Awnser: Thoreau begins Civil Disobedience by saying that he agrees with the motto, "That government is best which governs least." Indeed, he says, men will someday be able to have a government that does not govern at all. As it is, government rarely proves useful or efficient. It is often "mistreat and unnatural" so that it no longer represents the will of the people. The Mexican-American War illustrates this phenomenon.
