Julia Ward Howe. You may not recognize the name, but you will surely recognize the great treasures she gave to American culture. As a popular songwriter she gave us the abolitionist classic now sung by all, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and as a woman deeply troubled by the carnage of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War she gave us the lasting tradition of Mother’s Day.
As we celebrate, honor and remember our mothers on this day, I hope that we might take a moment to reflect upon that first Mother’s Day in 1862 and the call to action that Julia Howe made to American women in her Mother’s Day Proclamation. What a wonderful day it would be, I am thinking, if today, this very Mother’s Day, mothers across America would join me in committing ourselves to the principles and call to action contained in that document.
As in 1862, such a thought is little more than a dream, I know. Still, I do dream that one day American women will stand up in the name of peace and earn the honor that is given us on this day.
Mother’s Day Proclamation
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with 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, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”
From the bosom of the 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 often forsaken the plough 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 own 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
May be appointed and held at someplace 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.
—Julia Ward Howe
