Julia Ward Howe and Mother’s Day

 

By Sally Milbury-Steen

 

The mother of Mother’s Day in the United States is Julia Ward Howe (1819 –

1910), the famous abolitionist, writer, suffragette, and author of "The Battle

Hymn of the Republic." To her, Mother’s Day was an occasion for women to

come together to work for peace.

 

Shocked by the bloodshed and carnage of the Franco-Prussian War, Julia Ward

Howe asked herself, "Why do not the mother’s of mankind interfere in these

matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and

know the cost?" This question helped her clarify her pacifist philosophy, and

inspired her to write this Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870:

 

Arise, the, women of this day!

 

Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of

water or of tears.

 

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant

agencies,"

 

"Our husbands shall 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 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 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 then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means

whereby the great human family can live in peace,

 

And each bearing after her own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,

but of God.

 

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a

general congress of women without limit of nationality may 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.

 

 

 

Julia Ward Howe had the Proclamation translated into French, Spanish, Italian,

German, and Swedish to rally women around her dream of holding an

International Women’s Peace Congress in London. She founded the Women’s

Peace Association and spent much of the next two years in correspondence with

women from around the world, trying to garner their interest and support for an

international congress.

 

As part of her peace crusade, she wanted to start a Mother’s Day festival that

would be devoted to peace advocacy. She chose June 2nd as the day for this

celebration because it comes at a time of year when lots of flowers bloom and

the weather is pleasant for an outdoor event.

 

She organized her first Mother’s Day celebration in Boston in 1872, and

continued to hold it for quite a few years thereafter. According to her

autobiography, Reminiscences, similar observances were also held in Philadelphia

and other cities in the United States as well as overseas in Constantinople. The

popularity of her Mother’s Day for peace waned over time, and the event finally

disappeared in the years preceding World War I.

 

When Julia Ward Howe went to London in 1872 as a delegate to the World’s

Prison Reform Congress, she hoped to begin organizing the Women’s Peace

Congress. She attended the anniversary meeting of the English Peace Society,

but when she asked permission to speak, she was told that they did not permit

women to address their meetings. She received very little encouragement from

them or from other peace organizations for a Women’s Peace Congress.

Undeterred by their lack of enthusiasm, she rented a public hall and gave a

number of impassioned speeches about the Congress. Unfortunately, she was so

ahead of her time that she never gained sufficient public support for the

Congress and was forced to abandon the project. Many of the seeds she planted

came to fruition over a century later at the United Nations International Women’s

Conference in Beijing in 1995. After her trip to England, Julia Ward Howe put

most of her energy into the struggle for women’s suffrage. However, she never

lost her faith in mothers as peacemakers and protectors of life.

 

When we consider the violence and wars that continue to rage today, unleashing

trauma from Baghdad to Northern Illinois University, the message of Howe’s

Mother’s Day Proclamation seems particularly pertinent. Isn’t it time that we returned

the day to her ideals and explored "the means whereby the great human family can

live in peace?"

 

Sally Milbury-Steen is the Executive Director of Pacem in Terris.

 

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