To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.

To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist much, obey little, Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved, Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

When liberty goes out of a place it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go, It waits for all the rest to go, it is the last.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

That coursing on, whate'er men's speculations,Amid the changing schools, theologies, philosophies,Amid the bawling presentations new and old,The round earth's silent vital laws, facts, modes continue.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass

Brave, brave were the soldiers (high named to-day) who lived through the fight;But the bravest press'd to the front and fell, unnamed, unknown.

Walt Whitman · Leaves of Grass