Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
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Julia Ward Howe, 1819-1910
Richards, Laura Elizabeth Howe
Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Feminists -- United States -- Biography; Howe, Julia Ward, 1819-1910
"As for what one can or cannot do, remember that, active or passive, we
must work to live. If we have not real labor, we must have simulated
exercise. If we have not real objects, we must have fanciful caprices,
little less exertion than keeps us in the padded chair would take us out
of it, and send us to try whether nature has made any special exemption
in our cases, and whether the paralysis of our life need be traced
further outward than our self-centred heart....
"Would that I were still young, as are many of you; would at least that
I had followed the angel of my youth as gravely and steadfastly as he
invited me; but the world taught, applauded in another direction, and I
was at fault. But from this assembly a will might go forth, an earnest
will, quick with love, and heavy with meaning. And this will might say
to our sisters all over the world, 'Trifle no more.' If women did not
waste life in frivolity, men would not waste it in murder. For the
tenderness of the one class is set by God to restrain the violence of
the other."
The New York meeting was followed by one in Boston. In the spring of
1871 the friends of peace met in the rooms of the New England Woman's
Club, and formed an American Branch of the Women's International Peace
Association: Julia Ward Howe, president. It took five meetings to
accomplish this; the minutes of these meetings are curious and
interesting.
Mr. Moncure D. Conway wrote objecting strongly to the movement being
announced as Christian: his objections were courteously considered.
* * * * *
"Mrs. Howe gave her reasons for making her Appeal in the name of
Christianity. She found the doctrine of peace and forgiveness of
injuries the most fundamental of the Christian doctrines. She thought it
proper to say so, but did not by this prevent the believers in other
religions from asserting the same doctrine, if considered as existing in
those religions."
Mr. Conway's objection was overruled.
The object of the association was "to promote peace, by the study and
culture of its conditions." A "notice" appended to the constitution
announced, "This Association proposes to hold a World's Congress of
Women, in London, in the summer of 1872, in which undertaking the
cooperation of all persons is earnestly invited."
Before continuing the story of this peace crusade, we return to the
Journal. The volume for 1871 is fragmentary, the entries mostly brief
and far apart. Written and blank pages are alike significant of the
movement going on in her mind, the steadily growing desire and resolve
to dedicate her life, as her husband had dedicated his, to the highest
needs of humanity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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