Julia Ward Howe
Mother's Day 2010

My name is Julie Ward Howe and it is somewhat ironic that I am best known for writing the words for the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” an anthem used for the Union Army during the Civil War and that is now in almost every hymnal of every denomination. I wrote the words while in Washington D.C. with my husband who was involved in medical service for the government. I watched troups marching off to war singing “John Brown’s Body” and a friend suggested that I write some decent words for that tune--That I did and received $5 when it was published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862. But it is ironic to be most known for it as I have dedicated my life to pacifism, the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage, working for the women’s right to vote and their right to a full education. To me these causes are all tied together and furthermore, I believe that women should, no I’ll say, have an obligation, to take a strong role in shaping society.

And even now, it is somewhat ironic that I am being asked to speak to you on what you call Mother’s Day. It’s true, in 1870, I wrote a Mother’s Day Proclamation, as a pacifist reaction to the Civil War, and we even celebrated Mothers’ Peace Day June 2, 1873 in Boston and seventeen other cities—quite successfully I must say. Mother’s Day was to honor the role of mothers in creating peace, but I was unsuccessful in getting a formal recognition for what I called, Mother’s Day for Peace. I was strongly influenced by Anna Jarvis who had 15 years earlier tried to improve sanitation conditions for society through what she called Mother’s Work Days, but I’m happy Anna’s daughter did finally prevail to establish a memorial day for women in 1907. But also, I’m saddened by the fact that it has turned into a commercial holiday with nothing to do with women’s role in peacemaking or improving sanitary conditions for that matter. My idea of Mother’s Day is a call to action for women. This I stated in my proclamation, I said, “Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!” I was calling for women to set aside a day to work for peace, not a day of rest and receiving of gifts. Now, I understand that today our many churches within Unitarian Universalists congregations support a group called “Julia’s Voice,” a group of “mothers and others working to Take Back Mother’s Day”. I think this is what you are celebrating today and I thank you very much.

It has been said of me that I do have faults, and one of those is vanity. So, it is with great interest that I welcome this new movement to reclaim my original intent for Mother’s Day. It should be a day to work for peace. I lived through the Civil War and realize that the effects of war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. After experiencing the realities of that war, the disease, the death, the economic hardships on widows and orphans as well as the economic crises following the war, and seeing another war arise again in the Franco-Prussian War, I am determined to work for peace. There seems to still be a need for that today as the country is again at war.

I say, “ Rise up and oppose war in all its forms, to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts.”

As I told you earlier, my detractors have called me vain but since I have outlived many of them and have become known as an American icon, some say, the “Queen of America” let me tell you a little about myself. Afterall, I am credited with three great firsts for women—First president of the American branch of the Women’s International Peace Association. The first person to suggest a Mother’s Peace Day and the first woman to become a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

I’ve always been a proud of my heritage, descending from Roger Williams and two governors of Rhode Island on my father’s side as well as a famous Revolutionary War legend, Francis Marion, on my mother’s side. My mother was a poet and my father a banker. My mother died in childbirth when I was five years, so my father pretty much raised me along with my nannies. Much of my education came from books my older brother shipped from Europe. Perhaps my puritanical father didn’t know I was reading books by Balzac and Sand. My brother, Sam, also put me into contact with leading figures of the day—such as Longfellow, Dickens and Margaret Fuller. My brother Sam married Emily Astor, the favorite grandchild of John Jacob Aster and my sister and I were introduced to New York society.

When I married, at age 24, I was a coddled, cared-for, independent minded New York heiress, but this all changed when my husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe took charge of my income from my large estate. My husband was eighteen years older than me and I met him when I visited the Perkins Institute for the Blind which he founded. He was a well-known doctor and teacher of the blind He was a strong-willed autocratic husband of our times, not wanting me to write or speak in public, but eventually I was allowed to publish my poetry and to study my philosophy as long as I performed my motherhood and wifely duties. We had six children and I had to learn the skills of a homemaker on my own as I had not learned them growing up. As time went on I became involved in reform movements working for women’s right to vote, prison reform and education. My husband finally agreed that I could speak in public as long as I did not receive money and my poetry was to be published anonymously. However, my friends knew who I was and it became known that they were my poems. I enjoyed attending the New England Woman’s Club as well as friendships with William Ellery Channing, and Theodore Parker, leading Unitarian ministers of Boston. I later preached in many Unitarian pulpits throughout New England.

Although I had a troubled marriage, my husband relied heavily on my skills as an editor and writer for his newspaper, “The Commonwealth,” a newspaper that supported the abolitionist movement. My husband objected to my work but he couldn’t stop me from studying. I was fluent in seven languages and seriously studied philosophy. By the time he died in 1876, I was known as a preacher, a reformer a writer and poet.

The first entry in my journal after my husband’s death is, “Start my new life today.” Finally I answered to no one else except myself and my God. I spent the next 40 years traveling the world promoting Women’s Rights, Peace, Prison and Education Reform. One good thing about writing my poem, “Battle Hymn for the Republic” is that it brought me instant fame and I used my celebrity status during my long life of 91years to further my causes, much as famous people of your day do.

From my opening address at the World’s Congress of Women on behalf of International Peace these are the words that I bring to you today. I ask every woman to take action in the cause of peace and reclaim Mother’s Day of Peace.

“So I repeat my call and cry to women. Let it pierce through dirt and rags – let it pierce through velvet and cashmere. It is the call of humanity. It says: ‘Help others, and you help yourselves.’. I closed my speech with these words…..”Would that I were still young, as are many of you; would at least that I had followed the angel of my youth as gravely and steadfastly as he invited me;….But from this assembly a will might go forth, an earnest will, quick to love, and heavy with meaning. And this will might say to our sisters of the world, “Trifle no more” If women did not waste life in frivolity, men would not waste it in murder. For the tenderness of the one class is set by God to restrain the violence of the other.