In 1870 Julia
Ward Howe
wrote a proclamation putting out a call for mothers and women around
the world to rise up and demand peace thus beginning the tradition of
Mothers Day. NWOPC celebrates Mothers Day by standing in solidarity
with women around the world who follow the origional Mothers Day
tradition.
Mother’s
Day Proclamation
By
Julia Ward Howe (1870)
"Arise,
then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water
or of fears! 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 indicate possession.
"As
men have often forsaken the plow 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 then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means
whereby the great human family can live in peace,
And each bearing after 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.
"Mothers Day For Peace" a 4 minute
flash video. You need flash to see it.
