“Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 't is prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.”

— James Russell Lowell, The Present Crisis

St. 11
The Present Crisis (1844)

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James Russell Lowell175

American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891

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