A "MOTHER'S DAY PROCLAMATION"

Mother's Day began with a woman named Julia Ward Howe, who nursed the wounded during the American Civil War. In 1870 she started a crusade to institute a Mother's Day as a Day for Peace. She said:

"Arise all women who have hearts, say firmly: 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. Disarm! Disarm! In the name of womanhood and of humanity; take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace; promote the alliance of the different nationalities, amicable settlement of international questions, and great and general interests of peace."

Julia Ward Howe
Boston 1870