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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #66683 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66683)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story of the Battle Hymn of the
-Republic, by Florence Howe Hall
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic
-
-Author: Florence Howe Hall
-
-Release Date: November 6, 2021 [eBook #66683]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
- at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
- generously made available by The Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN
-OF THE REPUBLIC ***
-
-
-
-[Illustration: _Julia Ward Howe._
-
-From her last photograph, taken at Smith College a fortnight before her
-death]
-
-
-
-
- THE STORY OF
- THE BATTLE HYMN
- OF THE REPUBLIC
-
- BY
- FLORENCE HOWE HALL
-
- DAUGHTER OF JULIA WARD HOWE
-
- [Illustration]
-
- HARPER & BROTHERS
- NEW YORK AND LONDON
-
-
-
-
- THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC
-
- Copyright, 1916, by Harper & Brothers
-
- Printed in the United States of America
-
- Published October, 1916
-
-
-
-
-ACKNOWLEDGMENT
-
-
-The author wishes to express her cordial thanks to Messrs. Houghton
-& Mifflin for their courtesy in allowing her to quote a number of
-passages from the _Reminiscences_ of Julia Ward Howe (published by
-them in 1899) and several from _Julia Ward Howe_ (published by them in
-1916).
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
- CHAP. PAGE
-
- I. THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF THE
- CIVIL WAR 3
-
- II. THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS 21
-
- III. MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC 38
-
- IV. “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC” 49
-
- V. THE ARMY TAKES IT UP 64
-
- VI. NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG 73
-
- VII. HOW AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT 88
-
- VIII. TRIBUTES TO “THE BATTLE HYMN” 96
-
- IX. MRS. HOWE’S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR 107
-
- X. MRS. HOWE’S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE 121
-
-
-
-
- _THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC_
-
-
- _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 hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
- 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;
- I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
- His day is marching on._
-
- _I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
- “As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
- Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
- Since God is marching on.”_
-
- _He has sounded forth 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._
-
- _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._
-
-
-
-
-THE STORY OF “THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC”
-
-
-
-
-I
-
-THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR
-
-The encroachments of the slave power on Northern soil--Green Peace,
- the home of Julia Ward Howe, a center of anti-slavery activity--She
- assists her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, in editing the
- _Commonwealth_--He is made chairman of the Vigilance Committee--Slave
- concealed at Green Peace--Charles Sumner is struck down in the United
- States Senate.
-
-
-The “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “the crimson flower of battle,”
-bloomed in a single night. It sprang from the very soil of the
-conflict, in the midst of the Civil War. Yet the plant which produced
-it was of slow growth, with roots reaching far back into the past.
-
-In order to understand how this song of our nation sprang into sudden
-being we must study that stormy past--the prelude of the Civil War.
-How greatly it affected my mother we shall see from her own record, as
-well as from the story of the events that touched her so nearly. My
-own memory of them dates back to childhood’s days. Yet they moved and
-stirred my soul as few things have done in a long life.
-
-Therefore I have striven to give to the present generation some idea
-of the fervor and ferment, the exaltation of spirit, that prevailed at
-that epoch among the soldiers of a great cause, especially as I saw it
-in our household.
-
- * * * * *
-
- Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel.
-
-So many years have elapsed since the evil monster of slavery was done
-to death that we sometimes forget its awful power in the middle of the
-last century. The fathers of the Republic believed that it would soon
-perish. They forbade its entrance into the Territories and were careful
-to make no mention of it in the Constitution.
-
-The invention of the cotton-gin changed the whole situation. It was
-found that slave labor could be used with profit in the cultivation
-of the cotton crop. But slave labor with its wasteful methods
-exhausted the soil. Slavery could only be made profitable by constantly
-increasing its area. Hence, the Southern leaders departed from the
-policy of the fathers of the Republic. Instead of allowing slavery
-to die out, they determined to make it perpetual. Instead of keeping
-it within the limits prescribed by the ancient law of the land, they
-resolved to extend it.
-
-The Missouri Compromise of 1820 gave the first extension of slavery,
-opening the great Territory of Missouri to the embrace of the serpent.
-The fugitive-slave law was signed in 1850. Before this time the return
-of runaway negroes had been an uncertain obligation. The new law took
-away from State magistrates the decision in cases of this sort and gave
-it to United States Commissioners. It imposed penalties on rescues and
-denied a jury trial to black men arrested as fugitives, thus greatly
-endangering the liberties of free negroes. The Dred Scott decision
-(see page 10), denying that negroes could be citizens, was made in
-1854. In 1856 the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas and
-Nebraska law.[1] Additional territory was thrown open to the sinister
-institution which now threatened to become like the great Midgard
-snake, holding our country in its suffocating embrace, as that creature
-of fable surrounded the earth. It was necessary to fling off the deadly
-coils of slavery if we were to endure as a free nation.
-
-The first step was to arouse the sleeping conscience of the people. For
-the South was not alone in wishing there should be no interference with
-their “peculiar institution.” The North was long supine and dreaded any
-new movement that might interfere with trade and national prosperity.
-I can well remember my father’s pointing this out to his children, and
-inveighing against the selfishness of the merchants as a class. Alas!
-it was a Northern man, Stephen A. Douglas, who was the father of the
-Kansas and Nebraska bill.
-
-“The trumpet note of Garrison” had sounded, some years before this
-time, the first note of anti-slavery protest. But the Garrisonian
-abolitionists did not seek to carry the question into politics. Indeed,
-they held it to be wrong to vote under the Federal Constitution,
-“A league with death and a covenant with hell,” as they called it.
-Whittier, the Quaker poet, took a more practical view than his
-fellow-abolitionists and advocated the use of the ballot-box.
-
-When the encroachments of the slave power began to threaten seriously
-free institutions throughout the country, thinking men at the North saw
-that the time for political action had come. There were several early
-organizations which preceded the formation of the Republican party--the
-Liberty party, Conscience Whigs, Free-soilers, as they were called.
-My father belonged to the two latter, and I can well remember that my
-elder sister and I were nicknamed at school, “Little Free-Dirters.”
-
-The election of Charles Sumner to the United States Senate was an
-important victory for the anti-slavery men. Dr. Howe, as his most
-intimate friend, worked hard to secure it. Yet we see by my father’s
-letters that he groaned in spirit at the necessity of the political
-dickering which he hated.
-
-Women in those days neither spoke in public nor took part in political
-affairs. But it may be guessed that my mother was deeply interested
-in all that was going on in the world of affairs, and under her own
-roof, too, for our house at South Boston became one of the centers of
-activity of the anti-slavery agitation.
-
-My father (who was some seventeen years older than his wife) well
-understood the power of the press. He had employed it to good effect
-in his work for the blind, the insane, and others. Hence he became
-actively interested in the management of the _Commonwealth_, an
-anti-slavery newspaper, and with my mother’s help edited it for an
-entire winter. They began work together every morning, he preparing the
-political articles, and she the literary ones. Burning words were sent
-forth from the quiet precincts of “Green Peace.” My mother had thus
-named the homestead, lying in its lovely garden, when she came there
-early in her married life. Little did she then dream that the repeal of
-the Missouri Compromise would disturb its serene repose some ten years
-later.
-
-The agitation had not yet become so strong as greatly to affect the
-children of the household. We played about the garden as usual and
-knew little of the _Commonwealth_ undertaking, save as it brought some
-delightful juveniles to the editorial sanctum. The little Howes highly
-approved of this by-product of journalism!
-
-Our mother’s pen had been used before this time to help the cause of
-the slave. As early as 1848 she contributed a poem to _The Liberty
-Bell_, an annual edited by Mrs. Maria Norton Chapman and sold at the
-anti-slavery bazars. “In my first published volume, _Passion Flowers_,
-appeared some lines ‘On the Death of the Slave Lewis,’ which were wrung
-from my indignant heart by a story--alas! too common in those days--of
-murderous outrage committed by a master against his human chattel”
-(_Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle_, Julia Ward Howe).
-
-Another method of arousing the conscience of the nation was through
-the public platform. My father and his friends were anxious to present
-the great question in a perfectly fair way. So a series of lectures
-was given in Tremont Temple, where the speakers were alternately the
-most prominent advocates of slavery at the South and its most strenuous
-opponents at the North. Senator Toombs, of Georgia, and General
-Houston, of Texas, were among the former.
-
-It was, probably, at this lecture course that my father exercised his
-office as chairman in an unusual way. In those days it was the custom
-to open the meeting with prayer, and some of the contemporary clergymen
-were very long-winded. Dr. Howe informed each reverend gentleman
-beforehand that at the end of five minutes he should pull the latter’s
-coat-tail. The divines were in such dread of this gentle admonition
-that they invariably wound up the prayer within the allotted time.
-
-At this time no criticism of the “peculiar institution” was allowed
-at the South. Northerners traveling there were often asked for their
-opinion of it, but any unfavorable comment evoked displeasure. Indeed,
-a friend of ours, a Northern woman teaching in Louisiana, was called
-to book because in his presence she spoke of one of the slaves as a
-“man.” A negro, she was informed, was not a man, and must never be so
-called. “Boy” was the proper term to use. This was a logical inference
-from Judge Taney’s famous Dred Scott decision--_viz._, that “such
-persons,” _i. e._, negroes, “were not included among the people” in
-the words of the Declaration of Independence, and could not in any
-respect be considered as citizens. Yet, to quote Abraham Lincoln
-again, “Judge Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows that in five
-of the then thirteen States--to wit, New Hampshire, Massachusetts,
-New York, New Jersey, and North Carolina--free negroes were voters,
-and in proportion to their numbers had the same part in making the
-Constitution that the white people had.”
-
-Events now began to move with ever-increasing rapidity. The scenes of
-the stirring prelude to the Civil War grew ever more stormy. Men became
-more and more wrought up as the relentless purpose of the Southern
-leaders was gradually revealed. The deadly serpent of slavery became a
-hydra-headed monster, striking north, east, and west. The hunting of
-fugitive slaves took on a sinister activity in the Northern “border”
-States; at the national capital the attempts to muzzle free speech
-culminated in the striking down of Charles Sumner in the Senate Chamber
-itself; in Kansas the “border ruffians” strove to inaugurate a reign
-of terror, and succeeded in bringing on a local conflict which was the
-true opening of the Civil War.
-
-The men who combated the dragon of slavery--the Siegfrieds of that
-day--fought him in all these directions. In Boston Dr. Howe was among
-the first to organize resistance to the rendition of fugitive slaves.
-An escaped negro was kidnapped there in 1846. This was four years
-before the passage by Congress of the fugitive-slave law made it the
-duty (!) of the Free States to return runaway negroes to slavery. My
-father called a meeting of protest at Faneuil Hall. He was the chief
-speaker and “every sentence was a sword-thrust” (T. W. Higginson’s
-account). I give a brief extract from his address:
-
-“The peculiar institution which has so long been brooding over the
-country like an incubus has at length spread abroad its murky wings and
-has covered us with its benumbing shadow. It has silenced the pulpit,
-it has muffled the press; its influence is everywhere.... Court Street
-can find no way of escape for the poor slave. State Street, that drank
-the blood of the martyrs of liberty--State Street is deaf to the cry
-of the oppressed slave; the port of Boston that has been shut up by a
-tyrant king as the dangerous haunt of free-men--the port of Boston has
-been opened to the slave-trader; for God’s sake, Mr. Chairman, let us
-keep Faneuil Hall free!”
-
-Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore Parker also spoke. John
-Quincy Adams presided at the meeting.
-
-The meeting resulted in the formation of a vigilance committee of
-forty, with my father as chairman. This continued its work until
-the hunting of fugitives ceased in Boston. Secrecy necessarily
-characterized its proceedings. An undated note from Dr. Howe to
-Theodore Parker gives us a hint of them:
-
- [2]DEAR T. P.--Write me a note by bearer. Tell him merely whether I am
- wanted to-night; if I am he will act accordingly about bringing my
- wagon.
-
- I could bring any one here and keep him secret a week and no person
- except Mrs. H. and myself would know it.
- Yours,
- CHEV.[3]
-
-This letter raises an interesting question. Were fugitives concealed,
-unknown to us children, in our house? It is quite possible, for both
-our parents could keep a secret. I remember a young white girl who was
-so hidden from her drunken father until other arrangements could be
-made for her. I remember also a negro girl, hardly more than a child,
-who was secreted beneath the roof of Green Peace. Her mistress had
-brought her to Boston as a servant. Since she was not a runaway, the
-provisions of the odious fugitive-slave law did not apply to her. Here
-at least we could cry:
-
- No fetters in the Bay State!
- No slave upon her land!
-
-My father applied to the courts and in due process of time Martha was
-declared free--so long as she remained on Northern soil. It may be
-guessed that she did not care to return to the South!
-
-The feeling of the community was strongly opposed to taking part in
-slave-hunts. Yankee ingenuity often found a way to escape this odious
-task, and yet keep within the letter of the law.
-
-A certain United States marshal thus explained his proceedings:
-
-“Why, I never have any trouble about runaway slaves. If I hear that one
-has come to Boston I just go up to Nigger Hill [a part of Joy Street]
-and say to them, ‘Do you know of any runaway slaves about here?’ And
-they never do!”
-
-This was a somewhat unique way of giving notice to the friends of the
-fugitive that the officers of the law were after him.
-
-If he could only escape over the border into free Canada he was safe.
-According to the English law no slave could remain such on British
-soil. The moment he “shook the Lion’s paw” he became free. Our law in
-these United States is founded on the English Common Law. Alas! the
-pro-slavery party succeeded in overthrowing it. No wonder that Senator
-Toombs, of Georgia, boasted that he would call the roll of his slaves
-under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument. The fugitive-slave law gave
-him the power to do this, and thus make our boasted freedom of the soil
-only an empty mockery.
-
-The vigilance committee did its work well, and for some time no runaway
-slaves were captured in Boston. One poor wretch was finally caught. My
-mother thus describes the event:
-
-“At last a colored fugitive, Anthony Burns by name, was captured and
-held subject to the demands of his owner. The day of his rendition was
-a memorable one in Boston. The courthouse was surrounded by chains
-and guarded with cannon. The streets were thronged with angry faces.
-Emblems of mourning hung from several business and newspaper offices.
-With a show of military force the fugitive was marched through the
-streets. No rescue was attempted at this time, although one had been
-planned for an earlier date. The ordinance was executed; Burns was
-delivered to his master. But the act once consummated in broad daylight
-could never be repeated” (from Julia Ward Howe’s _Recollections of the
-Anti-Slavery Struggle_).
-
-So great was the public indignation against the judge who had allowed
-himself to be the instrument of the Federal Government in the return of
-Burns to slavery that he was removed from office. Shortly afterward he
-left Boston and went to live in Washington.
-
-The attempts to enforce the fugitive-slave law at the East failed,
-as they were bound to fail. The efforts to muzzle free speech at the
-national capital were more successful for a time.
-
-The task of Charles Sumner in upholding the principles of freedom in
-the United States Senate was colossal. For long he stood almost alone,
-“A voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the paths of the
-Lord.” Fortunately he was endowed by nature with a commanding figure
-and presence and a wonderful voice that fitted him perfectly for his
-great task. My mother thus described him:
-
-“He was majestic in person, habitually reserved and rather distant in
-manner, but sometimes unbent to a smile in which the real geniality
-of his soul seemed to shed itself abroad. His voice was ringing and
-melodious, his gestures somewhat constrained, his whole manner, like
-his matter, weighty and full of dignity.”
-
-As an old and intimate friend, my father sometimes urged him to greater
-haste in his task of combating slavery at the national capital. Thus
-Charles Sumner writes to him from Washington, February 1, 1854:
-
- DEAR HOWE--Do not be impatient with me. I am doing all that I can.
- This great wickedness disturbs my sleep, my rest, my appetite.
- Much is to be done, of which the world knows nothing, in rallying
- an opposition. It has been said by others, that but for Chase and
- Sumner this Bill would have been rushed through at once, even without
- debate. Douglas himself told me that our opposition was the only
- sincere opposition he had to encounter. But this is not true. There
- are others here who are in earnest.
-
- My longing is to rally the country against the Bill[4] and I desire
- to let others come forward and broaden our front.
-
- Our Legislature ought to speak _unanimously_. Our people should
- revive the old report and resolutions of 1820.[5]
-
- At present our first wish is delay, that the country may be aroused.
-
- “Would that night or Blücher had come!”
-
- God bless you always!
- C. S.
-
-In the fateful spring of 1856 Dr. and Mrs. Howe were in Washington.
-They saw both Charles Sumner and Preston Brooks. My mother has given us
-pictures of the two men as she then saw them:
-
-“Charles Sumner looked up and, seeing me in the gallery, greeted me
-with a smile of recognition. I shall never forget the beauty of that
-smile. It seemed to me to illuminate the whole precinct with a silvery
-radiance. There was in it all the innocence of his sweet and noble
-nature.”[6]
-
-“At Willard’s Hotel I observed at a table near our own a typical
-Southerner of that time, handsome, but with a reckless and defiant
-expression of countenance which struck me unpleasantly. This was
-Preston Brooks, of South Carolina.”[7]
-
-During one of his visits to the Howes, Sumner said:
-
-“I shall soon deliver a speech in the Senate which will occasion a good
-deal of excitement. It will not surprise me if people leave their seats
-and show signs of unusual disturbance.”
-
-My mother comments thus:
-
-“At the moment I did not give much heed to his words, but they came
-back to me, not much later, with the force of prophecy. For Mr. Sumner
-did make this speech, and though at the moment nothing was done against
-him, the would-be assassin only waited for a more convenient season
-to spring upon his victim and to maim him for life. Choosing a moment
-when Mr. Sumner’s immediate friends were not in the Senate Chamber,
-Brooks of South Carolina, armed with a cane of india-rubber, attacked
-him in the rear, knocking him from his seat with one blow, and beating
-him about the head until he lay bleeding and senseless upon the floor.
-Although the partisans of the South openly applauded this deed, its
-cowardly brutality was really repudiated by all who had any sense of
-honor, without geographical distinction. The blow, fatal to Sumner’s
-health, was still more fatal to the cause it was meant to serve, and
-even to the man who dealt it. Within one year his murderous hand was
-paralyzed in death, and Sumner, after hanging long between life and
-death, stood once more erect, with the aureole of martyrdom on his
-brow, and with the dear-bought glory of his scars a more potent witness
-for the truth than ever. His place in the Senate remained for a time
-eloquently empty.”[8]
-
-Hon. Miles Taylor, of Louisiana, defended in the Senate the attack on
-Sumner. A part of his speech makes curious reading:
-
-“If this new dogma” (the evil of slavery) “should be received by
-the American people with favor, it can only be when all respect
-for revelation ... has been utterly swept away by such a flood of
-irreligion and foul philosophy as never before set in.”
-
-
-
-
-II
-
-THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS
-
-Border ruffians from Missouri carry Kansas elections with pistol
- and bowie-knife. They prevent peaceable Free State emigrants from
- entering the national territory--Dr. Howe carries out aid from
- New England--Clergymen and Sharp’s rifles--Mrs. Howe’s indignant
- verses--She opens the door for John Brown, the hero of the war in
- Kansas--Gov. Andrew, Theodore Parker, Charles Sumner--The attack on
- Fort Sumter--“The death-blow of slavery.”
-
-
-These assaults by the serpent of slavery on the free institutions of
-the North and East were dangerous enough, yet, like other evils, they
-brought their own remedies with them. Such an open attack on free
-speech as that on Sumner was sure to be resented, while the forcible
-carrying-off of fugitive slaves under the shadow of old Faneuil Hall
-aroused a degree of wrath that even the pro-slavery leaders saw was
-ominous.
