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Table of Contents

[Leaf 1 recto]

39—

To t T he 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,

race, city, of this earth,

ever afterward resumes

its liberty.—

Date: This manuscript was likely composed in the years immediately preceding the poem's first publication in 1860.

Editorial note: "Walt Whitman's Caution" was first published as one of the "Messenger Leaves" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. The poem was later retitled "To the States."; The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.

Notes written on manuscript: In top margin, in unknown hand: 35.00
clsx.; In bottom margin, in unknown hand: ~~[deletion, illegible]~~ m n.

Location: Walt Whitman's Caution. | Amherst College Archives and Special Collections.

The Walt Whitman Archive