WUNRN
By
Julia Ward Howe
MOTHER'S
DAY PROCLAMATION FOR PEACE, 1870
Arise
then...women of this day!
Arise,
all women who have hearts!
Whether
your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say
firmly:
"We
will not have questions answered 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 voice 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 our 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
Let
them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby
the great human family can live in peace...
Each
bearing her 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
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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