Julia Ward Howe, the woman who penned the words to The Battle Hymn of Republic and worked as a nurse on the battle fields of the civil war, had had enough of bloodshed and destruction and wrote this "Mothers Day Proclamation" in 1870:
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
whether our 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."