evidence: Henry David Thoreau "Resistance to Civil Government" Henry David Thoreau’s essay "Resistance to Civil Government" did not get much attention when it was published, and the attention it did get was not especially positive. Today we view it as an important and influential example of protest literature, and both Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr acknowledged its role in their own protest movements. [...] The Project Gutenberg EBook of Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau is produced by Project Gutenberg is licensed in the public domain.