"The question forced
itself on me, 'Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters
to prevent the waste of human life, which they alone bear and know the cost?
I had never thought of this before. The august dignity of motherhood and its
terrible responsibility now appeared to me in a new aspect."
- Julia Ward Howe
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe of Boston,
Massachusetts, the famous lyricist of 'Battle Hymn of the Republic" was
appalled at the brutalities of the then ongoing Franco-Prussian War. What
she did as a humanitarian reaction was make an impassioned "appeal to
womanhood" to rise against war. She wrote a proclamation the same year, had
it translated into French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and
disseminated it internationally. This powerful plea that Julia Howe wrote in
1870 is generally considered to be the original Mothers' Day proclamation.
Go down and read this historic Mothers' Day proclamation by Julia Ward Howe.
Wish you a Happy Mother's Day!
Original Mothers Day Proclamation Julia Ward Howe: 1870
Arise then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of
tears!
Say firmly:
'We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
'Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and
applause.
'Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been
able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.
'We women of one country will be too tender to those of another country
to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
'From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own, it
says "Disarm! Disarm!"
'The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
'Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.'
As men have forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let
women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day
of counsel.
Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby
the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his time
the sacred impress not of Caesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general
congress of women without limit of nationality be appointed and held at
some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent
with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different
nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the
great and general interests of peace.
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