Thoreau refused to pay his taxes to what he saw as an evil government -- just as the Puritans were also willing to be jailed, and eventually fled England in pursuit of what they felt was the truth. Anne Bradstreet, contemplating a terrible event like Thoreau contemplated the awfulness of the Mexican-American War, wrote "Verses on the Burning of her House, July 18, 1666" to explain her beliefs as a Puritan. Unlike Thoreau, Bradstreet in this example wrote about a personal, rather than a national tragedy, which may affect the phrasing of her work. But the poem also underlines the lack of resistance in the face of the divine will that characterized Puritanism...

Although Puritans might have resisted earthly government when it threatened the free practice of their faith, they were not against institutional structures like the Transcendentalists who had little interest in establishing a church or formal philosophy. Puritans sought to build a new city, not do away with cities altogether. Transcendentalists like Thoreau challenged the American government, the tax system, and the right to wage war. In the face of tragedy, Puritans like Bradstreet simply wrote, upon contemplating the ruin that she and her family had worked so hard to build: "I blest his [God's] grace that gave and…