-
-“The crime against Kansas” was still more alarming because it
-threatened to turn a free Territory into a slave State. In 1854 the
-Kansas and Nebraska bill had been passed, repealing the Missouri
-Compromise and exposing a vast area of virgin soil to the encroachments
-of the “peculiar institution.”
-
-The Free-soil men were speedily on the alert. During that same year of
-1854 two Massachusetts colonies were sent out to Kansas, others going
-later.
-
-But the leaders of the slave power had no intention of allowing men
-from the free States to settle peacefully in Kansas. They had repealed
-the Missouri Compromise with the express purpose of gaining a new slave
-State, and this was to be accomplished by whatever means were necessary.
-
-It was an easy matter to send men from Missouri into the adjacent
-Territory of Kansas--to vote there and then to return to their homes
-across the Mississippi.
-
-The New York _Herald_ of April 20, 1855, published the following letter
-from a correspondent in Brunswick, Missouri:
-
- From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri to attend the
- election, some to remove, but the most to return to their families,
- with an intention, if they liked the Territory, to make it their
- permanent abode at the earliest moment practicable. But they intended
- to vote.... Indeed, every county furnished its quota; and when they
- set out it looked like an army.... They were armed.... Fifteen
- hundred wore on their hats bunches of hemp. They were resolved if a
- tyrant attempted to trample upon the rights of the sovereign people
- to hang him.
-
-It will be noted that “the rights of the sovereign people” were to go
-to the ballot-box not in their own, but in another State. These “border
-ruffians” took possession of the polls and carried the first election
-with pistol and bowie-knife.
-
-The pro-slavery leaders strove to drive out the colonists from the free
-States and to prevent additional emigrants from entering the Territory.
-A campaign of frightfulness was inaugurated--with the usual result.
-
-Governor Geary of Kansas, although a pro-slavery official himself,
-wrote (Dec. 22, 1856) that he heartily despised the abolitionists, but
-that “_The persecutions of the Free State men here were not exceeded by
-those of the early Christians._”
-
-My father was deeply interested in the colonization of Kansas and in
-the struggle for freedom within its borders. He helped in 1854 to
-organize the “New England Emigrant Aid Company” which assisted parties
-of settlers to go to the Territory. In 1856 matters began to look very
-dark for the colonists from the free States. “Dr. Howe was stirred to
-his highest activity by the news from Kansas and by the brutal assault
-on Charles Sumner” (F. B. Sanborn). With others he called and organized
-the Faneuil Hall meeting. He was made chairman of its committee, and
-at once sent two thousand dollars to St. Louis for use in Kansas. This
-prompt action had an important effect on the discouraged settlers. Soon
-afterward he started for Kansas to give further aid to the colonists.
-
-“I have traversed the whole length of the State of Iowa on horseback
-or in a cart, sleeping in said cart or in worse lodgings, among dirty
-men on the floor of dirty huts. We have organized a pretty good line of
-communication between our base and the corps of emigrants who have now
-advanced into the Territory of Nebraska. Everything depends upon the
-success of the attempt to break through the _cordon infernale_ which
-Missouri has drawn across the northern frontier of Kansas.”[9]
-
-In another letter he writes:
-
- The boats on the river are beset by spies and ruffians, are hauled up
- at various places and thoroughly searched for anti-slavery men.
-
-He thus describes the emigrants:[10]
-
- CAMP OF THE EMIGRATION, NEBRASKA TERRITORY,
- _July 29, ’56_.
-
- The emigration is indeed a noble one; sturdy, industrious, temperate,
- resolute men.... I wish our friends in the East could know the
- character and behavior of these emigrants. They are and have been
- for two weeks encamped out upon these vast prairies in their tents
- and waggons waiting patiently for the signal to move, exhausting all
- peaceful resources and negotiations before resorting to force.
-
- There is no liquor in the whole camp; no smoking, no swearing, no
- irregularity. They drink cold water, live mostly on mush and rice
- and the simplest, cheapest fare. They have instruction for the
- little children; they have Sunday-schools, prayer-meetings, and are
- altogether a most sober and earnest community. Most of the loafers
- have dropped off. The Wisconsin company, about one hundred, give a
- tone to all the others. I could give you a picture of the drunken,
- rollicking ruffians who oppose this emigration--but you know it. Will
- the North allow such an emigration to be shut out of the National
- Territory by such brigands?
-
-In another letter he tells us that among the emigrants were
-thirty-eight women and children--grandfathers and grandmothers, too,
-journeying with their live stock in carts drawn by oxen to the promised
-land.
-
-He says nothing of danger to himself, but Hon. Andrew D. White tells us
-that “Dr. Howe had braved death again and again while aiding the Free
-State men against the pro-slavery myrmidons of Kansas.”
-
-The strength of the movement may be judged from the fact that during
-this year (1856) the people of Massachusetts sent one hundred thousand
-dollars in money, clothing, and arms to help the Free State colonists.
-This money did not come from the radicals only, but from “Hunkers,” as
-they were then called--_i. e._, conservative and well-to-do citizens.
-My father wrote: “People pay readily here for Sharp’s rifles. One lady
-offered me one hundred dollars the other day, and to-day a clergyman
-offered me one hundred dollars.”
-
-My mother was greatly moved by these tragic events--the assault
-on Sumner and the civil war in Kansas. In _Words for the Hour_--a
-volume of her poems published in 1857--we find a record of her just
-indignation. In the “Sermon of Spring” she describes Kansas as:
-
- Wearing the green nodding plumes of the Court of the Prairie,
- Gyves on her free-born limbs, on her fair arms shackles,
- Blood on her garments, terror and grief in her features.
- “Tremble,” she cried, “tho’ the battle seem thine for a season,
- Not a drop of my blood shall be wanting to judge thee.
- Tremble, thou fallen from mercy ere fallen from office.”
-
-This poem, which is a long one, contains a tribute to Sumner, as do
-also “Tremont Temple,” “The Senator’s Return,” and “An Hour in the
-Senate.” I give a brief extract from the last named:
-
- Falls there no lightning from yon distant heaven
- To crush this man’s potential impudence?
- Shall not its outraged patience thunder: “Hence!
- Forsake the shrine where Liberty was given!”
-
- “The strong shall rule, the arm of force have sway,
- The helpless multitude in bonds abide--”
- Again the chuckle and the shake of pride--
- “God’s for the stronger--so great Captains say.”
-
- * * * * *
-
- Yet, rise to answer, chafing in thy chair,
- With soul indignant stirred, and flushing brow.
- Thou art God’s candidate--speak soothly now,
- Let every word anticipate a prayer.
-
- Gather in thine the outstretched hands that strive
- To help thy pleading, agonized and dumb;
- Bear up the hearts whose silent sorrows come
- For utterance, to the voice that thou canst give.
-
-In the same volume are verses entitled “Slave Eloquence” and “Slave
-Suicide.”
-
-How did the children of the household feel during this period of “Sturm
-und Drang”? To the older ones, at least, it was a most exciting time.
-While we did not by any means know of all that was going on, we felt
-very strongly the electric current of indignation that thrilled through
-our home, as well as the stir of action. My father early taught us to
-love freedom and to hate slavery. He gave us, in brief, clear outline,
-the story of the aggressions of the slave power. We knew of the
-iniquity of the Dred Scott decision before we were in our teens. Child
-that I was, I was greatly moved when he repeated Lowell’s well-known
-lines:
-
- Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,--
- Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
- Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.
-
-My father had always something of the soldier about him--a quick,
-active step, gallant bearing, and a voice tender, yet strong, “A voice
-to lead a regiment.” This was the natural consequence of his early
-experiences in the Greek War of Independence, when he served some
-seven years as surgeon, soldier, and--most important of all--almoner
-of America’s bounty to the peaceful population. The latter would have
-perished of starvation save for the supplies sent out in response to
-Dr. Howe’s appeals to his countrymen. The greater part of his life was
-devoted to the healing arts of the good physician. Yet the portraits of
-him, taken during the tremendous struggle of the anti-slavery period,
-show a sternness not visible in his younger nor yet in his later days.
-
-In her poem “A Rough Sketch” my mother described him as he seemed to
-her at this time:
-
- A great grieved heart, an iron will,
- As fearless blood as ever ran;
- A form elate with nervous strength
- And fibrous vigor,--all a man.
-
-Charles Sumner came often to Green Peace when he was in Boston. We
-children greatly admired him. He seemed to us, and doubtless to others,
-a species of superman. I can hardly think of those days without the
-organ accompaniment of his voice--deeper than the depths, round and
-full. When our friend was stricken down in the Senate, great was our
-youthful indignation. Many were the arguments held with our mates at
-school and dancing-school, often the children of the “Hunker” class.
-They sought to justify the attack, and we replied with the testimony
-of an eye-witness to the scene (Henry Wilson, afterward Vice-President
-of the United States) and the fact that a colleague of Brooks stood,
-waving a pistol[11] in each hand, to prevent any interference in behalf
-of Sumner. We had heard about the cruel “Mochsa” with which his back
-was burned in the hope of cure, and we lamented his sufferings.
-
-John A. Andrew, afterward the War Governor of the State, was another
-intimate of our household, a great friend of both our parents.
-Genial and merry, as a rule, he yet could be sternly eloquent in the
-denunciation of slavery.
-
-Indeed, it was a speech of this nature which first brought him into
-prominence. In the Massachusetts Legislature of 1858 the most striking
-figure was that of Caleb Cushing. He had been Attorney-General in
-President Franklin Pierce’s Cabinet and was one of the ablest lawyers
-in the United States. When all were silent before his oratory and
-no one felt equal to opposing this master of debate, Andrew, a young
-advocate, was moved, like another David, to attack his Goliath. In a
-speech of great eloquence he vindicated the action of the Governor and
-the Legislature in removing from office the judge who had sent Anthony
-Burns back into slavery and thus outraged the conscience of the Bay
-State. As a lawyer he sustained his opinion by legal precedents.
-
-“When he took his seat there was a storm of applause. The House was
-wild with excitement. Some members cried for joy; others cheered,
-waved their handkerchiefs, and threw whatever they could find into the
-air.”[12]
-
-And so, like David, he won not only the battle of the day, but the
-leadership of his people in the stormy times that soon followed.
-
-When a box of copperhead snakes was sent to our beloved Governor we
-were again indignant. (Political opponents had not then learned to send
-gifts of bombs.)
-
-From Kansas itself Martin F. Conway came to us, full of fiery zeal for
-the Free State cause, although born south of Mason and Dixon’s line.
-
-He later represented the young State in Congress. Samuel Downer
-and George L. Stearns we often saw; both were very active in the
-anti-slavery cause. The latter was remarkable for a very long and
-beautiful beard, brown and soft, like a woman’s hair and reaching to
-his waist.
-
-We heard burning words about the duty of Massachusetts during these
-assaults of the slave power. Could she endure them, or should she not
-rather seek to withdraw from the Union?
-
-These words sound strangely to us now, but it must be remembered that
-in the fifties we had seen our fair Bay State made an annex to slave
-territory. Men might well ask one another, “Can the Commonwealth of
-Massachusetts endure the disgrace of having slave-hunts within her
-borders?” “The Irrepressible Conflict” had come. When the pro-slavery
-leaders forced the fugitive-slave law through Congress they struck a
-blow at the life of the nation as deadly as that of Fort Sumter. The
-latter was the inevitable sequel of the former.
-
-We saw often at Green Peace another intimate friend of our
-parents--Theodore Parker, the famous preacher and reformer. As he
-wore spectacles and was prematurely bald, he did not leave upon our
-childish minds the impression of grandeur inseparably connected with
-Charles Sumner. Yet the splendid dome of his head gave evidence of his
-great intellect, while his blue eyes looked kindly and often merrily
-at us. Having no children of his own, he would have liked to adopt our
-youngest sister, could our parents have been persuaded to part with her.
-
-Theodore Parker advocated the anti-slavery cause with great eloquence
-in the pulpit. He also belonged to my father’s vigilance committee
-and harbored fugitive slaves in his own home. To one couple of
-runaway negroes he presented a Bible and a sword--after marrying them
-legally--a thing not always done in the day of slavery. My father
-succeeded in sending away from Boston the man who attempted to carry
-them back to the South, and William and Ellen Croft found freedom in
-England.
-
-Theodore Parker’s sermons had a powerful influence on his great
-congregation, of which my mother was for some time a member. In one of
-her tributes to him she tells us how he drew them all toward the light
-of a better day and prepared them also for “the war of blood and iron.”
-
-“I found that it was by the spirit of the higher humanity that he
-brought his hearers into sympathy with all reforms and with the better
-society that should ripen out of them. Freedom for black and white,
-opportunity for man and woman, the logic of conscience and the logic
-of progress--this was the discipline of his pulpit.... Before its [the
-Civil War’s] first trumpet blast blew his great heart had ceased to
-beat. But a great body of us remembered his prophecy and his strategy
-and might have cried, as did Walt Whitman at a later date, ‘O captain,
-my captain!’”[13]
-
-Rev. James Freeman Clarke, our pastor for many years, was among those
-whose visits gave pleasure and inspiration as well to our household. He
-did not hesitate to preach anti-slavery doctrines, unpopular as they
-were, from his pulpit. My mother says of him at this time:
-
-“In the agitated period which preceded the Civil War and in that which
-followed it he in his modest pulpit became one of the leaders, not
-of his own flock alone, but of the community to which he belonged. I
-can imagine few things more instructive and desirable than was his
-preaching in those troublous times, so full of unanswered question and
-unreconciled discord.”[14]
-
-Her beloved minister was among those who accompanied my mother on the
-visit to the army which inspired “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
-This was written to the tune of:
-
- John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave,
- His soul is marching on.
-
-“Old Ossawotamie Brown” was the true hero of the bloody little war in
-Kansas, where the Free State men finally prevailed, though many lives
-were lost. He has been called “Savior of Kansas and Liberator of the
-Slave.” He came at least once to Green Peace. My mother has described
-her meeting with him. My father had told her some time previously about
-a man who “seemed to intend to devote his life to the redemption of
-the colored race from slavery, even as Christ had willingly offered
-His life for the salvation of mankind.” One day he reminded her of
-the person so described, and added: “That man will call here this
-afternoon. You will receive him. His name is John Brown.”...
-
-Later, my mother wrote of this meeting:
-
-“At the expected time I heard the bell ring, and, on answering it,
-beheld a middle-aged, middle-sized man, with hair and beard of amber
-color streaked with gray. He looked a Puritan of the Puritans,
-forceful, concentrated, and self-contained. We had a brief interview,
-of which I only remember my great gratification at meeting one of whom
-I had heard so good an account. I saw him once again at Dr. Howe’s
-office, and then heard no more of him for some time.”[15]
-
-Elsewhere she has written apropos of his raid at Harper’s Ferry:
-
-“None of us could exactly approve an act so revolutionary in its
-character, yet the great-hearted attempt enlisted our sympathies
-very strongly. The weeks of John Brown’s imprisonment were very sad
-ones, and the day of his death was one of general mourning in New
-England.”[16]
-
-With the election of Lincoln we seemed to come to smoother times. We
-young people certainly did not realize that we were on the brink of
-civil war, although friends who had visited the South warned us of the
-preparations going on there. If there should be any struggle, it would
-be a brief one, people said.
-
-Suddenly, like a flash of lightning out of a clear sky, came the firing
-on Sumter. My father came triumphantly into the nursery and called out
-to his children: “Sumter has been fired upon! That’s the death-blow
-of slavery.” Little did he or we realize how long and terrible the
-conflict would be. But he knew that the serpent had received its
-death-wound. All through the long and terrible war he cheered my mother
-by his unyielding belief in the ultimate success of our arms.
-
-So the prelude ended and the greater tragedy began. The conflict of
-ideas, the most soul-stirring period of our history, passed into the
-conflict of arms. In the midst of its agony the steadfast soul of a
-woman saw the presage of victory and gave the message, a message never
-to be forgotten, to her people and to the world.
-
-
-
-
-III
-
-MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
-
-The Civil War breaks out--Dr. Howe is appointed a member of the
- Sanitary Commission--Mrs. Howe accompanies him to Washington--She
- makes her maiden speech to a Massachusetts regiment--She sees the
- watch-fires of a hundred circling camps--She visits the army and her
- carriage is involved in a military movement--She is surrounded by
- “Burnished rows of steel.”
-
-
-“The years between 1850 and 1857, eventful as they were, appear to me
-almost a period of play when compared with the time of trial which was
-to follow. It might have been likened to the tuning of instruments
-before some great musical solemnity. The theme was already suggested,
-but of its wild and terrible development who could have had any
-foreknowledge?”
-
-In her _Reminiscences_ my mother thus compares the Civil War and its
-prelude. Again she says of the former:
-
-“Its cruel fangs fastened upon the very heart of Boston and took from
-us our best and bravest. From many a stately mansion father or son
-went forth, followed by weeping, to be brought back for bitterer
-sorrow.”
-
-Mercifully she was spared this last. My father was too old for military
-service and no longer in vigorous health, being in his sixtieth year
-when the war broke out; my eldest brother was just thirteen years of
-age. Nevertheless she was brought into close touch with the activities
-of the great struggle from the beginning.
-
-On the day when the news of the attack on Fort Sumter was received Dr.
-Howe wrote to Governor Andrew, offering his services:
-
-“Since they will have it so--in the name of God, Amen! Now let all the
-governors and chief men of the people see to it that war shall not
-cease until emancipation is secure. If I can be of any use, anywhere,
-in any capacity (save that of spy), command me.”[17]
-
-With what swiftness the “Great War Governor of Massachusetts” acted at
-this time is matter of history. Two days after the President issued a
-call for troops, three regiments started for Washington. Massachusetts
-was thus the first State to come to the aid of the Union--the first,
-alas! to have her sons struck down and slain.
-
-Governor Andrew was glad to avail himself of Dr. Howe’s offer of aid.
-The latter’s early experiences in Greece made his help and counsel
-valuable both to the State and to the nation. Gen. Winfield Scott,
-Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Governor Andrew requested him, on
-May 2, 1861, to make a sanitary survey of the Massachusetts troops in
-the field at and near the national capital. Before the end of the month
-the Sanitary Commission was created, Dr. Howe being one of the original
-members appointed by Abraham Lincoln.
-
-Governor Andrew was almost overwhelmed with the manifold cares and
-duties of his office. Our house was one of the places where he took
-refuge when he greatly needed rest. He was obliged to give up going
-to church early in the war because many people followed him there,
-importuning him with requests of all sorts.
-
-Thus the questions of the Civil War were brought urgently to my
-mother’s mind in her own home, just as those of the anti-slavery period
-had been a year or two before.
-
-To quote her _Reminiscences_ again:
-
-“The record of our State during the war was a proud one. The repeated
-calls for men and for money were always promptly and generously
-answered. And this promptness was greatly forwarded by the energy and
-patriotic vigilance of the Governor. I heard much of this at the time,
-especially from my husband, who was greatly attached to the Governor
-and who himself took an intense interest in all the operations of the
-war.... I seemed to live in and along with the war, while it was in
-progress, and to follow all its ups and downs, its good and ill fortune
-with these two brave men, Dr. Howe and Governor Andrew. Neither of them
-for a moment doubted the final result of the struggle, but both they
-and I were often very sad and much discouraged.”
-
-Governor Andrew was often summoned to Washington. Dr. Howe’s duties
-as a member of the Sanitary Commission also took him there. Thus it
-happened that my mother went to the national capital in their company
-in the late autumn of 1861. Mrs. Andrew, the Governor’s wife, Rev.
-James Freeman Clarke, and Mr. and Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple were also of
-the party.
