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Thoreau took his case to the public by reciting it in public in Concord. Hoping to rally people to his side, he used personal experience and the use of rhetorical questions. Giving the audience the chance to decide for itself whether or not it agreed with him. In his tone, he shows anger and indignation at the government for the hysteria that surrounded the Mexican-American war and does not feel a citizen should have to pay a tax to support something they find morally troubling. His diction created a sense of urgency and treated this as a problem with the government that needed to be solved immediately. With this diction along with an angry, passionate, and independent tone, he could persuade his audience for others to turn to his way of thinking. In Thoreau’s essay, he uses a momentous and confident tone with his statements such as, For the government is an expedient, by which man would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. (Thoreau ) This presents Thoreaus contempt for government and the moral question of whether one should be forced to be taxed for something one finds morally repugnant. His diction and tone are one of indignation and he speaks from personal experience and is relatable to his audience. Being imprisoned gave him a unique perspective on government and its workings. Hoping to capture his audience, he vies to make it immediate and timely. In this manner, Thoreaus diction and tone are to appeal to his audience’s sense of right and wrong.
Thoreaus use

of appeals in his essay was also a major part of persuading, garnering sympathy, and providing a logical argument for his cause. Pathos is used to evoke strong emotional responses from either the listener or the reader. Thoreau makes a powerful appeal to both patriotism and widely held religious beliefs of the time. By evoking both the Bible and the Constitution, They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humility& (Thoreau 4), he appeals to his audience’s prevailing belief systems. Along with a powerful use of pathos, Thoreau also utilizes ethos to appear credible to his readers. Thoreau himself had refused to pay the poll tax for six years due to his stance on slavery. He also was involved in many abolitionist groups and helped slaves escape their servitude. Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. (Thoreau 6), this quote illustrates Thoreaus strong moral stance on issues. His argument about being government should not force people to give up their moral beliefs. He also uses logos to declare his argument and how the government should represent the wants and needs of its people. Appealing to his audience’s common sense gives his writing a more populist appeal.