, c. 1844–1845 Lowell wrote the poem at a time when the United States government was considering the
annexation of Texas as a state allowing slavery, which Lowell and others opposed because it would increase power in the South. Further, he worried that the precedent would be set to expand slavery into
California and the southwest. In 1844,
John Greenleaf Whittier, a poet actively working for the antislavery movement, asked Lowell to write a poem to inspire others. In a letter to Lowell, Whittier wrote: "Give me one that shall be to our cause what the song of
Rouget de Lisle was to the French Republicans", referring to "
La Marseillaise", now the national anthem of France. The result was Lowell's poem, first published as "Verses Suggested by the Present Crisis" in the
Boston Courier for December 11, 1845, before being included in his compilation
Poems as "The Present Crisis" in 1848. The poem was immediately successful, both critically and among readers, in part by invoking the country's past as a way to remind people of the present day to strive to be on the right side of history. It rapidly became an anthem of the antislavery movement and was quoted by antislavery leaders such as
William Lloyd Garrison and others. In the book, which became immediately popular, Lowell used black comedy to depict what the war meant to the United States and proponents of slavery. ==Legacy==