Frederic D. Schwarz’s supercilious put-down of Henry David Thoreau’s tax protest (“The Time Machine,” December) is a disgrace to American Heritage . Thoreau’s act of conscience served as a beacon that inspired the introduction of nonviolent civil disobedience into world politics in the mid-twentieth century, first by Mohandas K. Gandhi in India and then by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the United States. The movements launched by these two men bettered the lives and significantly increased the measure of freedom enjoyed by both the peoples on whose behalf they campaigned and their oppressors.