from America to America

TO THE STATES

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 A PRESIDENT

All you are doing and saying is to America dangled mirages,
you have not learn'd of Nature--of the politics of Nature you
        have not learned the great amplitude, recti-
        tude, impartiality,
You have not seen that only such as they are for these States,
And that what is less than they must sooner or later lift off
        from these States.

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass