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Which appeal dominates paragraph 21 in Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience"?
Quick answer:
In paragraph 21 of "Civil Disobedience," Thoreau primarily uses pathos, appealing to the audience's sense of decency and moral courage by urging citizens to oppose slavery through tax resistance. He suggests that even one honest person refusing to pay taxes could lead to the abolition of slavery. However, elements of ethos and logos also appear, as Thoreau leverages his reputation for integrity and argues logically against the infallibility of man-made laws when they conflict with divine laws.
Thoreau is arguing that "honest" citizens of Massachusetts who wish to oppose slavery should do so by refusing to pay taxes. The "face" of the government is the tax collector, and the test here is also one for the tax collector himself, a "voluntary" agent of the government:
How shall he ever know well what he is and does as an officer of the government, or as a man, until he is obliged to consider whether he shall treat me, his neighbor, for whom he has respect, as a neighbor and well-disposed man, or as a maniac and disturber of the peace[?]
It is a test not of logic or legality, but of simple decency. Thoreau goes on to argue that "if one HONEST man...be locked up in the county jail therefor [for failure to pay taxes] it would be the abolition of slavery in America."
It's not a simple...
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thing to say which rhetorical appeal is dominant here. Personally, I see Thoreau as leveraging his reputation as someone with uncompromised values (ethos) in an attempt to make what is essentially an emotional argument (pathos) about common decency and personal courage.
In his essayCivil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau appeals to the logic of his audience as he argues that since laws are man-made, they are not infallible; further, he contends that there is a higher divine law. When civil laws and divine laws conflict, people must obey the higher law. Thoreau's logos-based argument appeals to the reason of his readers. He asks of the State tax collector, whom he meets each year to recognize him as expressing his dissatisfaction with the poll tax.
Thoreau reasons that he must contend with this man, the tax collector
—for it is, after all, with men and not with parchment that I quarrel,—and he has voluntarily chosen to be an agent of the government.
Further, Thoreau appeals to the logic of his listerners that they will take action against the unfair law and convey their disapproval of slavery as well. He deduces logically,
I know this well, that if one thousand, if one hundred, if ten men whom I could name,—if ten honest men only,—aye, if one honest man, in this State of Massachusetts, ceasing to hold slaves, were actually to withdraw from this copartnership, and be locked up in the county jail therefore, it would be the abolition of slavery in America. For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done for ever.
As in most scholarly documents, Thoreau's essay is logos-driven as he seeks to reason with his readers that they should protest the poll tax that support slaver.