<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.23588">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>
<H1 class=entry-title>The Anti-War Origins of Mother’s Day</H1>
<P>Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original
Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps
best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original
Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years
following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her
condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day
Proclamation:</P>
<P>“Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your
baptism be of water or of tears!</P>
<P>“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.’</P>
<P>“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.</P>
<P>“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.”</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>