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Consumerism

The Nation Expanding

Document 4
Henry David Thoreau's protest

There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing; who even postpone the question of freedom to the question of free trade, and quietly read the prices-current along with the latest advices from Mexico, after dinner, and, it may be, fall asleep over them both. What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot today?

“Civil Disobedience,” 1848
 

 
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War News from Mexico
lithograph
Autry Museum of Western Heritage
Los Angeles

 

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