Resist Much Obey Little

From "To the States," a short poem in Leaves of Grass addressed directly to the American states and their citizens. The full poem warns that "once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty" — making the two-line imperative an urgent political argument, not merely a motto. Whitman wrote during a period of intense national crisis over slavery and the limits of democratic governance, and his call for civic resistance reflected his belief that poets were "the voice and exposition of liberty."