Anti-War Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons.

The following is the original Mother’s Day Proclamation written by Julia Ward Howe in Boston, 1870:

“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have heart, whether our baptism be that of water or tears!

Say firmly:
“We will not have our 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.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limits of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consider with its objects to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”