Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward Howe

Julia Ward, the daughter of a wealthy banker, was born on 27th May, 1819. She developed radical political opinions and was active in the American Anti-Slavery Society.

In 1843 Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe, a fellow campaigner against slavery. The couple were both members of the Free-Soil Party and between 1851 and 1853 Julia and her husband edited the anti-slavery journal Commonwealth.

Julia Ward Howe also published several volumes of poetry including Passion Flowers (1854) and Words for the Hour (1857). In 1862 the Atlantic Monthly published her Battle Hymn of the Republic.

In 1868 Howe founded the New England Women's Suffrage Association. The following year Howe and Lucy Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Between 1870 and 1890 Howe and Stone edited the organization's magazine, the Woman's Journal. Howe, a pacifist, wrote an "Appeal to womanhood throughout the world", later known as the Mothers' Day Proclamation, which asked women around the world to join for world peace. Arts.

Julia Ward Howe (c. 1850)
Julia Ward Howe (c. 1850)

A great admirer of the writer, Margaret Fuller, she published a biography of her, The Life and Legacy of Margaret Fuller (1883) Two years later she published another collection of lectures called Is Polite Society Polite? (1885). In 1899 she published her memoirs, Reminiscences.

Julia Ward Howe, who in 1898 became the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts, died on 17th October 1910.

Primary Sources

(1) Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic (1862)

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,

He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps

l can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps

His day is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,

"As ye deal with my condemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel

Since God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

He has sounded form the trumpet that shall never call retreat

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

He has sounded form the trumpet that shall never call retreat

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.