In the context of this excerpt from “Civil Disobedience” by Henry Thoreau, what does the word posterity mean?

This American government—what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves.

A.
being remedied
B.
a flawed government
C.
future generations
D.
a type of pest or vermin
E.
a stubborn person