-
-As they drew near Washington they saw ominous signs of the dangers
-encompassing the city. Mrs. Howe noticed little groups of armed men
-sitting near a fire--pickets guarding the railroad, her husband told
-her. For the Confederate Army was not far off, the Army of the Potomac
-lying like a steel girdle about Washington, to protect it.
-
-This was my mother’s first glimpse of the Union Army which later made
-such a deep impression upon her mind and heart. I have always fancied,
-though she does not say so, that some of the vivid images of the
-“Battle Hymn” were suggested by the scenes of this journey.
-
- 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;
- I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.
- His day is marching on!
-
-Arrived at Washington, the party established themselves at Willard’s
-Hotel. Evidences of the war were to be seen on all sides. Soldiers on
-horseback galloped about the streets, while ambulances with four horses
-passed by the windows and sometimes stopped before the hotel itself.
-Near at hand, my mother saw “The ghastly advertisement of an agency
-for embalming and forwarding the bodies of those who had fallen in
-the fight or who had perished by fever.”[18] In the vicinity of this
-establishment was the office of the New York _Herald_.
-
-Governor Andrew and Dr. Howe were busy with their official duties;
-indeed, the former was under such a tremendous pressure of work and
-care that he died soon after the close of the war. The latter “carried
-his restless energy and indomitable will from camp to hospital, from
-battle-field to bureau.” His reports and letters show how deeply he was
-troubled by the lack of proper sanitation among the troops.
-
-My mother again came in touch with the Army, visiting the camps and
-hospitals in the company of Mr. Clarke and the Rev. William Henry
-Channing. It need hardly be said that these excursions were made in no
-spirit of idle curiosity.
-
-In ordinary times she would not look at a cut finger if she could help
-it. I remember her telling us of one dreadful woman who asked to be
-shown the worst wound in the hospital. As a result this morbid person
-was so overcome with the horror of it that the surgeon was obliged to
-leave his patient and attend to the visitor, while she went from one
-fainting fit into another!
-
-Up to this time my mother had never spoken in public. It was from the
-Army of the Potomac that she first received the inspiration to do so.
-In company with her party of friends she had made “a reconnoitering
-expedition,” visiting, among other places, the headquarters of Col.
-William B. Greene, of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery. The
-colonel, who was an old friend, warmly welcomed his visitors. Soon he
-said to my mother, “Mrs. Howe, you must speak to my men.” What did he
-see in her face that prompted him to make such a startling request?
-
- * * * * *
-
-It must be remembered that in 1861 the women of our country were, with
-some notable exceptions, entirely unaccustomed to speaking in public.
-A few suffragists and anti-slavery leaders addressed audiences, but my
-mother had not at this time joined their ranks.
-
-Yet she doubtless then possessed, although she did not know it, the
-power of thus expressing herself. Colonel Greene must have read in her
-face something of the emotion which poured itself out in the “Battle
-Hymn.” He must have known, too, that she had already written stirring
-verses. So he not only asked, but insisted that she should address the
-men under his command.
-
-“Feeling my utter inability to do this, I ran away and tried to hide
-myself in one of the hospital tents. Colonel Greene twice found me and
-brought me back to his piazza, where at last I stood and told as well
-as I could how glad I was to meet the brave defenders of our cause and
-how constantly they were in my thoughts.”[19]
-
-I fear there is no record of this, her maiden speech.
-
-Throughout her long life church-going was a comfort, one might almost
-say a delight, to her. During this visit to Washington, where the weeks
-brought so many sad sights, she had the pleasure of listening on Sunday
-to the Rev. William Henry Channing. Love of his native land induced him
-to leave his pulpit in England and to return to this country in her
-hour of darkness and danger.
-
-My mother tells us that this nephew of the great Dr. Channing was heir
-to the latter’s spiritual distinction and deeply stirred by enthusiasm
-in a noble cause. “On Sundays his voice rang out, clear and musical as
-a bell, within the walls of the Unitarian church”[20]--her own church.
-Thus she listened both in Washington and in Boston, her home city, to
-men who were patriots as well as priests.
-
-As she tells the story, one sees how almost all the circumstances of
-her environment tended to promote her love of country and to stir the
-emotions of her deeply religious nature. It was by no accident that the
-national song which bears her name is a hymn. Written at that time and
-amid those surroundings, it could not have been anything else.
-
-Among her cherished memories of this visit was an interview with
-Abraham Lincoln, arranged for the party by Governor Andrew. “I remember
-well the sad expression of Mr. Lincoln’s deep blue eyes, the only
-feature of his face which could be called other than plain.... The
-President was laboring at this time under a terrible pressure of doubt
-and anxiety.”[21]
-
-The culminating event of her stay in Washington was the visit to the
-Army of the Potomac on the occasion of a review of troops. As the
-writing of the “Battle Hymn” was the immediate result of the memorable
-experiences of that day, I shall defer their consideration till the
-next chapter.
-
-I have thus sketched briefly the train of events and experiences both
-before and during the Civil War which led up to the composition of this
-national hymn. The seed had lain germinating for years--at the last
-it sprang suddenly into being. My mother’s mind often worked in this
-way. It had a strongly philosophic tendency which made her think long
-and study deeply. But she possessed, also, the fervor of the poet.
-Her mental processes were often extremely rapid, especially under
-the stress of strong emotion. She herself thought the quick action
-of her mind was due to her red-haired temperament. The two opposing
-characteristics of her intellect, deliberation and speed, were perhaps
-the result of the mixed strains of her blood inherited from English and
-French ancestors.
-
-The student of her life will note a number of sudden inspirations, or
-visions, as we may call them. Before these we can usually trace a long
-period of meditation and reflection. Her peace crusade, her conversion
-to the cause of woman suffrage, her dream of a golden time when men and
-women should work together for the betterment of the world, were all of
-this description.
-
-The “Battle Hymn” was the most notable of these inspirations. In
-her _Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle_ she ascribes its
-composition to two causes--the religion of humanity and the passion
-of patriotism. The former was a plant of slow growth. In her tribute
-to Theodore Parker,[22] she tells us how this developed under his
-preaching, and how he prepared his hearers for the war of blood and
-iron that soon followed.
-
-My mother had long cherished love for her country, but it burned more
-intensely when the war came, bursting into sudden flame after that
-memorable day with the soldiers.
-
-“When the war broke out, the passion of patriotism lent its color to
-the religion of humanity in my own mind, as in many others, and a
-moment came in which I could say:
-
- Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
-
---and the echo which my words awoke in many hearts made me sure that
-many other people had seen it also.”[23]
-
-
-
-
-IV
-
-“THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC”
-
-“The crimson flower of battle blooms” in a single night--The vision
- in the gray morning twilight--It is written down in the half-darkness
- on her husband’s official paper of the U. S. Sanitary Commission--How
- it was published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ and the price paid for
- it--The John Brown air derived from a camp-meeting hymn--The simple
- story in her own words.
-
-
-Over and over again, so many times that she lost count of them, was my
-mother asked to describe the circumstances under which she composed
-“The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Fortunately she wrote them down, so
-that we are able to give “the simple story” in her own words.
-
-The following account is taken in part from her _Reminiscences_ and in
-part from the leaflet printed in honor of her seventieth birthday, May
-27, 1889, by the New England Woman’s Club. She was president of this
-association for about forty years:
-
-“I distinctly remember that a feeling of discouragement came over me
-as I drew near the city of Washington. I thought of the women of my
-acquaintance whose sons or husbands were fighting our great battle; the
-women themselves serving in the hospitals or busying themselves with
-the work of the Sanitary Commission. My husband, as already said, was
-beyond the age of military service, my eldest son but a stripling; my
-youngest was a child of not more than two years. I could not leave my
-nursery to follow the march of our armies, neither had I the practical
-deftness which the preparing and packing of sanitary stores demanded.
-Something seemed to say to me, ‘You would be glad to serve, but you
-cannot help any one; you have nothing to give, and there is nothing for
-you to do.’ Yet, because of my sincere desire, a word was given me to
-say which did strengthen the hearts of those who fought in the field
-and of those who languished in prison.
-
-“In the late autumn of the year 1861 I visited the national capital
-with my husband, Dr. Howe, and a party of friends, among whom were
-Governor and Mrs. Andrew, Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Whipple, and my dear
-pastor, Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
-
-“The journey was one of vivid, even romantic, interest. We were about
-to see the grim Demon of War face to face, and long before we reached
-the city his presence made itself felt in the blaze of fires along the
-road, where sat or stood our pickets, guarding the road on which we
-traveled.
-
-“One day we drove out to attend a review of troops, appointed to take
-place at some distance from the city. In the carriage with me were
-James Freeman Clarke and Mr. and Mrs. Whipple. The day was fine, and
-everything promised well, but a sudden surprise on the part of the
-enemy interrupted the proceedings before they were well begun. A small
-body of our men had been surrounded and cut off from their companions,
-re-enforcements were sent to their assistance, and the expected pageant
-was necessarily given up. The troops who were to have taken part in it
-were ordered back to their quarters, and we also turned our horses’
-heads homeward.
-
-“For a long distance the foot soldiers nearly filled the road. They
-were before and behind, and we were obliged to drive very slowly. We
-presently began to sing some of the well-known songs of the war, and
-among them:
-
- ‘John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave.’
-
-This seemed to please the soldiers, who cried, ‘Good for you,’ and
-themselves took up the strain. Mr. Clarke said to me, ‘You ought to
-write some new words to that tune.’ I replied that I had often wished
-to do so.
-
-“In spite of the excitement of the day I went to bed and slept as
-usual, but awoke next morning in the gray of the early dawn, and to my
-astonishment found that the wished-for lines were arranging themselves
-in my brain. I lay quite still until the last verse had completed
-itself in my thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, ‘I shall
-lose this if I don’t write it down immediately.’ I searched for a sheet
-of paper and an old stump of a pen which I had had the night before and
-began to scrawl the lines almost without looking, as I had learned to
-do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room where my little
-children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay down again and
-fell asleep, but not without feeling that something of importance had
-happened to me.”
-
-It will be noted that the first draft of the “Battle Hymn” was written
-on the back of a sheet of the letter-paper of the Sanitary Commission
-on which her husband was then serving. Mr. A. J. Bloor, the assistant
-secretary of that body, has called attention to this. His account of
-the eventful day is given at the close of this chapter.
-
-My mother gave the original draft of the “Battle Hymn” to her friend,
-Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple, “who begged it of me, years ago.” Hence below
-the letter-heading:
-
- SANITARY COMMISSION, WASHINGTON, D. C.
- TREASURY BUILDING
- _1861_
-
-we find the inscription
-
- WILLARD’S HOTEL
- JULIA W. HOWE
- TO
- CHARLOTTE B. WHIPPLE
-
-The draft remained for many years in the possession of the latter,
-until it was sent to Messrs. Houghton & Mifflin, in order to have a
-facsimile made for the _Reminiscences_.
-
-Mr. and Mrs. Whipple were among the familiar friends of our household
-in those days. The former achieved brilliant successes both as a writer
-and as a lecturer. He was greatly interested in the anti-slavery
-agitation; “His eloquent voice was raised more than once in the cause
-of human freedom.” The younger members of our family remember him best
-for his ready and delightful wit. The fact that he was decidedly homely
-seemed to give additional point to his funny sayings. Mrs. Whipple was
-as handsome as her husband was plain--sweet-tempered and sympathetic,
-yet not wanting in firmness.
-
-Before publishing the poem the author made a number of changes, all
-of which are, as I think, improvements. The last verse, which is an
-anticlimax, was cut out altogether.
-
-We find from her letters that she hesitated to allow the publication of
-the original draft of the “Battle Hymn”[24] because it contained this
-final verse. She did not consider it equal to the rest of the poem.[25]
-After consulting other literary people, in her usual painstaking way,
-she decided to have the first draft published.[26] It will be noted
-that in the first verse “vintage” has been substituted for “wine
-press.” The first line of the third verse read originally,
-
- I have read a burning gospel writ in fiery rows of steel.
-
-The later version,
-
- I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:
-
-brings out more clearly the image of the long lines of bayonets as they
-glittered in her sight on that autumn afternoon. In the fourth verse
-the second line was somewhat vague in the first draft,
-
- He has waked the earth’s dull bosom with a high ecstatic beat,
-
-The allusion was probably to the marching feet of the armed multitude.
-The new version,
-
- He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:
-
-is more direct and simple, hence accords better with the deeply
-religious tone of the poem.
-
-In the last stanza,
-
- In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea,
-
-now reads,
-
- In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
-
-A number of people have asked the meaning of this line. The allusion
-is evidently to the lilies carried by the angel, in pictures of the
-annunciation to the Virgin, these flowers being the emblem of purity.
-
-The original version of the second line read,
-
- With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me,
-
-The present words,
-
- Transfigures you and me,
-
-give us a clearer and more beautiful image. The passion of the poem
-seems, indeed, to lift on high and glorify our poor humanity.
-
-It is interesting to note that my mother associated with her husband
-the line,
-
- _He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat_;
-
-Not long before her death, new buildings were erected at Watertown,
-Massachusetts, for the Perkins Institution for the Blind, founded and
-administered for more than forty years by Dr. Howe. His son-in-law,
-Michael Anagnos, ably continued the work during thirty more years.
-
-When we were talking about a suitable inscription in memory of the
-latter, I suggested to my mother the use of this line. The answer was,
-“_No, that is for your father._”
-
-The original draft of the “Battle Hymn” is dated November, 1861; it
-was published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for February, 1862. The verses
-were printed on the first page, being thus given the place of honor.
-According to the custom of that day, no name was signed to them. James
-T. Fields was then editor of the magazine. My mother consulted him with
-regard to a name for the poem. It was he, as I think, who christened
-it “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” The price paid for it was five
-dollars. But the true price of it was a very different thing, not to
-be computed in terms of money. It brought its author name and fame
-throughout the civilized world, in addition to the love and honor of
-her countrymen. As she grew older and the spiritual beauty of her life
-and thought shone out more and more clearly, the affection in which she
-was held deepened into something akin to veneration.
-
-The “Battle Hymn” soon found its way from the pages of the _Atlantic
-Monthly_ into the newspapers, thence to army hymn-books and broadsides.
-It has been printed over and over again, in a great variety of forms,
-sometimes with the picture of the author, as in the Perry prints. A
-white silk handkerchief now in my possession bears the line,
-
- Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
-
-worked in red embroidery silk.
-
-My mother was called upon to copy the poem times without number. While
-she was very willing to write a line or even, upon occasion, a verse
-or two, she objected very decidedly, especially in her later years,
-to copying the whole poem. Always responsive to the requests of the
-autograph fiend, she felt that so much should not be asked of her. For
-it naturally took time and trouble to make the fair copy that came up
-to her standard. It was with some difficulty that I persuaded her to
-send a promised copy to Edmund Clarence Stedman, for his collection.
-
-“But mamma, you _said_ you would write it out for him.”
-
-With a roguish twinkle, she replied, “Yes, but I did not say _when_.”
-
-However, the verses were duly executed and sent to the banker-poet.
-
-“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has been translated into Spanish,
-Italian, Armenian, and doubtless other languages. New tunes have been
-composed for it, but they have failed of acceptance. My mother dearly
-loved music and was a trained musician, hence her choice of a tune was
-no haphazard selection. She wrote her poem to the “John Brown” air and
-they cannot be divorced.
-
-I have been so fortunate as to secure from Franklin B. Sanborn an
-account of the origin of the words and music of the “John Brown” song.
-Mr. Sanborn, biographer of Thoreau, John Brown, and others, is the last
-survivor of the brilliant group of writers belonging to the golden age
-of New England literature.
-
- CONCORD, MASS., _1916_.
-
- DEAR MRS. HALL--I investigated quite thoroughly the air to which the
- original John Brown folk song was set;...
-
- I happened to be in Boston the day that Fletcher Webster’s regiment
- (the 12th Mass. Volunteers) came up from Fort Warren, landed on Long
- Wharf, and marched up State Street past the old State House, on
- their way to take the train for the Front, in the summer of 1861.
- As they came along, a quartette, of which Capt. Howard Jenkins,
- then a sergeant in this regiment, was a tenor voice, was singing
- something sonorous, which I had never heard. I asked my college
- friend Jacobsen, of Baltimore, who stood near me, “What are they
- singing?” He replied, “That boy on the sidewalk is selling copies.”
- I approached him and bought a handbill which, without the music,
- contained the rude words of the John Brown song, which I then heard
- for the first time, but listened to a thousand times afterward
- during the progress of the emancipating Civil War--before they were
- superseded by Mrs. Howe’s inspired lines, which now take their place
- almost everywhere.
-
- The chorus was borne by the marching soldiers, who had practised
- it in their drills at the Fort; indeed, it had been adapted from
- a camp-meeting hymn to a marching song, for which it is admirably
- fitted, by the bandmaster of Col. Webster’s regiment, and afterward
- revised by Dodworth’s military band, then the best in the country.
- It was this thrilling music, with its resounding religious chorus,
- which Mrs. Howe, in company with our Massachusetts Governor Andrew,
- heard near the Potomac, the next November, in the evening camps that
- encircled Washington.
-
- Yours ever,
- F. B. SANBORN.
-
-The following account of Mrs. Howe’s visit to Washington and of the
-circumstances connected with the writing of the “Battle Hymn” was
-written by Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of the U. S. Sanitary
-Commission:
-
-“JULIA WARD HOWE
-
-“It was the writer’s privilege to be introduced early in the Civil War
-to Julia Ward Howe, the author of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’
-and now, through the fullness of her days, the dean of American
-literature, though recognized long ago as having employed her high
-gift of utterance not merely as the magnet to attract to herself an
-advantageous celebrity, but paramountly as the instrument for the
-righting of wrong and the amelioration of the current conditions of
-humanity.
-
-“I was presented to Mrs. Howe by her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe,
-a companion of Lord Byron in aiding the Greeks to throw off the yoke of
-the Turks, and the philanthropist who opened the gates of hope to the
-famous Laura Bridgman, born blind, deaf, and dumb. Dr. Howe invented
-various processes by which he rescued her from her living tomb, as
-he subsequently did others born to similar deprivations, and he was
-careful to leave on record such exhaustive and clear statements as
-to his methods that, after his decease, the track was well illumined
-wherein later any well-doer for other victims in like case might open
-to them, through their single physical sense of touch, the doors
-leading to all earthly knowledge so far stored in letters....
-
-“Dr. Howe, on the outbreak of the Civil War, consented to serve as a
-member of the U. S. Sanitary Commission, a volunteer organization of
-influential Union men, springing from a central association in New York
-City for the relief of the forces serving in the war, and consisting of
-a few Union ladies, one of whom, Miss Louisa Lee Schuyler, suggested
-the formation of a similar but larger and wider-spread body of men,
-representing the Union sentiment of the whole North, into which her own
-society should be merged as one of--so it turned out--many branches.
-
-“Such a body was accordingly enrolled and, with Dr. Bellows, a
-prominent Unitarian clergyman of the day, as its president, was
-appointed a commission, by President Lincoln, as a _quasi_ Bureau
-of the War Department, to complement the appliances and work of the
-Government’s Medical Bureau and Commissariat, which, at the sudden
-outbreak of the war, were very deficient.
