In 1860, when the United States teetered on the brink of civil war, Walt Whitman produced a book of poems that he hoped would provide a roadmap for preserving the Union. It was Leaves of Grass, the third edition.

Reading Whitman is always an exhilarating experience, but when reading from this facsimile edition put out by the University of Iowa Press, there’s a touch of something else: a sense of history. The introduction by antebellum historian and Whitman scholar Jason Stacy does an excellent job of situating the collection within its historical framework, showing clearly the issues that Whitman was trying to address and how he proposed to do so.

One of Whitman’s central ideas for preserving the Union was fervent brotherhood as portrayed in “Calamus,” a poem regarding love between men but which gains a deeper political meaning in the 1860 edition:

“States!
Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers?
By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms?...

There shall from me be a new friendship – It shall
     be called after my name,
It shall circulate through the States, indifferent of
     place...
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 Massachusettes 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.”

“I will make a song for These States, that no one
     State may under any circumstances be subjected
     to another State.
And I will make a song that there shall be comity by
     day and by night between all The States, and
     between any two of them.
And I will make a song of the organic bargains of
     These States – And a shrill song of curses on
     him who would dissever the Union...”

Although the third Leaves was a critical success, 19th-century America obviously didn’t have the patience to listen to Whitman’s song long enough to find its national salvation. But with the new facsimile edition, it is possible to hold in one’s hands a collection of poems, exactly it appeared 150 years ago, written by a patriotic poet who believed in his ideas so fervently that he thought they could prevent a war.