Not What Julia Ward Howe Had in Mind

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Mother’s Day wasn't always about mani-pedis and jewelry: the holiday was originally conceived as a call against war. In the aftermath of the Civil War, social activist Julia Ward Howe issued the Mother’s Day Proclamation, hoping to begin an annual day of uniting mothers in the fight for peace. Howe’s Mother’s Day for Peace never got formally established—and our national maternal remembrance day instead became the most popular day of the year to dine out. I’m not really up for social commentary today (maybe it's all those mimosas I had at brunch), so without further ado, I present you Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870. This is a particularly good time to remember the rousing call Howe issued for women to act as peacemakers.

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 answered 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 voice 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 our 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 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.

Image: Wikipedia

Strollerderby : mother's day proclamation

Not What Julia Ward Howe Had in Mind