-
-“Of this commission I was the assistant secretary, with headquarters
-at its central office in Washington.... On the occasion of General
-McClellan’s first great review of the Army of the Potomac--numbering
-at that time about seventy thousand men--at Upton’s Hill, in Virginia,
-not far from the enemy’s lines, Dr. Howe asked me to accompany him
-thither on horseback to see it, which I did. Mrs. Howe had preceded
-us, with several friends, by carriage, and it was there, in the
-midst of the blare and glitter and bedizened simulacra of actual and
-abhorrent warfare, that he did me the honor of presenting me to his
-wife, then known, outside her private circle, only as the author of a
-book of charming lyrical essays; but for years since recognized, and
-doubtless, in the future, will be adjudged, the inspired creator of a
-war song which for rapt outlook, reverent mysticism, and stateliness of
-expression, as well as for more widely appreciated patriotic ardor, has
-more claim, in my estimation, to be styled a hymn than not a few that
-swell the pages of some of our hymnals. I have always thought it an
-honor even for the Sanitary Commission with all its noble work of help
-to the nation in its straits, and of mercy to the suffering, that Julia
-Ward Howe’s ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ should have been written on
-paper headed ‘U. S. Sanitary Commission,’ as may be seen by a facsimile
-of it in her delightful volume of reminiscences. It seems a pity that
-Mrs. Howe, an accomplished musical composer in private, as well as a
-poet in public, should not herself have set the air for her own words
-in that famous utterance of insight, enthusiasm, and prophecy.”
-
-
-
-
-V
-
-THE ARMY TAKES IT UP
-
-Gloom in Libby Prison, July 6, 1863--The victory of
- Gettysburg--Chaplain McCabe sings “Mine eyes have seen the glory of
- the coming of the Lord”--Five hundred voices take up the chorus--The
- “Battle Hymn” at the national capital--The great throng shout,
- sing, and weep--Abraham Lincoln listens with a strange glory on his
- face--The army takes up the song.
-
-
-“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was inspired by the tremendous issues
-of the war, as they were brought vividly to the poet’s mind by the
-sight of the Union Army.
-
-My mother had seen all that she describes--she had been a part of the
-great procession of “burnished rows of steel” when her carriage was
-surrounded by the Army. She had heard the soldiers singing:
-
- “John Brown’s body lies a-moldering in the grave,
- His soul is marching on.”
-
-Old John Brown who had
-
- Died to make men free,
-
-whose spirit the army knew to be with them!
-
-All this sank deeply into the heart of the poet. The soul of the Army
-took possession of her. The song which she wrote down in the gray
-twilight of that autumn morning voiced the highest aspirations of
-the soldiers, of the whole people. Hence, when the armies of freedom
-heard it, they at once hailed it as their own. My mother writes in her
-_Reminiscences_:
-
-“The poem, which was soon after published in the _Atlantic Monthly_,
-was somewhat praised on its appearance, but the vicissitudes of the war
-so engrossed public attention that small heed was taken of literary
-matters. I knew, and was content to know, that the poem soon found its
-way to the camps, as I heard from time to time of its being sung in
-chorus by the soldiers.”
-
-This was the beginning, but the interest increased as the “Battle Hymn”
-became more and more widely known, until it grew to be one of the
-leading lyrics of the war. It was “sung, chanted, recited, and used in
-exhortation and prayer on the eve of battle.” “It was the word of the
-hour, and the Union armies marched to its swing.”
-
-The “singing chaplain”--Rev. Charles Cardwell McCabe of the 122d Ohio
-Regiment of Volunteers, did much to popularize this war lyric. Reading
-it in the _Atlantic Monthly_, he was so charmed with the lines that
-he committed them to memory before arising from his chair. A year or
-so later, while attending the wounded men of his regiment, after the
-battle of Winchester (June, 1863), he was taken prisoner and carried to
-Libby Prison. Here he was a living benediction to the prisoners. Deeply
-religious by nature and blest with a cheerful, happy disposition, he
-kept up the spirits of his companions, ministering alike to their
-bodily and spiritual needs. Thus he begged three bath-tubs for them,
-an inestimable treasure, even though these had to serve the needs of
-six hundred men. Books, too, he procured for them, for the prisoners
-at this time comprised a notable company of men--doctors, teachers,
-editors, merchants, lawyers. “We bought books when we needed bread,”
-the chaplain tells us.
-
-With the music of his wonderful voice he was wont to dispel the gloom
-that often settled upon the inmates of the prison. Many stories are
-told of its power, pathos, and magnetism. Whenever the dwellers in old
-Libby felt depression settling upon their spirits they would call out,
-“Chaplain, sing us a song.” Then “The heavy load that oppressed us all
-seemed as by magic to be lifted.”
-
-[27]July 6, 1863, was a dark day for the prisoners. They were
-required to cast lots for the selection of two captains who were
-to be executed. These officers were taken to the dungeon below and
-told to prepare for death. Then the remaining men huddled together
-discussing the situation. The Confederate forces were marching north,
-and a terrible battle had been fought. Grant was striving to capture
-Vicksburg, the key to the Mississippi, with what result they did not
-know. The Richmond newspapers brought tidings of disaster to the Union
-armies. In startling head-lines the prisoners read: “Meade defeated
-at Gettysburg.” “The Northern Army fleeing to the mountains.” “Grant
-repulsed at Vicksburg.” “The campaign closed in disaster.”
-
-A pall deeper and darker than death settled upon the Union prisoners.
-The poor, emaciated fellows broke down and cried like babies. They lost
-all hope. “We had not enough strength left to curse God and die,” as
-one of them said later.
-
-“By and by ‘Old Ben,’ a negro servant, slipped in among them under
-pretense of doing some work about the prison; concealed under his coat
-was a later edition of the paper, on which the ink was scarcely dry.
-He looked around upon the prostrate host, and called out, ‘Great news
-in de papers.’ If you have never seen a resurrection, you could not
-tell what happened. We sprang to our feet and snatched the papers from
-his hands. Some one struck a light and held aloft a dim candle. By its
-light we read these head-lines:
-
-‘Lee is defeated! His pontoons are swept away! The Potomac is over its
-banks! The whole North is up in arms and sweeping down upon him!’
-
-“The revulsion of feeling was almost too great to endure. The boys went
-crazy with joy. They saw the beginning of the end.” Chaplain McCabe
-sprang upon a box and began to sing:
-
- “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord--”
-
-and the five hundred voices sang the chorus, “Glory, Glory,
-Hallelujah,” as men never sang before. The old negro rolled upon the
-floor in spasms of joy. I must not forget to add that the two captains
-were _not_ executed, after all.
-
-Chaplain McCabe remained in Libby Prison until October, 1863, when
-an attack of typhoid fever nearly cost him his life. As soon as his
-health would permit, he resumed his labors in behalf of the Army, this
-time as a delegate of the United States Christian Commission. His
-deep religious feeling, of which patriotism was an integral part, had
-a great influence among the soldiers. Wherever he went he took the
-“Battle Hymn” with him. “He sang it to the soldiers in camp and field
-and hospital; he sang it in school-houses and churches; he sang it
-at camp-meetings, political gatherings, and the Christian Commission
-assemblies, and all the Northland took it up.”[28]
-
-As he wrote the author:
-
-“I have sung it a thousand times since and shall continue to sing it as
-long as I live. No hymn has ever stirred the nation’s heart like ‘The
-Battle Hymn of the Republic.’”
-
-I must not forget to say that the singing chaplain made excellent use
-of this war lyric to raise funds for the work among the soldiers. With
-his matchless voice he sang thousands of dollars out of the people’s
-pockets into the treasury of the Christian Commission.
-
-On February 2, 1864, a meeting in the interests of the Christian
-Commission was held in the hall of the House of Representatives at
-Washington. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the United States,
-presided. Abraham Lincoln was present, and an immense audience filled
-the hall. Various noted men spoke; then Chaplain McCabe made a short
-speech and, “by request,” sang the “Battle Hymn.” The effect on the
-great throng was magical. “Men and women sprang to their feet and wept
-and shouted and sang, as the chaplain led them in that glorious ‘Battle
-Hymn’; they saw Abraham Lincoln’s tear-stained face light up with a
-strange glory as he cried out, ‘_Sing it again!_’ and McCabe and all
-the multitude sang it again.”[29]
-
-Doubtless many Grand Army posts have among their records stories of the
-inspiring influence of this song in times of trouble or danger. Such an
-anecdote was related at the Western home of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance,
-where Acker Post had been invited to meet my mother:
-
-“Capt. Isaac Mahan affectingly described a certain march on a winter
-midnight through eastern Tennessee. The troops had been for days
-without enough clothing, without enough food. They were cold and wet
-that stormy night, hungry, weary, discouraged, morose. But some one
-soldier began, in courageous tones, to sing ‘Mine eyes have seen--’
-Before the phrase was finished a hundred more voices were heard about
-the hopeful singer. Another hundred more distant and then another
-followed until, far to the front and away to the rear, above the
-splashing tramp of the army through the mud, above the rattle of the
-horsemen, the rumble of the guns, the creaking of the wagons, and the
-shouts of the drivers, there echoed, louder and softer, as the rain and
-wind-gusts varied, the cheerful, dauntless invocation of the ‘Battle
-Hymn.’ It was heard as if a heavenly ally were descending with a song
-of succor, and thereafter the wet, aching marchers thought less that
-night of their wretched selves, thought more of their cause, their
-families, their country.”
-
-Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of the United States Sanitary
-Commission, has given us some vivid pictures of the soldiers as they
-sang the hymn:
-
-“Time and again, around the camp-fires scattered at night over some
-open field, when the Army of the Potomac--or a portion of it--was on
-the march, have I heard the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’--generally,
-however, the first verse only, but in endless repetition--sung in
-unison by hundreds of voices--occasions more impressive than that of
-any oratorio sung by any musical troupe in some great assembly-room.
-And I remember how, one night in the small hours, returning to
-Washington from the front, by Government steamer up the Potomac, with
-a party of ‘San. Com.’ colleagues and Army officers, mostly surgeons,
-we found our horses awaiting us at the Seventh Street dock; and how,
-mounting them, we galloped all the long distance to our quarters,
-singing the ‘Battle Hymn’--this time the whole of it--at the top of our
-voices.”
-
-
-
-
-VI
-
-NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG
-
-By great crowds in the street after Union victories in the Civil
- War--On the downfall of Boss Croker--At Memorial Day celebrations
- from the Atlantic to the Pacific--At the Chicago convention where the
- General Federation of Women’s Clubs indorsed woman suffrage--At Brown
- University and Smith College when Mrs. Howe received the degree of
- LL.D.
-
-
-“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” has been sung and recited thousands
-of times, by all sorts of people under widely varying circumstances,
-yet the key-note of it is most fitly struck when men and women are
-lifted out of themselves by the power of strong emotion. In times of
-danger and of thanksgiving the “Battle Hymn” is now, as it was in the
-’sixties, the fitting vehicle for the expression of national feeling.
-Indeed, it has been so used in other countries as well as in our own.
-In my mother’s journal the entry often occurs, “They sang my ‘Battle
-Hymn.’” Usually she makes no comment.
-
-It would, of course, be impossible and it might be tedious to rehearse
-all the notable occasions where this national song has been given. Yet
-many of them have been so full of interest as to demand a place in the
-story of the “Battle Hymn.” The record would be incomplete without
-them. I give a few which will serve as samples.
-
-In New York City there was a good deal of disloyal sentiment during the
-Civil War. Here the draft riots took place in the summer of 1863, when
-the guns from the battle of Gettysburg were rushed to the metropolis.
-Here the cannon, their wheels still deeply incrusted with mud, were
-drawn up, a grim reminder to the rioters of the actual meaning of war.
-To these the sight of a uniform was odious. My husband, David Prescott
-Hall, then a young lad returning from a summer camping trip, was chased
-through the streets by some excited individuals. As he had a knapsack
-on his back, they mistook him for a soldier.
-
-It need scarcely be said that New York City had also a large loyal
-population. In the early days of the war men suspected of secession
-sympathies were visited by deputations of citizens who insisted upon
-their displaying the flag. They found it wiser to do so. After one
-of the final victories of the war, perhaps the taking of Richmond, a
-great crowd gathered before the bulletin-board of a New York newspaper.
-Some one started to sing the “Battle Hymn” and the whole mass of people
-took it up, “_Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!_” What else could so well have
-expressed the joy and thanksgiving of our people, weary of four long
-years of fratricidal war! My husband, who was present, described the
-scene as being most impressive.
-
-F. B. Sanborn in his _Early History of Kansas_ tells us an interesting
-story of the singing of the “Battle Hymn” on a very different occasion.
-
-“People were gathered together to hear a sermon from Col. James
-Montgomery, a man of undaunted courage and a veteran both of the Civil
-War and of the Kansas struggle. The place was Trading Post, where,
-during the Kansas troubles, some fourteen years before this time, a
-massacre had been perpetrated. Among his audience were survivors and
-relatives of the slain. There were present, too, a score of men who
-had ‘shouted amen when their renowned leader registered his vow that
-the blood of the dead and the tears of the widows and children should
-not be shed in vain.’ Montgomery was of the indomitable Scotch-Irish
-blood, tall and slender, with a shaggy shock of long black hair and
-even shaggier whiskers.
-
-“As he arose to begin the services and fixed his gaze on the familiar
-faces of those who had suffered and whose sufferings he had so fully
-avenged, a gleam of joy and satisfaction seemed to blaze from his
-penetrating eyes and thrilled the audience into perfect accord. He
-hesitated a moment, and then requested all to arise and sing ‘The
-Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ The noble thought of that grand hymn
-stirred the crowd to the deepest depths of feeling. The text was in
-keeping with the occasion:
-
-“‘Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that
-shall he also reap.’
-
-“The discourse was powerful and impressive. He reminded his hearers
-of his prophecy that the remaining years of slavery could be numbered
-on the fingers of one hand, and that he should lead a host of negro
-soldiers, arrayed in the national uniform, in the redemption of the
-country from the curse of slavery. A few days afterward the old
-Covenanter was dead!”
-
-To the Grand Army of the Republic Julia Ward Howe was especially dear.
-On Memorial Day a detachment always visits and decorates her grave,
-with simple but impressive ceremonies. Upon that of her husband, which
-lies next to hers, the Greeks always lay flowers. This festival of
-remembrance comes only three days after my mother’s birthday, May 27th.
-In 1899, when she was eighty years of age, the ceremonies in Boston
-were of unusual interest.
-
-The Grand Army of the Republic held a celebration in Boston Theater,
-Major-General Joseph Wheeler, formerly an officer in the Confederate
-Army, having been invited to deliver the address. Mrs. Howe rode
-thither in an open carriage with the general’s two daughters, “_very_
-pleasant girls.”
-
-The Philadelphia _Press_ thus describes the occasion:
-
-“BOSTON WARMED UP
-
-“The major has just returned from Boston, where he was present at the
-Memorial Day services held in Boston Theater.
-
-“It was the real thing. I never imagined possible such a genuine
-sweeping emotion as when that audience began to sing the ‘Battle Hymn.’
-If Boston was cold, it was thawed by the demonstration on Tuesday.
-Myron W. Whitney started to sing. He bowed to a box, in which we first
-recognized Mrs. Howe, sitting with the Misses Wheeler. You should have
-heard the yell. We could see the splendid white head trembling; then
-her voice joined in, as Whitney sang, ‘In the beauty of the lilies,’
-and by the time he had reached the words, ‘As He died to make men holy,
-let us die to make men free,’ the whole vast audience was on its feet,
-sobbing and singing at the top of its thousands of lungs. If volunteers
-were really needed for the Philippines, McKinley could have had us all
-right there.”
-
-This was in her adopted city of Boston, where she had lived for more
-than half a century. The Grand Army men of California gave her a
-similar reception on Memorial Day, 1888.
-
-We quote extracts from the San Francisco papers describing it:
-
-“The Grand Opera House never contained a larger audience. Not only were
-all the chairs taken up but every inch of standing-room was pre-empted.
-There were many persons who could not gain an entrance.... Mr. Dibble
-next called the attention of the audience to the fact that Mrs. Julia
-Ward Howe, the author of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’ was among
-the guests of the evening.
-
-“At this juncture an enthusiastic gentleman in one of the front seats
-sprang up and called for three cheers for Mrs. Howe. They were given
-with a vim, Mrs. Howe acknowledging the compliment by rising and
-bowing.... The next event upon the program was the singing of ‘The
-Battle Hymn of the Republic’ by J. C. Hughes. The singing was preceded
-by a scene rarely witnessed and which was not on the printed program.
-General Salomon introduced Mrs. Howe to the audience in an appreciative
-speech.
-
-“A beautiful floral piece was then presented to Mrs. Howe, which she
-acknowledged in fitting terms, while the audience gave three cheers and
-a tiger for the author of ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’
-
-“Mrs. Howe advanced to the footlights, beaming with pleasure. She then
-said:
-
-“‘My dear friends, I cannot, with my weak voice, reach this vast
-assemblage; but I will endeavor to have some of you hear me. I join in
-this celebration with thrilled and uplifted heart. I remember those
-camp-fires, I remember those dreadful battles. It was a question with
-us women, “Will our men prevail? Until they do, they will not come
-home.” How we blessed them when they did; how we blessed them with our
-prayers when they were on the battle-field. Those were times of sorrow;
-this is one of joy. Let us thank God who has given us these victories.’
-
-“As Mrs. Howe was about to resume her seat the audience rose _en
-masse_, and from the dress-circle to the upper gallery rung a round of
-cheers.
-
-“The audience remained standing while Mr. Hughes sang the stirring
-words of the hymn, and joined heartily in the chorus as by request.
-At the last chorus Mrs. Howe stepped forward and joined in the song,
-closing with a general flutter of handkerchiefs.”
-
-My mother visited the Pacific coast twice in the latter years of her
-life, as her beloved sister, Mrs. Adolphe Mailliard, then lived there.
-She was received in a way that was very gratifying to her and her
-family.
-
-One of the most dearly prized privileges of a self-governing people
-is that of constant grumbling over the administration of affairs and
-of finding fault with our rulers--who, in the last analysis, are
-ourselves. In England men write to the _Times_; in America we write
-to many papers and we complain endlessly. This would evidently be
-impossible under a despotic Government, and it sometimes seems as
-if we indulged too freely in depreciating our own country and its
-institutions. Yet deep down in the hearts of our people is a love
-of our native land which flames forth brightly on great occasions.
-The country which produced the “Battle Hymn” is not lacking in true
-patriotism. So long as our people use it to express their deepest
-emotions we need fear no serious treason to the Republic. The danger
-of our frequent fault-finding is that we thus allow our righteous
-indignation to evaporate in mere words.
-
-Supineness in politics, an indolence which permits unworthy men to
-usurp the reins of government, is one of our great sins as a nation.
-Yet the corrupt manipulator who goes too far meets an uprising of
-popular indignation which thoroughly surprises him. From the New York
-_Sun_ we quote the story of such a day of retribution.
-
-At the downfall of Boss Croker “a throng gathered in Madison Square.
-Not even in a Presidential election in recent years have there been
-such innumerable hosts as gathered in front of the Fifth Avenue Hotel
-and the Hoffman House last night to hear of the doom of Croker and
-his cronies. Cheer upon cheer ascended when the mighty army read that
-Low was far ahead and would win in the great battle.” Some one struck
-up the “Battle Hymn.” “All over the square were heard the thousands
-singing this great hymn.... There has not been such a scene in New York
-City since war days.”
-
-Among the notable occasions we must certainly count the unveiling
-of the Shaw Monument. Here the art of St.-Gaudens has preserved in
-immemorial stone the story of Robert Gould Shaw and his colored
-soldiers, the heroes of Fort Wagner. The monument stands just within
-old Boston Common, facing the State House. The ceremonies of dedication
-included a procession and a meeting in Music Hall, where Prof. William
-James and Booker Washington made the principal addresses, and the
-“Battle Hymn” was sung.
-
-My mother is best known as the author of the “Battle Hymn.” Soon after
-the war she began her efforts in behalf of the woman’s cause, which
-eventually won for her the great affection of her countrywomen as well
-as a reputation extending to foreign shores. She was deeply interested
-both in the club and in the suffrage movement. She lived to see the
-full flowering of the former and the partial success of the latter.
