Lest we forget: the original Mothers' Day was an anti-war protest, led by feminists, and social

[niyad]

Justice and peace activists. Read the 1870 Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, feminist, abolitionist, peace activist. (Could somebody please post it? My computer will not let me. Thanks in advance.) This was a protest against the then-raging Franco-Prussian war, and lasting horror about our own civil war.

So as we observe this day, look past the cards and flowers and dinners out, and remember the brave women who wanted to stop the carnage of war.

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Here you go...

Again, in the sight of the Christian world, have the skill and power of two great nations exhausted themselves in mutual murder. Again have the sacred questions of international justice been committed to the fatal mediation of military weapons. In this day of progress, in this century of light, the ambition of rulers has been allowed to barter the dear interests of domestic life for the bloody exchanges of the battle field. Thus men have done. Thus men will do. But women need no longer be made a party to proceedings which fill the globe with grief and horror. Despite the assumptions of physical force, the mother has a sacred and commanding word to say to the sons who owe their life to her suffering. That word should now be heard, and answered to as never before.

Arise, then, Christian 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 vindicate 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 council.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, man as the brother of man, each bearing after his own kind 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

[niyad]

2. Thank you so much for this.

[Wicked Blue]

5. Howe was a Unitarian, abolitionist, women's suffrage and peace activist, preacher and poet

Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819-October 17, 1910), little known today except as author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," was famous in her lifetime as poet, essayist, lecturer, reformer and biographer. She worked to end slavery, helped to initiate the women's movement in many states, and organized for international peace—all at a time, she noted, "when to do so was a thankless office, involving public ridicule and private avoidance."

...

In 1868 Julia Ward Howe joined Caroline Severance in founding the New England Woman's Club. She also signed the call to the meeting that formed the New England Woman Suffrage Association and served as its president, 1868-77 and 1893-1910. In 1869 she and Lucy Stone led the formation of the American Woman Suffrage Association when its members separated from the National Association of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Howe presided over the Massachusetts Suffrage Association, 1870-78 and 1891-93. From its first issue in 1870 she edited and contributed to the Woman's Journal founded by Lucy Stone.

...

In Boston her busy social and organizational life centered in a house at 241 Beacon St.. She continued writing and lecturing, organizing women's clubs wherever she went. She preached frequently at her own Church of the Disciples and other Unitarian churches and, in 1893, gave an address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, titled "What Is Religion?"

In 1908 Julia Ward Howe was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Not long before her death Smith College accorded her an honorary degree. The ceremony included "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," often performed to celebrate her appearances.

Excerpts are from a biographical article by Joan Goodwyn on a web page of the Unitarian Universalist History and Heritage Society.

https://uudb.org/articles/juliawardhowe.html

[niyad]

7. Thank you for including this bio of this truly remarkable woman.

[WVreaper]

3. Julia Ward Howe wrote a proclamation that Mother's Day should be recognized.

However, it was not until May 10,1908 for the first Mother's day to be celebrated in Grafton West Virginia. Anna Jarvis pushed for the day to be celebrated in honor of her mother and all other mothers.

[niyad]

4. Read the Proclamation, which is anti-war. Jarvis came from a very different perspective. Her

mother's social activism, the Mothers Working Day, was about issues like health and sanitation.

Each remarkable for their commitment to peace and justice and social,issues.

[Kath2]

6. Thank you!

Important to remember that the day was originally an anti-war gesture. Honor the original activists. Peace!

[niyad]

8. You are most welcome.