Thoreau lectures on “The Relation of the Individual to the State” at the Unitarian Church for the Concord Lyceum (“The Relation of the Individual to the State”; Studies in the American Renaissance, 1995, 153-154).
Concord, Mass. A. Bronson Alcott writes in his journal:
Heard Thoreau’s lecture before the Lyceum on the relation of the individual to the state—an admirable statement of the rights of individual to self-government, and an attentive audience. His allusions to the Mexican War, to Mr. Hoar’s expulsion from Carolina, his own imprisonment in Concord Jail for refusal to pay his tax, Mr. Hoar’s payment of mine when taken to prison for a similar refusal, were all pertinent, well considered, and reasoned. I took great pleasure in this deed of Thoreau’s.
(The Journals of Bronson Alcott, 201)