-Despite the many weary trials and delays she never lost faith in the
-ultimate victory of the suffrage cause. “I shall live to see women win
-the franchise in New York State,” she declared, not many years before
-her death.
-
-In the early days of the club movement my mother, like most of her
-fellow-suffragists, thought it best not to mingle the two issues.
-While the more advanced thinkers among the club women believed in the
-enfranchisement of their sex, the majority did not.
-
-At last the two movements--like two rapidly flowing streams that have
-long been drawing nearer together--joined in one mighty river. I have
-often wished my mother could have lived to see that wonderful day at
-Chicago when the General Federation of Women’s Clubs--an association
-comprising more than one and a half million women--declared themselves,
-amid cheers and tears, in favor of votes for women. Every one was
-deeply moved; the delegates embraced one another, and the “Battle Hymn”
-was sung--a hymn this time of joyous thanksgiving for the victory
-obtained, yet of solemn dedication, too, to the hard labor still to be
-performed before the good fight could be fully won.
-
-My mother describes one occasion where the “Battle Hymn” was given in
-dumb show before the Association for the Advancement of Women. She
-was very much attached to this pioneer society, of which she was the
-president during many years. The association held annual congresses
-in different parts of the United States, the proceedings eliciting
-much interest. When they were at X---- one of the members invited
-the society to visit a school for young girls of which she was the
-principal.
-
-“After witnessing some interesting exercises we assemble in the large
-hall, where a novel entertainment has been provided for us. A band of
-twelve young ladies appear upon the platform. They wear the colors of
-‘Old Glory,’ but after a new fashion, four of them being arrayed from
-head to foot in red, four in blue, and four in white. While the ‘John
-Brown’ tune is heard from the piano, they proceed to act in graceful
-dumb show the stanzas of my ‘Battle Hymn.’ How they did it I cannot
-tell, but it was a most lovely performance.”[30]
-
-In the early days of the woman movement a hard struggle was
-necessary in order to secure for girls the advantages of the higher
-education. Into this my mother threw herself with her accustomed
-zeal. A lifelong student and lover of books, she ardently desired to
-secure for other women the advantages she herself so highly prized.
-Enjoying robust health, and accustomed to prolonged mental labor,
-she never doubted the capacity of her sex for serious study. So,
-despite the gloomy prognostications of learned doctors (all men),
-she and her fellow-suffragists persevered until the battle was won.
-Thus it was very fitting that the three institutions which bestowed
-honorary degrees upon her--Tufts College, Brown University, and Smith
-College--all counted women among their students. Her youngest daughter,
-Maud Howe Elliott, thus describes the scene at Providence:[31]
-
-“On June 16th (1909) Brown University, her husband’s _alma mater_
-and her grandfather’s, conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of
-Laws.... Her name was called last. With the deliberate step of age, she
-walked forward, wearing her son’s college gown over her white dress,
-his mortar-board cap over her lace veil. She seemed less moved than
-any person present; she could not see what we saw, the tiny gallant
-figure bent with four score and ten years of study and hard labor.
-As she moved between the girl students who stood up to let her pass,
-she whispered: ‘How tall they are! It seems to me the girls are much
-taller than they used to be.’ Did she realize how much shorter she was
-than she once had been? I think not. Then, her eyes sparkling with fun
-while all other eyes were wet, she shook her hard-earned diploma with
-a gay gesture in the faces of those girls, cast on them a keen glance
-that somehow was a challenge, ‘Catch up with me if you can!’” The band
-played the air of the “Battle Hymn” and applause followed her as she
-went back to her seat.
-
-“She had labored long for the higher education of women, suffered
-estrangement, borne ridicule for it--the sight of those girl graduates,
-starting on their life voyage equipped with a good education, was
-like a sudden realization of a lifelong dream, uplifted her, gave her
-strength for the fatigues of the day.”
-
-A similar scene was enacted in October, 1910, shortly before her death,
-when Smith College conferred the same degree upon her.
-
-“Opposite the platform, as if hung in air, a curving gallery was
-filled with white-clad girls, some two thousand of them; as she entered
-they rose like a flock of doves, and with them the whole audience. They
-rose once more when her name was called, last in the list of those
-honored with degrees, and as she came forward, the organ pealed, and
-the great chorus of fresh young voices broke out with--
-
- “‘Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,’
-
-“It was the last time.”[32]
-
-
-
-
-VII
-
-HOW AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT
-
-The simplicity and deep earnestness of her manner--Her clear and
- musical voice which never grew old--How Susan B. Anthony “mixed up”
- two songs--Gladdened by the love and honor which it brought her, Mrs.
- Howe repeats the “Battle Hymn” in all parts of the country before
- all sorts of audiences, small and great--Why its appeal to the human
- heart is universal.
-
-
-It may be imagined that the heart of the woman who wrote the “Battle
-Hymn” was greatly gladdened by the love and honor which it brought
-her. She enjoyed to the full the beautiful affection shown her by
-her countrymen and countrywomen, and, in my opinion, her happy and
-sympathetic relations with them prolonged her life. She was glad to
-live, despite the physical weakness of old age, because she knew that
-she was widely beloved and could still be of use. Her mind remained
-clear and brilliant to the very last.
-
-The honors paid her she received with the humility that dreads
-over-praise. In her journal she questions her worthiness to be made so
-much of, and hopes to the end that she may be able to do something of
-value to mankind.
-
-The recital of her “Battle Hymn” gave so much pleasure that she was
-very willing to repeat it, under suitable circumstances. She was asked
-to do so at all times and seasons and in all sorts of places. People
-who requested her to recite her war lyric at the close of a lecture did
-not realize the fatigue that it entailed upon a person no longer young
-and already weary with speaking. Yet I doubt if she ever refused, when
-it was possible for her to comply with the request. Not long before her
-death, some ladies, calling upon her at her summer home near Newport,
-begged her to recite then and there the “Battle Hymn.” She was loth to
-do so, feeling the solemn words were not at all in keeping with the
-light and pleasant chat of a morning visit. As one of the callers was
-frankly an old lady, my mother at length consented. According to her
-custom when asked to recite under such circumstances, she withdrew for
-a few minutes before beginning.
-
-There are thousands of people now living, I suppose, who have heard
-the author’s recitation of the “Battle Hymn.” Yet because there are
-thousands who never did hear it, and because these things slip so
-easily out of mind, it is well to give some description of it “_Lest we
-forget_.”
-
-My mother repeated the verses of the hymn simply, yet with a solemnity
-that was all the more impressive because there was no effort at
-elocutionary or dramatic effect. Yet there was sufficient variety in
-the recitation to avoid any approach to monotony. Thus she repeated the
-lines
-
- “O be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet!”
-
-with uplifted hands, a downward glance at her feet, and voice slightly
-raised. Her distinct enunciation and the clear, musical tones of a
-voice that never grew old, made the words audible even in a large
-auditorium.
-
-Her deeply serious manner, corresponding so well as it did with the
-solemn, prophetic words of the “Battle Hymn,” made the recitation very
-impressive.
-
-We saw before us the woman who had been privileged to speak the word
-for the hour, in the dark days of her country’s history. It was like
-seeing some priestess of old delivering the sacred oracle to her
-people. Though the message was repeated so many times, it never lost
-its power to stir the souls of those who heard it.
-
-It should be said that the habit of speaking very carefully, my mother
-formed early in life. Having a brother who stammered, she was very
-anxious to avoid that defect of speech. The beauty of her voice was due
-to its careful training in the Italian school of singing in her youth.
-Doubtless the habit of public speaking also tended to preserve it.
-
-She occasionally repeated “The Flag,” a more dramatic and more personal
-poem than the “Battle Hymn.” Her rendering of it, accordingly, was more
-dramatic.
-
-On public occasions my mother was often introduced as “The author of
-‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’” Sometimes the introducer would, by
-mistake, substitute the name of another war song, good of its kind,
-but hardly to be compared with my mother’s hymn. She used to say,
-rather plaintively, that Miss Susan B. Anthony (the well-known suffrage
-leader) _would_ mix up the two songs, introducing her as “_The author
-of the ‘Battle Cry of Freedom.’_”
-
-It was a joy to her to be associated with the “Battle Hymn,” yet she
-sometimes grieved a little because this so greatly overshadowed all her
-other literary productions. She had labored long and earnestly with
-pen and voice, writing both prose and poetry which won commendation
-from her comrades in the world of letters. Hence she was glad to be
-remembered as the author, not only of her war lyric, but of other
-compositions as well.
-
-My mother was asked to repeat this more and more often as its fame
-increased and as she herself became ever dearer to her countrymen. As
-early as 1865 we find that she was urged to recite it at Newport at
-the close of her lecture in Mr. Richard Hunt’s studio. Among those in
-the audience was George Bancroft, the historian, a prominent figure
-in Newport society of the olden days. Mr. Bancroft had held various
-offices under the Federal Government, that of Secretary of the Navy
-among others. When the Civil War broke out there was a good deal of
-secession feeling among the summer residents of the watering-place, but
-Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft were steadfastly loyal to the Union.
-
-It is interesting to note that among the many places where its author
-recited the “Battle Hymn,” at least one city in the heart of the South
-is included. Mrs. Howe spent the winter of 1884-85 in New Orleans,
-having been invited to preside over the woman’s department of the
-exposition held there in that year.
-
-The experience involved much hard work, but also much pleasure. She
-made many friends in the Crescent City, whither she and I returned
-eleven years later for a congress of the Association for the
-Advancement of Women. We were the guests of her old friend, Mrs. King,
-the mother of Grace King, the novelist, and were entertained by mother
-and daughters with charming hospitality.
-
-I confess that it surprised me when, at an afternoon reception in the
-King drawing-room, my mother was asked to repeat the “Battle Hymn,” and
-did so. This showed us how much the old ill-feeling between North and
-South had died out. It demonstrated also the universal and therefore
-non-sectional quality of the poem, of which more will be said in the
-following chapter.
-
-The “Battle Hymn” may be called universal in still another sense, since
-it appeals to men and women of all religious creeds. When Mrs. Howe was
-especially requested to recite it before a council of Jewish women,
-it gave her “an unexpected thrill of satisfaction.” She was warmly
-received and welcomed, but felt some anxiety lest the verse beginning
-“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea” might
-disturb her hearers. The president assured her, however, that there
-was nothing in it to hurt their feelings.
-
-My mother was so intimately associated with the woman movement that she
-was called upon to repeat her war lyric before many feminine audiences.
-We have spoken of her interest in women’s clubs. She was also
-interested in the patriotic societies, being a member of the D. A. R.
-and of the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island. One of the Boston chapters
-of the former is named in honor of the Old South Meeting-house, a
-venerated landmark of the city. When the congregation left their old
-place of worship and moved to the Back Bay, it required a tremendous
-effort on the part of the women of Boston to raise the necessary funds
-and to save the historic building from destruction. Here, in December,
-1906, the Old South Chapter had a meeting where there was “much good
-speaking.” My mother recited her “Battle Hymn” and told them something
-of her Revolutionary ancestors. She remembered her forebears with
-affectionate pride as noble men and women whose example she strove to
-imitate.
-
-A long life brings its penalties as well as its pleasures. Living to
-the age of nearly ninety-two years, my mother survived all the friends
-of her youth and most, if not all, of her contemporaries. Hence she
-was called upon to attend many funerals, considering this a duty, in
-accordance with old-fashioned ideas. A temporary lameness prevented her
-attending the obsequies of the poet Longfellow, an early friend of her
-husband’s, whom she also had known well for many years. She was able,
-however, to testify to her friendship for the gentle poet by giving her
-services for the Longfellow Memorial held at the Boston Museum. Here
-she took part in an authors’ reading, reciting the “Battle Hymn,” as
-well as some verses composed in honor of the poet.
-
-That she should be invited to do so shows a great change in public
-opinion since the early years of their acquaintance. In the ’forties
-and ’fifties it was not thought fitting that a lady should even sign
-her name to a poem or a novel, much less read it in public. When my
-mother published some verses in a volume edited by Mr. Longfellow in
-those early days, they appeared as anonymous. By his advice, her first
-book of poems, _Passion Flowers_, bore no name upon the title-page.
-
-
-
-
-VIII
-
-TRIBUTES TO “THE BATTLE HYMN”
-
-From Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Conan Doyle, Ralph Waldo
- Emerson, William Dean Howells,[33] U. S. Senator George F. Hoar,
- Thomas Starr King, Ina Coolbrith, and others--The “Battle Hymn” and
- the “Marseillaise”--What Rudyard Kipling said of it in “The Light
- that Failed”--English reprints distributed among the soldiers of the
- present war.
-
-
-The appeal of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” is so wide that it
-takes in all classes of mankind, all, at least, who love freedom.
-
- Wherever rise the peoples,
- Wherever sinks a throne,
- The throbbing heart of freedom
- Finds an answer in his own.
-
-So wrote the poet Whittier of Samuel Gridley Howe, remembering his
-services to the Greeks, to the Poles and others. The lines are equally
-true of his wife, Julia Ward Howe, and of the spirit animating her war
-lyric. Although written in the midst of the greatest civil war that was
-ever fought and won, there is no word of North or South, no appeal to
-local pride or patriotism, no word of sectional strife or bitterness.
-The God to whom appeal is made is the God of freedom. The enemy to be
-overcome, the serpent who is to be crushed beneath the heel of the
-hero, is slavery.
-
-It is amusing and yet sad to find that some literal souls have fancied
-that my mother intended to designate the Southerners by “the grapes of
-wrath.” Needless to say that the writer intended no such narrow and
-prosaic meaning.
-
-The “Battle Hymn” may well be compared to the “Marseillaise.” The
-man is to be pitied who can hear either of them without a thrill
-of answering emotion. Both have the power to move their hearers
-profoundly, yet they are as different as the two nationalities which
-gave them birth. The French national hymn appeals to us by its
-wonderfully stirring music more than by the words. We can imagine
-how the latter aroused to a frenzy of feeling the men of the French
-Revolution, when they rose to throw off the yoke of centuries of
-oppression and misrule. Feudalism perished in France to the fiery music
-of the “Marseillaise.” Slavery died in America to the old “John Brown”
-tune, as slow and steadfast in movement as the Northern race who sang
-it.
-
-In our war lyric we seem to hear an echo of the old cry, “The sword of
-the Lord and of Gideon.” Yet we did not fully recognize its tremendous
-power until Kipling christened it “_The terrible Battle Hymn of the
-Republic_.”
-
-In the closing scene of _The Light that Failed_[34] we are shown a
-group of English newspaper correspondents about to start for a war
-in the Soudan. They are met together for a last evening of song and
-merrymaking, yet one of their number “by the instinct of association
-began to hum the terrible Battle Hymn of the Republic. Man after man
-caught it up--it was a tune they knew well, till the windows shook to
-the clang, the Nilghai’s deep voice leading:
-
- “‘Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’”
-
-Sir A. Conan Doyle pays a similar tribute to its power in _Through the
-Magic Door_:
-
-“Take the songs which they sang during the most bloody war which the
-Anglo-Celtic race has ever waged--the only war in which it could have
-been said that they were stretched to their uttermost and showed their
-true form ... all had a playful humor running through them. Only one
-exception do I know, and that is the most tremendous war song I can
-recall; even an outsider in time of peace can hardly read it without
-emotion. I mean, of course, Julia Ward Howe’s war song of the Republic,
-with the choral opening line,
-
- ‘Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’
-
-If that were ever sung upon a battle-field the effect must have been
-terrific.”
-
-During the present war in Europe, an English lady has had a large
-number of copies of the “Hymn” printed and distributed, through the
-Young Men’s Christian Association, to the soldiers. They contain the
-following explanation: “This magnificent ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’
-was written in 1861 by a famous American lady, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
-for the Army of the Northern States of America, which were then engaged
-in a ‘Holy War’ to rid the South of slavery and to preserve the Union
-of the States. It is said to have done more to awaken the spirit of
-patriotism and to have inspired more deeds of heroism than any other
-event of the American Civil War.”
-
-It is pleasant and heartening to read these tributes of praise from
-distinguished Englishmen. That our “Battle Hymn of the Republic” should
-so strongly appeal to them shows us the essential unity of the two
-great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, even though oceans roll between
-Great Britain and America.
-
-The strange glory that came over the face of Abraham Lincoln and the
-tears he shed on hearing the “Battle Hymn” will always be, for his
-countrymen, the most precious tribute to its power.
-
-“The chaplain afterward stated that in his conversation with Mr.
-Lincoln at his reception, the President said to him, ‘Take it all in
-all, the song and the singing, that was the best I ever heard.’”[35]
-
-To the steadfast and courageous soul of another great American, who
-also has held the high office of President of these United States,
-Theodore Roosevelt, this war hymn strongly appealed. His book, _Fear
-God and Take Your Own Part_, is prefaced by “The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic” and by the following dedication:
-
- “This book is dedicated to the memory of
- JULIA WARD HOWE
-
-because in the vital matters fundamentally affecting the life of the
-Republic she was as good a citizen of the Republic as Washington and
-Lincoln themselves. She was in the highest sense a good wife and a good
-mother, and therefore she fulfilled the primary law of our being. She
-brought up with devoted care and wisdom her sons and her daughters.
-At the same time she fulfilled her full duty to the commonwealth from
-the public standpoint. She preached righteousness and she practised
-righteousness. She sought the peace that comes as the handmaiden of
-well-doing. She preached that stern and lofty courage of soul which
-shrinks neither from war nor from any other form of suffering and
-hardship and danger if it is only thereby that justice can be served.
-She embodied that trait more essential than any other in the make-up of
-the men and women of this Republic--the valor of righteousness.”
-
-In the letter given below, Hon. George F. Hoar, United States Senator
-from Massachusetts, compares “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” with the
-“Marseillaise” and with the “British National Anthem.”
-
- WORCESTER, MASS., _May 22, 1903_.
-
- I was thinking, just as I got your letter asking me to send a
- greeting to your meeting and to Mrs. Howe, of the great power, in
- framing the character of nations, of their National Anthems. Fletcher
- of Saltoun said, as every child knows, “Let me make the songs of a
- people, and I care not who make their laws.” No single influence has
- had so much to do with shaping the destiny of a nation, as nothing
- more surely expresses national character, than what is known as the
- National Anthem. France adopted for hers the “Marseillaise.” Its
- stirring appeal
-
- Sons of France, awake to glory!
-
- led the youth of France to march through Europe, subduing kingdoms
- and overthrowing dynasties, till “forty centuries looked down on them
- from the pyramids.” At last the ambition of France perished and came
- to grief, as every unholy ambition is destined to perish and come to
- grief, and her great Emperor died in exile at St. Helena.
-
- Is there anything more cheap and vulgar than the National Anthem of
- our English brethren, “God Save the King”?
-
- O Lord our God, arise!
- Scatter his enemies
- And make them fall.
- Confound their politics,
- Frustrate their knavish tricks;
- On him our hopes we fix;
- God save us all!
-
- England, I hope, knows better now. But she has acted on that motto
- for a thousand years.
-
- New England’s Anthem,
-
- The breaking waves dashed high,
-
- one of the noblest poems in all literature, was written by a woman.
-
- We waited eighty years for our American National Anthem. At last God
- inspired an illustrious and noble woman to utter in undying verse
- the thought which we hope is forever to animate the soldier of the
- Republic.
-
- In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
- With a glory in His bosom which transfigures you and me;
- As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
- While God is marching on!
-
- Julia Ward Howe cannot yet vote in America. But her words will be an
- inspiration to the youth of America on many a hard-fought field for
- liberty many a century after her successors will vote.
-
- I am faithfully yours,
- GEORGE F. HOAR.
-
- MISS ALICE STONE BLACKWELL.
