NOTE: This is a brief excerpt from the long sequence of poems in Whitman's Leaves of Grass [1860 edition] entitled Calamus. ...
...
States!
Were
you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
By an agreement on a paper?
Or by arms?
Away!
I arrive, bringing these, beyond all the forces of
courts and arms,
These! to hold you together as firmly as the earth itself is
held together.
The old breath of life, ever new,
Here! I pass it
by contact to you, America.
O mother! have you done much for me?
Behold,
there shall from me be much done for you.
There shall from me be a
new friendship -- It shall be called after my name,
It shall circulate
through The States, indifferent of place,
It shall twist and intertwist them
through and around each other -- Compact shall they be, showing new signs,
Affection
shall solve every one of the problems of freedom,
Those who love each other
shall be invincible,
They shall finally make America completely victorious,
in my name.
One from Massachusetts shall be comrade to a Missourian,
One
from Maine or Vermont, and a Carolinian and an Oregonese, shall be friends
triune, more precious to each other than all the riches of the earth.
...