Henry David Thoreau, born in 1817 in America, was a writer and a thinker who strongly believed in the injustice of governments, the rights the individual had to follow his/her conscience over the belief of the majority (states) and even in the uselesness of democracy and any other form of government, to the point of believing in anarchy, even though many times he proposed that he did not want to abolish government, only improve it. But he did believe that government was a source of corruption, and that when governments existed, they tended to allienate the individual conscience of people, who he believed, were capable of self-government. He strongly believed this because of what he saw in his own government; the Fugitive Slave Law, the Mexican-American War, which he completely opposed, and many other events that were taking place at the time in the U.S led him to oppose the impositions of a government over the will of the individual. Thoreau´s strong beliefs and principles were put into writing and published later on and although many disliked his views, after his death, he was recognized as one of the best writers of his time in America. This is why, the correct answer to the question would be A.