Henry David Thoreau once refused...
Henry David Thoreau once refused to pay a state tax as a protest against slavery and against our country's involvement in the conflict with Mexico. For this stand, he was put in jail. There is a story that says his good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson went to the jail, looked through the jail window and asked, "Henry, what are you doing in there?" Thoreau replied, "The question is, what are you doing out there?" Of course Thoreau's action in not paying his taxes was an act of civil disobedience. But the fact remains that he was jailed for speaking out against the established norms of his day.