Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are not good? Is there any necessity for a man’s being a tool to perform a deed of which his better nature disapproves? Is it the intention of law-makers that good men shall be hung ever?

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer

Speech (1859-10-30), “A Plea for Captain John Brown,” Concord, Massachusetts
    (Source)

Speaking of John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry. Collected in A Yankee in Canada (1866).