We grant no dukedoms to the few, We hold like rights and shall;— Equal on Sunday in the pew, On Monday in the mall. For what avail the plough or sail, Or land or life, if freedom fail?
ATTRIBUTION:
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. “Boston,” Selected Poems (1876).
Read in 1873 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
