Walt Whitman - Walt Whitman's Caution

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

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/walt-whitman-s-caution/