-
-In the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson we find this tribute to his
-friend, Julia Ward Howe:
-
-“I honour the author of the ‘Battle Hymn’ and of ‘The Flag.’ She was
-born in the city of New York. I could well wish she were a native of
-Massachusetts. We have had no such poetess in New England.”
-
-The little bit of State pride voiced in the regret that my mother was
-not a native of the old Bay State, surprises us in a man of such wide
-sympathies as Mr. Emerson. In Whittier’s early poems also the local
-feeling is strongly pronounced. We should remember, however, that
-during the nineteenth century a good deal of sectional feeling still
-existed in the different States. The twentieth century finds us more
-closely united as a people than we have ever been before.
-
-Edmund Clarence Stedman happily characterizes the war hymn in the
-following passage. It occurs in a letter to me, asking that my mother
-would copy it for him.
-
-“I can well understand what a Frankenstein’s monster such a creation
-grows to be--such a poem as the ‘Battle Hymn’ when it has become the
-sacred scroll of millions, each one of whom would fain obtain a copy of
-it.”[36]
-
-Those who have visited the White Mountains will remember that one of
-the peaks is called “Starr King.” It was named for Thomas Starr King,
-a noted Unitarian preacher in the middle of the nineteenth century.
-Shortly before the Civil War he accepted a call to San Francisco. In
-addition to officiating in the church there he soon took upon his
-shoulders a task that was too heavy for his somewhat frail physique.
-This was nothing less than persuading the people of California to
-remain loyal to the Union. There was a good deal of secession sentiment
-on the Pacific coast in 1861. Starr King and his fellow-Unionists
-succeeded in their undertaking, but he paid the penalty of overwork
-with his life. Hence his memory is beloved and revered on the shores
-of the Pacific as well as on those of the Atlantic. One can imagine
-what the “Battle Hymn” must have meant to him, weary as he was with his
-strenuous labors. He pronounced it “a miraculously perfect poem.”
-
-Another “Spray of Western Pine” was contributed to the garland of
-praise by Ina Coolbrith, one of the last survivors of the golden age of
-California literature.
-
- JULIA WARD HOWE
-
- When with the awful lightning of His glance,
- Jehovah, thro’ the mighty walls of sea
- His people led from their long bondage free,--
- A Woman’s hand, too light to lift the lance,
- Miriam, the Prophetess, with song and dance,
- With timbrel, and with harp and psaltery,
- Struck the proud notes of triumphs yet to be,
- And voiced her Israel’s deliverance.
-
- So in our own dear Land, in strife to save
- Another race oppressed, when light grew dim,
- And the Red Sea of blood loomed fatefully
- To overwhelm, the God of freedom gave
- Thro’ Woman’s lips His sacred battle hymn
- That rang thro’ combat on to victory!
-
-When memorial services were held in honor of my mother, Boston’s
-great Symphony Hall was crowded to its utmost capacity. Many were
-the beautiful tributes to her given by men and women of national
-reputation. None, however, equaled in heartfelt eloquence the speech of
-Lewis, the distinguished negro lawyer. As he poured out the gratitude
-of his race to the woman who had written “The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic,” I suddenly realized for the first time what the words meant
-to the colored people.
-
- As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
-
-“To make us, black men and black women, free!” The appeal was to the
-white men of our country, bidding them share the freedom they so
-dearly prized with the despised slave. And this triumphant gospel of
-liberty with its stirring chorus of “Glory, glory, hallelujah” was
-sung wherever the Northern army went. It was the first proclamation of
-emancipation. If it moves us, how must it have affected the people to
-whom it was a prophecy of the longed-for deliverance from bondage.
-
-
-
-
-IX
-
-MRS. HOWE’S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR
-
-Her poetic tribute to Frederick Douglass--“Left Behind,” “Our
- Orders,” “April 19”--“The Flag” followed the second battle of Bull
- Run--“The Secesh” in the Newport churches--“The First Martyr,” “Our
- Country,” “Harvard Student’s Song,” “Return”--How “Our Country” lost
- its musical setting--“The Parricide” written on the day of Lincoln’s
- funeral to express her reverence.
-
-
-My mother’s natural mode of expressing herself was by poetry rather
-than by prose. She wrote verses from her earliest years up to the time
-of her death. It is true that some of her best work took the form of
-prose in her essays, lectures, and speeches,[37] yet whenever her
-feelings were deeply moved she turned to verse as the fittest vehicle
-for her use.
-
-We have seen that she began to write poems protesting against human
-slavery at an early period of her career. Thus her first published
-“On the Death of the Slave Lewis.” In _Words for the Hour_ we find
-several poems dealing with slavery, the struggle in Kansas, the
-attack on Sumner, and kindred subjects. The titles of these and some
-quotations from them are given in Chapter I. The verses on “Tremont
-Temple” contain tributes to Sumner and Frederick Douglass, the negro
-orator. The first two are as follows: volume, _Passion Flowers_ (1853),
-contained verses
-
- Two figures fill this temple to my sight,
- Whoe’er shall speak, their forms behind him stand;
- One has the beauty of our Northern blood,
- And wields Jove’s thunder in his lifted hand.
-
- The other wears the solemn hue of Night
- Drawn darker in the blazonry of pain,
- Blotting the gaslight’s mimic day, he slings
- A dangerous weapon, too, a broken chain.
-
-When the Civil War broke out, she poured forth the feelings that
-so deeply moved her in a number of poems. “The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic” is the best known of these, as it deserves to be. The
-others, however, while varying as to merit, show the same patriotism,
-indignation against wrong, and elevation of spirit. The woman’s
-tenderness of heart breathes through them, too, as in the story of the
-dying soldier:
-
- LEFT BEHIND
-
- The foe is retreating, the field is clear;
- My thoughts fly like lightning, my steps stay here;
- I’m bleeding to faintness, no help is near:
- What, ho! comrades; what, ho!
-
- The battle was deadly, the shots fell thick;
- We leaped from our trenches, and charged them quick;
- I knew not my wound till my heart grew sick:
- So there, comrades; so there.
-
- We charged the left column, that broke and fled;
- Poured powder for powder, and lead for lead:
- So they must surrender, what matter who’s dead?
- Who cares, comrades? who cares?
-
- My soul rises up on the wings of the slain,
- A triumph thrills through me that quiets the pain:
- If it were yet to do, I would do it again!
- Farewell, comrades, farewell!
-
-It will be remembered that the first blood shed in the Civil War was
-in Baltimore. There the Massachusetts troops, while on their way
-to defend the national capital, were attacked by “Plug-Uglies” and
-several soldiers were killed. My mother thus describes the funeral in
-Boston:[38]
-
-“We were present when these bodies were received at King’s Chapel
-burial-ground, and could easily see how deeply the Governor was moved
-at the sad sight of the coffins draped with the national flag. This
-occasion drew from me the poem:
-
- “OUR ORDERS
-
- “Weave no more silks, ye Lyons Looms;
- To deck our girls for gay delights!
- The crimson flower of battle blooms,
- And solemn marches fill the night.
-
- “Weave but the flag whose bars to-day
- Drooped heavy o’er our early dead,
- And homely garments, coarse and gray,
- For orphans that must earn their bread!”
-
-(We give the first two of the six verses.)
-
-Other verses published in _Later Lyrics_ under the title “April 19”
-commemorate the same event. They were evidently written in the first
-heat of indignation at the breaking out of the rebellion, yet her
-righteous wrath always gave way to a second thought, tenderer and more
-merciful than the first. We see this in the last verse of the “Battle
-Hymn” and in various other poems of hers. The opening verses of “April
-19” are:
-
- A spasm o’er my heart
- Sweeps like a burning flood;
- A sentence rings upon mine ears,
- Avenge the guiltless blood!
-
- Sit not in health and ease,
- Nor reckon loss nor gain,
- When men who bear our Country’s flag
- Are set upon and slain.
-
-Of her “Poems of the War” “The Flag” ranks second in popular esteem and
-has a place in many anthologies. She thus describes the circumstances
-under which it was composed:[39]
-
-“Even in gay Newport there were sad reverberations of the strife. I
-shall never forget an afternoon on which I drove into town with my son,
-by this time a lad of fourteen, and found the main street lined with
-carriages, and the carriages filled with white-faced people, intent on
-I knew not what. Meeting a friend, I asked: ‘Why are these people here?
-What are they waiting for and why do they look as they do?’
-
-“‘They are waiting for the mail. Don’t you know that we have had a
-dreadful reverse?’ Alas! this was the second battle of Bull Run. I
-have made some record of it in a poem entitled ‘The Flag,’ which I
-dare mention here because Mr. Emerson, on hearing it, said to me, ‘I
-like the architecture of that poem.’”
-
-The opening verse is as follows:
-
- There’s a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are more dear to
- me
- Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty;
- And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue
- As the hope of a further heaven, that lights all our dim lives
- through.
-
-Before the war, Newport had been a favorite resort for Southerners.
-During the summer of 1861 a number were still there, and it must be
-confessed some of them behaved with very little tact. According to
-reports current at the time, these individuals carried politics inside
-the church doors. When the prayer for the President of the United
-States was read, they arose from their knees in order to show their
-disapproval. At its conclusion they again knelt. Women would draw
-aside the voluminous skirts then in fashion, to prevent their coming
-in contact with the United States flag. I have always fancied that the
-lines in “The Flag,”
-
- Salute the flag in its virtue, or pass on where others rule,
-
-were inspired by this behavior of “The Secesh,” as we then called them.
-Some of these persons, although belonging to good society, had the bad
-taste to boast in our presence of how the South was going to “whip” the
-North. At a certain picnic among the Paradise Rocks, my mother resolved
-to give these people a lesson in patriotism. One of our number, a
-quiet, elderly lady, was selected to act as America, the queen of the
-occasion. She was crowned with flowers, and we all saluted her with
-patriotic songs.
-
-“The First Martyr” tells the story of a visit to the wife of John Brown
-before the latter’s execution:
-
- My five-years’ darling, on my knee,
- Chattered and toyed and laughed with me;
- “Now tell me, mother mine,” quoth she,
- “Where you went i’ the afternoon.”
- “Alas! my pretty little life,
- I went to see a sorrowing wife,
- Who will be widowed soon.”
-
- * * * * *
-
- Child! It is fit that thou shouldst weep;
- The very babe unborn would leap
- To rescue such as he.
-
-“Our Country” contains no word about the civil strife, although it is
-classed with “Poems of the War” in her volume entitled _Later Lyrics_.
-A prize was offered for a national song while the war was in progress,
-and Mrs. Howe sent in this poem, Otto Dresel composing the music. Mr.
-Dresel was a prominent figure in the musical world of Boston for many
-years and wrote a number of charming songs.
-
-The prize which had been offered for the national song was never
-awarded, if I remember aright, and Mr. Dresel decided to use the tune
-he had composed, for the “Army Hymn” of Oliver Wendell Holmes. This was
-“superbly sung by L. C. Campbell, assisted by the choir and band” at
-the opening exercises of the Great Metropolitan Fair held in New York
-during the Civil War, for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.
-
-“Our Country” thus lost its musical setting, to my mother’s regret.
-
- OUR COUNTRY
-
- On primal rocks she wrote her name,
- Her towers were reared on holy graves,
- The golden seed that bore her came
- Swift-winged with prayer o’er ocean waves.
-
- The Forest bowed his solemn crest,
- And open flung his sylvan doors;
- Meek Rivers led the appointed Guest
- To clasp the wide-embracing shores;
-
- Till, fold by fold, the broidered Land
- To swell her virgin vestments grew,
- While Sages, strong in heart and hand,
- Her virtue’s fiery girdle drew.
-
- O Exile of the wrath of Kings!
- O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty!
- The refuge of divinest things,
- Their record must abide in thee.
-
- First in the glories of thy front
- Let the crown jewel Truth be found;
- Thy right hand fling with generous wont
- Love’s happy chain to furthest bound.
-
- Let Justice with the faultless scales
- Hold fast the worship of thy sons,
- Thy commerce spread her shining sails
- Where no dark tide of rapine runs.
-
- So link thy ways to those of God,
- So follow firm the heavenly laws,
- That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed,
- And storm-sped angels hail thy cause.
-
- O Land, the measure of our prayers,
- Hope of the world, in grief and wrong!
- Be thine the blessing of the years,
- The gift of faith, the crown of song.
-
-The news of Lincoln’s assassination dealt a stunning blow to our
-people. The rejoicings over the end of the Civil War were suddenly
-changed to deep sorrow, indignation, and fear. How widely the
-conspiracy spread we did not know. It will be remembered that other
-officers of the Federal Government were attacked. My mother wrote that
-nothing since the death of her little boy[40] had given her so much
-personal pain. As usual, she sought relief for her feelings in verse.
-“The Parricide,” written on the day of Lincoln’s funeral, expresses her
-love and reverence for the great man, her horror of the “Fair assassin,
-murder--white,” whom she bids:
-
- With thy serpent speed avoid
- Each unsullied household light,
- Every conscience unalloyed.
-
-As usual, compassion followed anger. “Pardon,” written a few days
-later, after the death of Wilkes Booth, is the better poem of the two.
-
- PARDON
-
- WILKES BOOTH--APRIL 26, 1865
-
- Pains the sharp sentence the heart in whose wrath it was uttered,
- Now thou art cold;
- Vengeance, the headlong, and Justice, with purpose close muttered,
- Loosen their hold.
-
- Death brings atonement; he did that whereof ye accuse him,--
- Murder accurst;
- But, from that crisis of crime in which Satan did lose him,
- Suffered the worst.
-
- Back to the cross, where the Saviour uplifted in dying
- Bade all souls live,
- Turns the reft bosom of Nature, his mother, low sighing,
- Greatest, forgive!
-
-On July 21, 1865, Harvard University held memorial exercises in honor
-of her sons who had given their lives for their country. The living
-graduates of that day numbered only twenty-four hundred, including the
-aged, sick, and absent. Of these more than five hundred went out to
-fight in behalf of the Union, many of them to return no more. Their
-names may be seen engraved on the marble tablets of Memorial Hall,
-Cambridge, a daily lesson in patriotism to the undergraduates who
-frequent it. Full of fun and nonsense as the latter are, they will
-permit no disrespect to the memory of the heroes of the Civil War. If
-visitors enter without removing their hats, an instant clamor arises,
-forcing them to do so.
-
-On this Commencement day of 1865 a notable assemblage gathered at
-Harvard. In addition to other distinguished people there were present,
-as Governor Andrew said in his address, a “cloud of living witnesses
-who have come back laden with glory from the fields where their
-comrades fell.” Phillips Brooks made a prayer, Ralph Waldo Emerson and
-others spoke. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Rev. Charles T. Brooks, James
-Russell Lowell, his brother Robert, John S. Dwight, and Mrs. Julia
-Ward Howe contributed poems. The verses of the latter were read by her
-friend, Mr. Samuel Eliot. The opening ones are as follows:
-
- RETURN
-
- They are coming, oh my Brothers, they are coming!
- From the formless distance creeps the growing sound,
- Like a rill-fed forest, in whose rapid summing,
- Stream doth follow stream, till waves of joy abound.
-
- These have languished in the shadow of the prison,
- Long with hunger pains and bitter fever low;
- Welcome back our lost, from living graves arisen,
- From the wild despite and malice of the foe.
-
-Another of her war poems speaks in the name of the sons of the old
-university. When it was published in the newspapers, a careless
-typesetter made some errors in setting it up. I remember how troubled
-she was when the line
-
- O give them back, thou bloody breast of Treason--
-
-was printed “beast” of Treason.
-
-We give a single verse of the “Harvard Student’s Song”:
-
- Remember ye how, out of boyhood leaping,
- Our gallant mates stood ready for the fray,
- As new-fledged eaglets rise, with sudden sweeping,
- And meet unscared the dazzling front of day?
- Our classic toil became inglorious leisure,
- We praised the calm Horatian ode no more,
- But answered back with song the martial measure,
- That held its throb above the cannon’s roar.
-
-The other “Poems of the War” published in _Later Lyrics_ are entitled
-“Requital,” “The Question,” “One and Many,” “Hymn for a Spring
-Festival,” “The Jeweller’s Shop in War-time,” and “The Battle
-Eucharist.”
-
-In these we see how deeply the writer’s soul was oppressed by the
-sorrow of the war and the horrors of the battle-field. We see, too, how
-it turned ever for comfort and encouragement to the Cross and to the
-Lord of Hosts.
-
-
-
-
-X
-
-MRS. HOWE’S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE
-
-Stories of Gen. Francis Marion--Mrs. Howe’s kinship with the “Swamp
- Fox”--The episode that saved “Marion’s Men”--The splendid sword
- that rusted in its scabbard--John Ward, one of Oliver Cromwell’s
- Ironsides--Samuel Ward, the only Colonial governor who refused to
- enforce the Stamp Act--Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island and
- champion of religious liberty.
-
-
-We have seen that my mother’s love of freedom was in part the result
-of environment. It was also an inheritance from men who had fought for
-civil and religious liberty, with the sword and with the pen, on both
-sides of the Atlantic. Of the founder of the Ward family in America, we
-know that he fought for the English Commonwealth and against “Charles
-First, tyrant of England.” He was one of Oliver Cromwell’s Ironsides,
-serving as an officer in a cavalry regiment. After the republic
-perished and the Stuart line in the person of Charles II. returned to
-the throne, doughty old John Ward came to America, bringing his good
-sword with him. Whether it was ever used on this side of the water, the
-record does not say, but it was preserved in the family for nearly a
-century.
-
-His descendants held positions of trust and responsibility under the
-State, his grandson and great-grandson being each in his turn governor
-of Rhode Island. The latter, Gov. Samuel Ward, has the distinction
-of being the only Colonial governor who refused to take the oath to
-enforce the Stamp Act. As the Chief Executive of “little Rhody” was
-chosen by the people, his views were naturally more democratic than
-those of governors appointed by the crown. Still, it took courage to
-refuse to obey the royal mandate. He early foresaw the separation
-from Great Britain and wrote to his son in 1766, “These Colonies are
-destined to an early independence, and you will live to see my words
-verified.” He was a member of the Continental Congresses of 1774 and
-1775. The latter resolved itself into a committee of the whole almost
-every day, and Governor Ward was constantly called to the chair on such
-occasions, until he was seized with fatal illness, March 13, 1776,
-dying soon afterward.
-
-At this time vaccination had not been discovered, the only preventive
-of the terrible scourge of smallpox being inoculation. Now Governor
-Ward could not spare time for the brief illness which this process
-involved. In addition to his duties in Congress he was obliged, owing
-to the physical disability of his colleague, Gov. Stephen Hopkins, to
-conduct all the official correspondence of the Rhode Island delegation,
-with the Government and citizens of the colony. His services were
-required on many committees, notably on the secret committee which
-contracted for arms and munitions of war. Hence, worn down by overwork,
-he fell an easy victim to smallpox. He died three months before his
-colleagues signed the Declaration of Independence. As he early saw the
-necessity of separation from the mother country, he would certainly
-have affixed his signature to it had he lived. His descendants may be
-pardoned for thinking that he made a great mistake in not taking the
-time required for inoculation.
-
-Many of Governor Ward’s letters have been preserved. These show his
-ardent patriotism as well as the devout religious spirit of the men of
-1776. He writes to his brother: “I have realized with regard to myself
-the bullet, the bayonet, and the halter; and compared with the immense
-object I have in view they are all less than nothing. No man living,
-perhaps, is more fond of his children than I am, and I am not so old as
-to be tired of life; and yet, as far as I can now judge, the tenderest
-connections and the most important private concerns are very minute
-objects. Heaven save my country! I was going to say is my first, my
-last, and almost my only prayer.”
