Original Mother's day proclamation

MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION

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."