Comment

Comment by truth on May 12, 2013 at 4:48pm

Original Mother’s Day Proclamation was an Anti-War Manifesto

Julia Ward Howe, author of the Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870, was a life-long abolitionist and therefore, early on, she was a supporter of the Union Army’s anti-slavery rationale for going to war to prevent the pro-slavery politicians and industrialists in the Confederate South from seceding from the union over the slavery issue. Howe was a compassionate and well-educated middle child of an upper class family. She was also a poet who, in the early days of the Civil War, wrote “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” using many biblically-based lyrics. Howe had intended her song to be sung as an abolitionist song; however, because of some of the militant-sounding lyrics and the eminently marchable tune, it was rapidly adopted by the Union Army as its most inspiring war song, a reality that Howe likely regretted when the true nature of the world’s first “total war” became clear to her.

Comment by Harry Thomas on May 9, 2010 at 7:59pm

Comment by Tara on May 9, 2010 at 8:01am

Happy Mothers Day back at ya Dawn. Have a wonderful day!

Comment by Harry Thomas on May 9, 2010 at 1:09am

Happy Mothers Day To You , I hope your day is a happy one , i miss you