-
-Gov. Samuel Ward was a Seventh-Day Baptist. The little church in which
-he worshiped at Newport has all the charm of the best architecture of
-that period. It now forms part of the Historical Society’s rooms.
-
-His son, Lieut.-Col. Samuel Ward, grandfather of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
-joined the Continental Army when the Revolution broke out. Governor
-Ward writes of “the almost unparalleled sufferings of Samuel,” and
-these were indeed severe. Of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec,
-Colonel Ward writes: “We were thirty days in a wilderness that none
-but savages ever attempted to pass. We marched one hundred miles upon
-shore with only three days’ provisions, waded over three rapid rivers,
-marched through snow and ice barefoot ... moderately speaking, we have
-waded one hundred miles.” The result of this exposure was “the yellow
-jaundice.”
-
-The Americans were overpowered by superior numbers, Colonel Ward being
-taken prisoner with many others. He was also at Valley Forge in that
-terrible winter when the American Army endured such great privations.
-
-It is interesting to note that Colonel Ward assisted in raising a
-colored regiment in the spring of 1778. He commanded this in the
-engagement on the island of Rhode Island, near the spot where his
-granddaughter and her husband established their summer home a century
-later. From the peaceful windows of “Oak Glen” one sees, in the near
-foreground, the earthworks of the Revolution.
-
-In spite of all the hardships endured during the Revolutionary War,
-Colonel Ward lived to be nearly seventy-six years of age. My mother
-well remembered her grandfather with his courtly manner and mild,
-but very observing, blue eyes. With the indulgence characteristic of
-grandparents, he permitted the Ward brothers to play cards at his
-house, a thing they were forbidden to do at home.
-
-The State of Rhode Island is represented in the statue-gallery of the
-national Capitol by Roger Williams, pioneer of religious liberty and
-founder of the State, and by Gen. Nathaniel Greene, who rendered such
-important service during the Revolutionary War. My mother was related
-to both men, being a direct descendant of the former.
-
-Whether or no Massachusetts was justified in driving out Roger
-Williams, we will not attempt to decide. He was evidently a person who
-delighted in controversy in a day when religious toleration was almost
-unknown.
-
-To him belongs the honor of being the first to found a State “upon the
-distinctive principle of complete separation of Church and State.”
-Maryland followed not long after the example set by the “State of Rhode
-Island and Providence Plantations.”
-
-Not in Massachusetts alone did people object to his doctrines. His
-work, _The Bloody Tenent of Persecution_, was burned in England by the
-common hangman, by order of Parliament.
-
-_George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe_ seems a volume of formidable
-proportions to the modern reader. With Quaker doctrines Roger Williams
-had small patience, although he permitted members of the persecuted
-sect to live in the Colony. It seems that G. Fox did not avail himself
-of an offer of disputation on fourteen proposals. His opponents
-claimed that he “slily departed” to avoid the debate. It went on
-just the same, being “managed three days at Newport and one day at
-Providence.”
-
-This volume, _George Fox_, etc.[41], is dedicated to Charles II. by
-“Your Majestyes most loyal and affectionate Orator at the Throne of
-Grace.”
-
-One can guess how much attention the Merrie Monarch paid to the
-fourteen “proposalls”[42] and the elaboration thereof.
-
-The best testimony to the essential gentleness and goodness of this
-eccentric divine is the behavior toward him of the Indians. During King
-Philip’s war they marched on Providence with the intention of burning
-it.
-
-“The well-attested tradition is that Roger Williams, now an old man,
-alone and unarmed, save with his staff, went out to meet the band of
-approaching Indians. His efforts to stay their course were unavailing,
-but they allowed him to return unmolested, such was the love and
-veneration entertained for him by these savages.”
-
-Of my mother’s ancestors on the maternal side, the most interesting was
-her great-great-uncle, Gen. Francis Marion, the partisan leader of the
-Revolution. She was descended from his sister Esther, “The Queen Bee of
-the Marion Hive,” the general himself having no children.
-
-Many romantic stories are told of him. He was present at a
-drinking-party during the siege of Charleston when the host, determined
-that no one should leave the festivities until some particularly fine
-Madeira had been disposed of, locked the door and threw the key out of
-the window. Marion had no notion of taking part in any excesses, so
-he made his escape by jumping out of the window. A lame ankle was the
-result, and the Huguenot left the city, all officers unfit for duty
-being ordered to depart. Marion took refuge now with one friend, now
-with another, and again he was obliged to hide in the woods, while
-recovering from this lameness. The accident was a most fortunate one,
-however. If he had remained in Charleston he would have been obliged to
-surrender and the brigade of “Marion’s Men” might never have existed.
-
-How he formed it in the darkest hour of the war in the South is a
-matter of history. How, like so many will-o’-the-wisps, they led the
-British a weary dance “thoro’ bush, thoro’ brier,” all through the
-woods and the swamps of South Carolina, is a tale that delights the
-heart of every school-boy.
-
- Well knows the fair and friendly moon
- The men that Marion leads,
- The glitter of the rifles,
- The scamper of their steeds;
- ’Tis life to guide the fiery barb
- Across the moonlit plain:
- ’Tis life to feel the night-wind
- That lifts the tossing mane.
- A moment in the British camp,
- A moment and away,
- Back to the pathless forest
- Before the peep of day.[43]
-
-The best-known story tells of the British officer who was brought
-blindfolded into Marion’s camp and entertained at a dinner consisting
-solely of sweet potatoes. Small wonder that he made up his mind the
-Americans could not be conquered, since they were able to subsist on
-such scanty rations!
-
-Reversing the text of Scripture, General Marion provided his men with
-swords made of saws, ammunition being scanty. He was as well known for
-his humanity as for his ingenuity. It is said that once, wishing to
-draw his sword, he found it rusted into the scabbard, so little had it
-been used.
-
-When my mother, as occasionally happened in her later years, would
-quietly slip off on some expedition which her daughters feared was too
-much for her strength, we would remember her kinship with the “Swamp
-Fox.”
-
-Of her parents, it should be said that both were deeply religious.
-Her mother, Julia Cutler Ward, a woman of very lovely character and
-intellectual tastes, died at the early age of twenty-seven. Her
-father, Samuel Ward, one of the “Merchant Princes of Wall Street,” was
-well known for his integrity, liberality, and public spirit. He was
-especially interested in the causes of temperance and religion, being
-“one of the foremost promoters of church-building in the then distant
-West.” He was also one of the founders of the New York University, and
-owned the first private picture-gallery in New York.
-
-Thus we see that my mother, like so many of her fellow-Americans, came
-from a long line of God-fearing and patriotic men and women. In the
-words of the “Battle Hymn” we hear not only the voice of the Union
-Army, but an echo of all the aspiring thoughts and noble deeds of the
-builders of our great Republic.
-
-
-THE END
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-[1] Abraham Lincoln said of this law: “I look upon that enactment not
-as a law, but as a violence from the beginning. It was conceived in
-violence and is being executed in violence” (letter to Joshua F. Speed,
-August 24, 1855).
-
-[2] From _The Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe_. Dana, Estes
-& Co.
-
-[3] “Chev” was the abbreviation of Chevalier, a title bestowed on him
-for his services in the Greek Revolution. He was called “Chev” by
-certain intimate friends.
-
-[4] The Kansas and Nebraska bill.
-
-[5] Protesting against the Missouri Compromise.
-
-[6] From _Reminiscences_ by Julia Ward Howe. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
-
-[7] _Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle._ By Julia Ward Howe.
-
-[8] _Ibid._
-
-[9] Letter from Dr. S. G. Howe to Charles Sumner.
-
-[10] _Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe._ Dana, Estes & Co.
-
-[11] History declares that a colleague of Brooks did thus stand, to
-prevent any one’s coming to Sumner’s assistance. About the pistols, I
-am not sure.
-
-[12] Sketch of John Albion Andrew by Eben F. Stone.
-
-[13] _Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle._ By Julia Ward Howe.
-
-[14] _Reminiscences_ by Julia Ward Howe.
-
-[15] _Ibid._
-
-[16] _Ibid._
-
-[17] From _Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe_. Dana, Estes &
-Co.
-
-[18] _Reminiscences._
-
-[19] _Ibid._
-
-[20] _Ibid._
-
-[21] _Ibid._
-
-[22] See Chap. ii, page 33.
-
-[23] _Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle._
-
-[24] _Reminiscences_, 1899.
-
-[25] In the reprint of the “Battle Hymn,” made in England for the use
-of the soldiers during the present war, this discarded verse has,
-through some misunderstanding, been included.
-
-[26] See _Julia Ward Howe_, Vol. II, Chap. xi.
-
-[27] This account of the day in Libby Prison is compiled from the
-_Washington Star_ and from the _Life of Chaplain McCabe_.
-
-[28] _Life of Chaplain McCabe._
-
-[29] _Ibid._
-
-[30] _Reminiscences_ by Julia Ward Howe.
-
-[31] _Julia Ward Howe._ By Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe Elliott.
-
-[32] _Life of Julia Ward Howe._
-
-[33] See Chapter IX.
-
-[34] In the later editions of the novel another scene is substituted
-for this.
-
-[35] _Life of Chaplain McCabe_--“the singing chaplain.”
-
-[36] _Julia Ward Howe._ Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
-
-[37] Mr. Howells writes in his _Literary Boston Thirty Years Ago_: “I
-heard Mrs. Howe speak in public and it seemed to me that she made one
-of the best speeches I had ever heard.”
-
-[38] _Reminiscences_, p. 261.
-
-[39] _Ibid._, p. 258.
-
-[40] Samuel Gridley Howe, Jr., who died in May, 1863, aged three and a
-half years.
-
-[41] _George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe._
-
-[42] “Proposalls”--I here quote Roger Williams’ spelling.
-
-[43] William Cullen Bryant’s “The Song of Marion’s Men.”
-
-
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
-
-
- Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
-
- Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
-
- Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
-
- Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF
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-<body>
-<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, by Florence Howe Hall</p>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
-are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic</p>
- <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Florence Howe Hall</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 6, 2021 [eBook #66683]</p>
-<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>
- <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC ***</div>
-
-<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/cover.jpg" width="40%" alt="" /></div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i002.jpg" alt="" /></div>
-<p class="caption"><i>Julia Ward Howe.</i><br />
-
-From her last photograph, taken at Smith College a fortnight before her death</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i003.jpg" alt="" /></div>
-</div>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-
-<div class="titlepage">
-
-<h1>
-THE STORY OF<br />
-THE BATTLE HYMN<br />
-OF THE REPUBLIC</h1>
-
-<p><span class="large">BY</span><br />
-<span class="xlarge">FLORENCE HOWE HALL</span><br />
-
-DAUGHTER OF JULIA WARD HOWE</p>
-
-<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i_titlelogo.jpg" alt="" /></div>
-
-<p><span class="large">HARPER &amp; BROTHERS<br />
-NEW YORK AND LONDON</span></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<p class="center">
-<span class="smcap">The Story of the Battle Hymn of the Republic</span><br />
-<br />
-Copyright, 1916, by Harper &amp; Brothers<br />
-
-Printed in the United States of America<br />
-
-Published October, 1916</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak">ACKNOWLEDGMENT</h2>
-
-
-
-<p>The author wishes to express her cordial thanks
-to Messrs. Houghton &amp; Mifflin for their courtesy
-in allowing her to quote a number of passages from
-the <i>Reminiscences</i> of Julia Ward Howe (published
-by them in 1899) and several from <i>Julia Ward
-Howe</i> (published by them in 1916).</p>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2>
-
-<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" summary="table">
-
-<tr><td class="tdr"><small>CHAP.</small></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="tdr"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>I.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Anti-slavery Prelude to the Great Tragedy of the Civil War</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_3"> 3</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>II.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Crime against Kansas</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21"> 21</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>III.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Howe Visits the Army of the Potomac</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_38"> 38</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>IV.</td><td> &#8220;<span class="smcap">The Battle Hymn of the Republic</span>&#8221;</td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49"> 49</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>V.</td><td> <span class="smcap">The Army Takes It Up</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_64"> 64</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>VI.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Notable Occasions Where It Has Been Sung</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73"> 73</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>VII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">How and Where the Author Recited It</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_88"> 88</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>VIII.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Tributes to &#8220;The Battle Hymn&#8221;</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_96"> 96</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>IX.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Howe&#8217;s Lesser Poems of the Civil War</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_107"> 107</a></td></tr>
-
-<tr><td>X.</td><td> <span class="smcap">Mrs. Howe&#8217;s Love of Freedom an Inheritance</span></td><td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_121"> 121</a></td></tr>
-</table>
-</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak"><i>THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE<br />
-REPUBLIC</i></h2>
-
-
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse"><i>Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:</i></div>
-<div class="indent10"><i>His truth is marching on.</i></div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse"><i>I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.</i></div>
-<div class="indent10"><i>His day is marching on.</i></div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse"><i>I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>&#8220;As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,</i></div>
-<div class="indent10"><i>Since God is marching on.&#8221;</i></div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>
-<div class="verse"><i>He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>Oh! be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!</i></div>
-<div class="indent10"><i>Our God is marching on.</i></div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse"><i>In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:</i></div>
-<div class="verse"><i>As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,</i></div>
-<div class="indent10"><i>While God is marching on.</i></div>
-</div></div></div>
-</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>
-
-<p class="ph2">THE STORY OF<br />
-&#8220;THE BATTLE HYMN OF<br />
-THE REPUBLIC&#8221;</p>
-
-
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">I<br />
-
-
-<small>THE ANTI-SLAVERY PRELUDE TO THE GREAT<br />
-TRAGEDY OF THE CIVIL WAR</small></h2>
-</div>
-
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-
-<p>The encroachments of the slave power on Northern soil&mdash;Green
-Peace, the home of Julia Ward Howe, a center of anti-slavery
-activity&mdash;She assists her husband, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe,
-in editing the <i>Commonwealth</i>&mdash;He is made chairman of the
-Vigilance Committee&mdash;Slave concealed at Green Peace&mdash;Charles
-Sumner is struck down in the United States Senate.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">THE &#8220;Battle Hymn of the Republic,&#8221; &#8220;the
-crimson flower of battle,&#8221; bloomed in a
-single night. It sprang from the very soil of the
-conflict, in the midst of the Civil War. Yet the
-plant which produced it was of slow growth, with
-roots reaching far back into the past.</p>
-
-<p>In order to understand how this song of our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>
-nation sprang into sudden being we must study
-that stormy past&mdash;the prelude of the Civil War.
-How greatly it affected my mother we shall see
-from her own record, as well as from the story of
-the events that touched her so nearly. My own
-memory of them dates back to childhood&#8217;s days.
-Yet they moved and stirred my soul as few things
-have done in a long life.</p>
-
-<p>Therefore I have striven to give to the present
-generation some idea of the fervor and ferment,
-the exaltation of spirit, that prevailed at that
-epoch among the soldiers of a great cause, especially
-as I saw it in our household.</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-
-
-<p class="center">Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel.</p>
-
-
-<p>So many years have elapsed since the evil
-monster of slavery was done to death that we
-sometimes forget its awful power in the middle
-of the last century. The fathers of the Republic
-believed that it would soon perish. They forbade
-its entrance into the Territories and were careful
-to make no mention of it in the Constitution.</p>
-
-<p>The invention of the cotton-gin changed the
-whole situation. It was found that slave labor
-could be used with profit in the cultivation of the
-cotton crop. But slave labor with its wasteful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>
-methods exhausted the soil. Slavery could only
-be made profitable by constantly increasing its
-area. Hence, the Southern leaders departed from
-the policy of the fathers of the Republic. Instead
-of allowing slavery to die out, they determined to
-make it perpetual. Instead of keeping it within
-the limits prescribed by the ancient law of the
-land, they resolved to extend it.</p>
-
-<p>The Missouri Compromise of 1820 gave the first
-extension of slavery, opening the great Territory of
-Missouri to the embrace of the serpent. The fugitive-slave
-law was signed in 1850. Before this time
-the return of runaway negroes had been an uncertain
-obligation. The new law took away from
-State magistrates the decision in cases of this sort
-and gave it to United States Commissioners. It
-imposed penalties on rescues and denied a jury
-trial to black men arrested as fugitives, thus
-greatly endangering the liberties of free negroes.
-The Dred Scott decision (see page 10), denying
-that negroes could be citizens, was made in
-1854. In 1856 the Missouri Compromise was repealed
-by the Kansas and Nebraska law.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Additional<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>
-territory was thrown open to the sinister
-institution which now threatened to become like
-the great Midgard snake, holding our country in
-its suffocating embrace, as that creature of fable
-surrounded the earth. It was necessary to fling
-off the deadly coils of slavery if we were to endure
-as a free nation.</p>
-
-<p>The first step was to arouse the sleeping conscience
-of the people. For the South was not
-alone in wishing there should be no interference
-with their &#8220;peculiar institution.&#8221; The North was
-long supine and dreaded any new movement
-that might interfere with trade and national
-prosperity. I can well remember my father&#8217;s
-pointing this out to his children, and inveighing
-against the selfishness of the merchants as a class.
-Alas! it was a Northern man, Stephen A. Douglas,
-who was the father of the Kansas and Nebraska
-bill.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The trumpet note of Garrison&#8221; had sounded,
-some years before this time, the first note of anti-slavery
-protest. But the Garrisonian abolitionists
-did not seek to carry the question into politics.
-Indeed, they held it to be wrong to vote under the
-Federal Constitution, &#8220;A league with death and
-a covenant with hell,&#8221; as they called it. Whittier,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>
-the Quaker poet, took a more practical view
-than his fellow-abolitionists and advocated the use
-of the ballot-box.</p>
-
-<p>When the encroachments of the slave power
-began to threaten seriously free institutions
-throughout the country, thinking men at the
-North saw that the time for political action had
-come. There were several early organizations
-which preceded the formation of the Republican
-party&mdash;the Liberty party, Conscience Whigs, Free-soilers,
-as they were called. My father belonged
-to the two latter, and I can well remember that
-my elder sister and I were nicknamed at school,
-&#8220;Little Free-Dirters.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The election of Charles Sumner to the United
-States Senate was an important victory for the
-anti-slavery men. Dr. Howe, as his most intimate
-friend, worked hard to secure it. Yet we see by
-my father&#8217;s letters that he groaned in spirit at
-the necessity of the political dickering which he
-hated.</p>
-
-<p>Women in those days neither spoke in public
-nor took part in political affairs. But it may be
-guessed that my mother was deeply interested in
-all that was going on in the world of affairs, and
-under her own roof, too, for our house at South<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>
-Boston became one of the centers of activity of
-the anti-slavery agitation.</p>
-
-<p>My father (who was some seventeen years
-older than his wife) well understood the power of
-the press. He had employed it to good effect in his
-work for the blind, the insane, and others. Hence
-he became actively interested in the management
-of the <i>Commonwealth</i>, an anti-slavery newspaper,
-and with my mother&#8217;s help edited it for an entire
-winter. They began work together every morning,
-he preparing the political articles, and she
-the literary ones. Burning words were sent forth
-from the quiet precincts of &#8220;Green Peace.&#8221; My
-mother had thus named the homestead, lying in
-its lovely garden, when she came there early in
-her married life. Little did she then dream that
-the repeal of the Missouri Compromise would disturb
-its serene repose some ten years later.</p>
-
-<p>The agitation had not yet become so strong as
-greatly to affect the children of the household.
