Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".
"Beneath all differences of doctrine or discipline there exists a fundamental agreement as to the simple, absolute essentials in religion.""Boston is an oasis in the desert, a place where the larger proportion of people are loving, rational and happy.""Disarm, disarm. The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.""God forgive me if I do wrong in following with ardor the strongest instincts of my nature.""How utterly are one's best thoughts invaded by this going out in society.""I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build.""I know not why there is such a melancholy feeling attached to the remembrance of past happiness, except that we fear that the future can have nothing so bright as the past.""I never could be good when I was not happy.""I shall stick to my resolution of writing always what I think no matter whom it offends.""I sometimes think God allows Great Britain to be unprincipled for the good of mankind.""I was born 'neath a clouded star.""Marriage, like death, is a debt we owe to nature.""Massachusetts women as a rule adhere too strongly to old-time conventions.""The blind must not only be fed and housed and cared for; they must learn to make thir lives useful to the community.""The frozen ocean... of Boston life.""The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.""Theology in general seems to me a substitution of human ingenuity for divine wisdom.""When the unwelcome little unborn shall have seen the light my brain will be lightened, and I shall have a clearer mind. Thank God that even this weary nine months shall come to an end and leave me in possession of my own body and my own soul.""While your life is the true expression of your faith, whom can you fear?"
Born Julia Ward in New York City, she was the fourth of seven children born to Samuel Ward (May 1, 1786 – November 27, 1839) and Julia Rush Cutler. Among her siblings was Samuel Cutler Ward. Her father was a well-to-do banker. Her mother, granddaughter of William Greene (August 16, 1731 – November 30, 1809), Governor of Rhode Island and his wife Catharine Ray, died when Julia was five.
In 1843, she married Samuel Gridley Howe (1801 – 1876), a physician and reformer who founded the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Social activism
Howe's "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", set to William Steffe's already-existing music, was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 and quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the American Civil War.
In 1870 Howe was the first to proclaim Mother's Day, with her Mother's Day Proclamation.
After the war Howe focused her activities on the causes of pacifism and women's suffrage. From 1872 to 1879, she assisted Lucy Stone and Henry Brown Blackwell in editing Woman's Journal.
From 1891 to 1909 she was interested in the cause of Russian freedom. Howe supported Russian emigre Stepniak-Kravchinskii and became the member of the Society of American Friends of Russian Freedom (SAFRF).
Death
Howe died on October 17, 1910, at her home, Oak Glen, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, at the age of 91. Her death was caused by pneumonia. She is buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On January 28, 1908, Howe became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Howe was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
She has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a 15¢ Great Americans series postage stamp issued in 1987.
The Julia Ward Howe School of Excellence in Chicago's Austin community is named in her honor.
Her home in Rhode Island, Oak Glen, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
