Justice and politics:an ongoing tension

The government is doing what is in their best interest instead of what is morally just. Thoreau writes: .
             "Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think we should be men first, and subjects afterward." .
             According to Thoreau, if people followed their conscience instead of the law, they would do the just thing. If people obeyed all laws, they would tend to do unjust things. In Thoreau's mind, the American people would be better off without the government. The only way to live in true justice is to disassociate oneself from politics. Now does that not sound similar to the quote taken from The Apology? Thoreau asserts "If I devote myself to other pursuits and contemplations, I must first see, at least, that I do not pursue them sitting on another man's shoulders." In his eyes it is hypocritical for people to say that they are against slavery or the Mexican-American War, but at the same time support their government by paying taxes or in any other form. At the end of his essay, Thoreau describes a utopian State, in which people are able to live independently of the government. The key term that came up towards the end of Civil Disobedience is: individualism. Individualism is the belief in the primary importance of the individual and in the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence Thoreau clearly emphasizes the importance of the individual in the last paragraph of his essay:.
             "There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. I please myself with imagining a State at last which can afford to be just to all men, and to treat the individual with respect as a neighbor; which even would not think it inconsistent with its own repose if a few were to live aloof from it, not meddling with it, nor embraced by it, who fulfilled all the duties of neighbors and fellow men.