Mother’s Day Proclamation, 1870
By Julia Ward Howe
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.
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