Law does not drive us, reason does. Civil Disobedience is the act of knowingly breaking a law that an individual feels is morally unjust. We all have a conscience - a moral compass, and a perception of what is right from wrong. Many individuals see injustices in our democratic system, yet few actually make a stand for what they believe is right. The United States was founded under an idea that "All men are created equal." However, that motto is not entirely true. When we look back in time and examine our past, one can see a plethora of injustices among minorities in this country. The Mexican-American War was a bloody conflict between the two countries in which many lives were lost due to an unjust cause. The slavery-riddled south selfishly wanted the state of Texas to expand their borders in hopes of spreading slavery. Individuals such as Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Waldo Emerson; support the act of peacefully challenging or protesting unjust laws. They impugn us to do what is morally right, and to not be afraid to take a stand against injustice. On the other hand in his essay, "Civil Disobedience: Destroyer of Democracy", Lewis H. Van Dusen strongly discourages the use of civil disobedience as a means for change because he feels that this act of disobedience directly contradicts our democratic system. However, civil disobedience can be justified in a democratic society if it is necessary for individuals to preserve their own conscience.
             A democracy is only as strong as the individual. . Although Emerson never mentions civil disobedience he develops a philosophical foundation for an individual's judgment to overrule the common judgment Emerson believes that we begin as individualists and later grow into being conformists (257). A conformist is a person who conforms to accepted behavior or established practices. Emerson tells his readers to retain the outspokenness of a small child w...