscience is wounded? Through
this wound a man's real manhood and immortality flow out, and he bleeds to
an everlasting death. I see this blood flowing now."

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