In his 1849 essay&nbsp;<i>Civil Disobedience</i>, Henry David Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing the government to make them the agents of injustice. Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) credited Thoreau&#39;s essay with being &quot;the chief cause of the abolition of slavery in America.&quot;&nbsp;