-We played about the garden as usual and knew little
-of the <i>Commonwealth</i> undertaking, save as it
-brought some delightful juveniles to the editorial
-sanctum. The little Howes highly approved of
-this by-product of journalism!</p>
-
-<p>Our mother&#8217;s pen had been used before this time<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>
-to help the cause of the slave. As early as 1848
-she contributed a poem to <i>The Liberty Bell</i>, an
-annual edited by Mrs. Maria Norton Chapman
-and sold at the anti-slavery bazars. &#8220;In my
-first published volume, <i>Passion Flowers</i>, appeared
-some lines &#8216;On the Death of the Slave Lewis,&#8217;
-which were wrung from my indignant heart by a
-story&mdash;alas! too common in those days&mdash;of murderous
-outrage committed by a master against his
-human chattel&#8221; (<i>Recollections of the Anti-Slavery
-Struggle</i>, Julia Ward Howe).</p>
-
-<p>Another method of arousing the conscience of
-the nation was through the public platform. My
-father and his friends were anxious to present the
-great question in a perfectly fair way. So a series
-of lectures was given in Tremont Temple, where
-the speakers were alternately the most prominent
-advocates of slavery at the South and its most
-strenuous opponents at the North. Senator
-Toombs, of Georgia, and General Houston, of
-Texas, were among the former.</p>
-
-<p>It was, probably, at this lecture course that my
-father exercised his office as chairman in an unusual
-way. In those days it was the custom to
-open the meeting with prayer, and some of the
-contemporary clergymen were very long-winded.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>
-Dr. Howe informed each reverend gentleman beforehand
-that at the end of five minutes he should
-pull the latter&#8217;s coat-tail. The divines were in
-such dread of this gentle admonition that they invariably
-wound up the prayer within the allotted
-time.</p>
-
-<p>At this time no criticism of the &#8220;peculiar institution&#8221;
-was allowed at the South. Northerners
-traveling there were often asked for their opinion of
-it, but any unfavorable comment evoked displeasure.
-Indeed, a friend of ours, a Northern
-woman teaching in Louisiana, was called to book
-because in his presence she spoke of one of the
-slaves as a &#8220;man.&#8221; A negro, she was informed,
-was not a man, and must never be so called. &#8220;Boy&#8221;
-was the proper term to use. This was a logical
-inference from Judge Taney&#8217;s famous Dred Scott
-decision&mdash;<i>viz.</i>, that &#8220;such persons,&#8221; <i>i. e.</i>, negroes,
-&#8220;were not included among the people&#8221; in the
-words of the Declaration of Independence, and
-could not in any respect be considered as citizens.
-Yet, to quote Abraham Lincoln again, &#8220;Judge
-Curtis, in his dissenting opinion, shows that in five
-of the then thirteen States&mdash;to wit, New Hampshire,
-Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and
-North Carolina&mdash;free negroes were voters, and in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>
-proportion to their numbers had the same part in
-making the Constitution that the white people
-had.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Events now began to move with ever-increasing
-rapidity. The scenes of the stirring prelude to the
-Civil War grew ever more stormy. Men became
-more and more wrought up as the relentless
-purpose of the Southern leaders was gradually
-revealed. The deadly serpent of slavery became
-a hydra-headed monster, striking north, east, and
-west. The hunting of fugitive slaves took on a
-sinister activity in the Northern &#8220;border&#8221; States;
-at the national capital the attempts to muzzle free
-speech culminated in the striking down of Charles
-Sumner in the Senate Chamber itself; in Kansas
-the &#8220;border ruffians&#8221; strove to inaugurate a
-reign of terror, and succeeded in bringing on a local
-conflict which was the true opening of the Civil
-War.</p>
-
-<p>The men who combated the dragon of slavery&mdash;the
-Siegfrieds of that day&mdash;fought him in all
-these directions. In Boston Dr. Howe was among
-the first to organize resistance to the rendition of
-fugitive slaves. An escaped negro was kidnapped
-there in 1846. This was four years before the passage
-by Congress of the fugitive-slave law made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>
-it the duty (!) of the Free States to return runaway
-negroes to slavery. My father called a meeting of
-protest at Faneuil Hall. He was the chief speaker
-and &#8220;every sentence was a sword-thrust&#8221; (T. W.
-Higginson&#8217;s account). I give a brief extract from
-his address:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The peculiar institution which has so long been
-brooding over the country like an incubus has at
-length spread abroad its murky wings and has
-covered us with its benumbing shadow. It has
-silenced the pulpit, it has muffled the press; its influence
-is everywhere.... Court Street can find no
-way of escape for the poor slave. State Street,
-that drank the blood of the martyrs of liberty&mdash;State
-Street is deaf to the cry of the oppressed
-slave; the port of Boston that has been shut up
-by a tyrant king as the dangerous haunt of free-men&mdash;the
-port of Boston has been opened to the
-slave-trader; for God&#8217;s sake, Mr. Chairman, let
-us keep Faneuil Hall free!&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore
-Parker also spoke. John Quincy Adams presided
-at the meeting.</p>
-
-<p>The meeting resulted in the formation of a
-vigilance committee of forty, with my father as
-chairman. This continued its work until the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>
-hunting of fugitives ceased in Boston. Secrecy
-necessarily characterized its proceedings. An undated
-note from Dr. Howe to Theodore Parker
-gives us a hint of them:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p><a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a><span class="smcap">Dear T. P.</span>&mdash;Write me a note by bearer. Tell him merely
-whether I am wanted to-night; if I am he will act accordingly
-about bringing my wagon.</p>
-
-<p>I could bring any one here and keep him secret a week and
-no person except Mrs. H. and myself would know it.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Chev</span>.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>This letter raises an interesting question. Were
-fugitives concealed, unknown to us children, in
-our house? It is quite possible, for both our
-parents could keep a secret. I remember a young
-white girl who was so hidden from her drunken
-father until other arrangements could be made for
-her. I remember also a negro girl, hardly more
-than a child, who was secreted beneath the roof
-of Green Peace. Her mistress had brought her to
-Boston as a servant. Since she was not a runaway,
-the provisions of the odious fugitive-slave<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>
-law did not apply to her. Here at least we
-could cry:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">No fetters in the Bay State!</div>
-<div class="verse">No slave upon her land!</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>My father applied to the courts and in due process
-of time Martha was declared free&mdash;so long as she
-remained on Northern soil. It may be guessed
-that she did not care to return to the South!</p>
-
-<p>The feeling of the community was strongly opposed
-to taking part in slave-hunts. Yankee ingenuity
-often found a way to escape this odious
-task, and yet keep within the letter of the law.</p>
-
-<p>A certain United States marshal thus explained
-his proceedings:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Why, I never have any trouble about runaway
-slaves. If I hear that one has come to
-Boston I just go up to Nigger Hill [a part of Joy
-Street] and say to them, &#8216;Do you know of any
-runaway slaves about here?&#8217; And they never do!&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>This was a somewhat unique way of giving
-notice to the friends of the fugitive that the
-officers of the law were after him.</p>
-
-<p>If he could only escape over the border into free
-Canada he was safe. According to the English
-law no slave could remain such on British soil.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>
-The moment he &#8220;shook the Lion&#8217;s paw&#8221; he became
-free. Our law in these United States is
-founded on the English Common Law. Alas! the
-pro-slavery party succeeded in overthrowing it.
-No wonder that Senator Toombs, of Georgia,
-boasted that he would call the roll of his slaves
-under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument.
-The fugitive-slave law gave him the power to do
-this, and thus make our boasted freedom of the
-soil only an empty mockery.</p>
-
-<p>The vigilance committee did its work well, and
-for some time no runaway slaves were captured in
-Boston. One poor wretch was finally caught.
-My mother thus describes the event:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;At last a colored fugitive, Anthony Burns by
-name, was captured and held subject to the
-demands of his owner. The day of his rendition
-was a memorable one in Boston. The courthouse
-was surrounded by chains and guarded with
-cannon. The streets were thronged with angry
-faces. Emblems of mourning hung from several
-business and newspaper offices. With a show of
-military force the fugitive was marched through
-the streets. No rescue was attempted at this
-time, although one had been planned for an earlier
-date. The ordinance was executed; Burns was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>
-delivered to his master. But the act once consummated
-in broad daylight could never be repeated&#8221;
-(from Julia Ward Howe&#8217;s <i>Recollections of
-the Anti-Slavery Struggle</i>).</p>
-
-<p>So great was the public indignation against the
-judge who had allowed himself to be the instrument
-of the Federal Government in the return of
-Burns to slavery that he was removed from office.
-Shortly afterward he left Boston and went to live
-in Washington.</p>
-
-<p>The attempts to enforce the fugitive-slave law
-at the East failed, as they were bound to fail.
-The efforts to muzzle free speech at the national
-capital were more successful for a time.</p>
-
-<p>The task of Charles Sumner in upholding the
-principles of freedom in the United States Senate
-was colossal. For long he stood almost alone, &#8220;A
-voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the
-paths of the Lord.&#8221; Fortunately he was endowed
-by nature with a commanding figure and presence
-and a wonderful voice that fitted him perfectly for
-his great task. My mother thus described him:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;He was majestic in person, habitually reserved
-and rather distant in manner, but sometimes unbent
-to a smile in which the real geniality of his
-soul seemed to shed itself abroad. His voice was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>
-ringing and melodious, his gestures somewhat
-constrained, his whole manner, like his matter,
-weighty and full of dignity.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>As an old and intimate friend, my father sometimes
-urged him to greater haste in his task of
-combating slavery at the national capital. Thus
-Charles Sumner writes to him from Washington,
-February 1, 1854:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Howe</span>&mdash;Do not be impatient with me. I am doing
-all that I can. This great wickedness disturbs my sleep, my
-rest, my appetite. Much is to be done, of which the world
-knows nothing, in rallying an opposition. It has been said
-by others, that but for Chase and Sumner this Bill would
-have been rushed through at once, even without debate.
-Douglas himself told me that our opposition was the only
-sincere opposition he had to encounter. But this is not true.
-There are others here who are in earnest.</p>
-
-<p>My longing is to rally the country against the Bill<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and
-I desire to let others come forward and broaden our front.</p>
-
-<p>Our Legislature ought to speak <i>unanimously</i>. Our people
-should revive the old report and resolutions of 1820.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
-
-<p>At present our first wish is delay, that the country may
-be aroused.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Would that night or Bl&uuml;cher had come!&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>God bless you always!</p>
-
-<p class="right">C. S.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>In the fateful spring of 1856 Dr. and Mrs. Howe
-were in Washington. They saw both Charles
-Sumner and Preston Brooks. My mother has
-given us pictures of the two men as she then saw
-them:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Charles Sumner looked up and, seeing me in
-the gallery, greeted me with a smile of recognition.
-I shall never forget the beauty of that smile.
-It seemed to me to illuminate the whole precinct
-with a silvery radiance. There was in it all the
-innocence of his sweet and noble nature.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
-
-<p>&#8220;At Willard&#8217;s Hotel I observed at a table near
-our own a typical Southerner of that time, handsome,
-but with a reckless and defiant expression
-of countenance which struck me unpleasantly.
-This was Preston Brooks, of South Carolina.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
-
-<p>During one of his visits to the Howes, Sumner
-said:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I shall soon deliver a speech in the Senate
-which will occasion a good deal of excitement. It
-will not surprise me if people leave their seats and
-show signs of unusual disturbance.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>My mother comments thus:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p>
-
-<p>&#8220;At the moment I did not give much heed to his
-words, but they came back to me, not much later,
-with the force of prophecy. For Mr. Sumner did
-make this speech, and though at the moment
-nothing was done against him, the would-be
-assassin only waited for a more convenient season
-to spring upon his victim and to maim him for life.
-Choosing a moment when Mr. Sumner&#8217;s immediate
-friends were not in the Senate Chamber,
-Brooks of South Carolina, armed with a cane of
-india-rubber, attacked him in the rear, knocking
-him from his seat with one blow, and beating
-him about the head until he lay bleeding and
-senseless upon the floor. Although the partisans
-of the South openly applauded this deed, its
-cowardly brutality was really repudiated by all
-who had any sense of honor, without geographical
-distinction. The blow, fatal to Sumner&#8217;s health,
-was still more fatal to the cause it was meant to
-serve, and even to the man who dealt it. Within
-one year his murderous hand was paralyzed in
-death, and Sumner, after hanging long between
-life and death, stood once more erect, with the
-aureole of martyrdom on his brow, and with the
-dear-bought glory of his scars a more potent
-witness for the truth than ever. His place<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>
-in the Senate remained for a time eloquently
-empty.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
-
-<p>Hon. Miles Taylor, of Louisiana, defended in the
-Senate the attack on Sumner. A part of his
-speech makes curious reading:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;If this new dogma&#8221; (the evil of slavery)
-&#8220;should be received by the American people with
-favor, it can only be when all respect for revelation ... has
-been utterly swept away by such a
-flood of irreligion and foul philosophy as never
-before set in.&#8221;</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>
-<h2 class="nobreak">II<br />
-
-
-<small>THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>Border ruffians from Missouri carry Kansas elections with pistol and
-bowie-knife. They prevent peaceable Free State emigrants from
-entering the national territory&mdash;Dr. Howe carries out aid from New
-England&mdash;Clergymen and Sharp&#8217;s rifles&mdash;Mrs. Howe&#8217;s indignant
-verses&mdash;She opens the door for John Brown, the hero of the war
-in Kansas&mdash;Gov. Andrew, Theodore Parker, Charles Sumner&mdash;The
-attack on Fort Sumter&mdash;&#8220;The death-blow of slavery.&#8221;</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">THESE assaults by the serpent of slavery on
-the free institutions of the North and East
-were dangerous enough, yet, like other evils, they
-brought their own remedies with them. Such an
-open attack on free speech as that on Sumner
-was sure to be resented, while the forcible carrying-off
-of fugitive slaves under the shadow of old
-Faneuil Hall aroused a degree of wrath that even
-the pro-slavery leaders saw was ominous.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The crime against Kansas&#8221; was still more
-alarming because it threatened to turn a free
-Territory into a slave State. In 1854 the Kansas
-and Nebraska bill had been passed, repealing the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>
-Missouri Compromise and exposing a vast area of
-virgin soil to the encroachments of the &#8220;peculiar
-institution.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The Free-soil men were speedily on the alert.
-During that same year of 1854 two Massachusetts
-colonies were sent out to Kansas, others
-going later.</p>
-
-<p>But the leaders of the slave power had no intention
-of allowing men from the free States to settle
-peacefully in Kansas. They had repealed the
-Missouri Compromise with the express purpose of
-gaining a new slave State, and this was to be accomplished
-by whatever means were necessary.</p>
-
-<p>It was an easy matter to send men from Missouri
-into the adjacent Territory of Kansas&mdash;to vote
-there and then to return to their homes across the
-Mississippi.</p>
-
-<p>The New York <i>Herald</i> of April 20, 1855, published
-the following letter from a correspondent in
-Brunswick, Missouri:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri
-to attend the election, some to remove, but the most to return
-to their families, with an intention, if they liked the
-Territory, to make it their permanent abode at the earliest
-moment practicable. But they intended to vote.... Indeed,
-every county furnished its quota; and when they set out it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>
-looked like an army.... They were armed.... Fifteen hundred
-wore on their hats bunches of hemp. They were resolved
-if a tyrant attempted to trample upon the rights of the
-sovereign people to hang him.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>It will be noted that &#8220;the rights of the sovereign
-people&#8221; were to go to the ballot-box not in their
-own, but in another State. These &#8220;border ruffians&#8221;
-took possession of the polls and carried the
-first election with pistol and bowie-knife.</p>
-
-<p>The pro-slavery leaders strove to drive out the
-colonists from the free States and to prevent additional
-emigrants from entering the Territory. A
-campaign of frightfulness was inaugurated&mdash;with
-the usual result.</p>
-
-<p>Governor Geary of Kansas, although a pro-slavery
-official himself, wrote (Dec. 22, 1856) that
-he heartily despised the abolitionists, but that
-&#8220;<i>The persecutions of the Free State men here were
-not exceeded by those of the early Christians.</i>&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>My father was deeply interested in the colonization
-of Kansas and in the struggle for freedom
-within its borders. He helped in 1854 to organize
-the &#8220;New England Emigrant Aid Company&#8221;
-which assisted parties of settlers to go to the
-Territory. In 1856 matters began to look very
-dark for the colonists from the free States. &#8220;Dr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>
-Howe was stirred to his highest activity by the
-news from Kansas and by the brutal assault on
-Charles Sumner&#8221; (F. B. Sanborn). With others
-he called and organized the Faneuil Hall meeting.
-He was made chairman of its committee, and at
-once sent two thousand dollars to St. Louis for
-use in Kansas. This prompt action had an important
-effect on the discouraged settlers. Soon
-afterward he started for Kansas to give further
-aid to the colonists.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I have traversed the whole length of the State
-of Iowa on horseback or in a cart, sleeping in
-said cart or in worse lodgings, among dirty men
-on the floor of dirty huts. We have organized
-a pretty good line of communication between
-our base and the corps of emigrants who have
-now advanced into the Territory of Nebraska.
-Everything depends upon the success of the attempt
-to break through the <i>cordon infernale</i> which
-Missouri has drawn across the northern frontier of
-Kansas.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
-
-<p>In another letter he writes:</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-
-<p>The boats on the river are beset by spies and ruffians,
-are hauled up at various places and thoroughly searched for
-anti-slavery men.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>He thus describes the emigrants:<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
-
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Camp of the Emigration, Nebraska Territory</span>,<br />
-<i>July 29, &#8217;56</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The emigration is indeed a noble one; sturdy, industrious,
-temperate, resolute men.... I wish our friends in the East
-could know the character and behavior of these emigrants.
-They are and have been for two weeks encamped out upon
-these vast prairies in their tents and waggons waiting patiently
-for the signal to move, exhausting all peaceful resources
-and negotiations before resorting to force.</p>
-
-<p>There is no liquor in the whole camp; no smoking, no
-swearing, no irregularity. They drink cold water, live mostly
-on mush and rice and the simplest, cheapest fare. They have
-instruction for the little children; they have Sunday-schools,
-prayer-meetings, and are altogether a most sober and earnest
-community. Most of the loafers have dropped off. The
-Wisconsin company, about one hundred, give a tone to all
-the others. I could give you a picture of the drunken, rollicking
-ruffians who oppose this emigration&mdash;but you know it.
-Will the North allow such an emigration to be shut out
-of the National Territory by such brigands?</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>In another letter he tells us that among the
-emigrants were thirty-eight women and children&mdash;grandfathers
-and grandmothers, too, journeying
-with their live stock in carts drawn by oxen to
-the promised land.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>He says nothing of danger to himself, but Hon.
-Andrew D. White tells us that &#8220;Dr. Howe had
-braved death again and again while aiding the
-Free State men against the pro-slavery myrmidons
-of Kansas.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The strength of the movement may be judged
-from the fact that during this year (1856) the
-people of Massachusetts sent one hundred thousand
-dollars in money, clothing, and arms to help
-the Free State colonists. This money did not
-come from the radicals only, but from &#8220;Hunkers,&#8221;
-as they were then called&mdash;<i>i. e.</i>, conservative and
-well-to-do citizens. My father wrote: &#8220;People
-pay readily here for Sharp&#8217;s rifles. One lady
-offered me one hundred dollars the other day,
-and to-day a clergyman offered me one hundred
-dollars.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>My mother was greatly moved by these tragic
-events&mdash;the assault on Sumner and the civil war
-in Kansas. In <i>Words for the Hour</i>&mdash;a volume of
-her poems published in 1857&mdash;we find a record of
-her just indignation. In the &#8220;Sermon of Spring&#8221;
-she describes Kansas as:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-
-<div class="verse">Wearing the green nodding plumes of the Court of the Prairie,</div>
-<div class="verse">Gyves on her free-born limbs, on her fair arms shackles,</div>
-<div class="verse">Blood on her garments, terror and grief in her features.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>
-<div class="verse">&#8220;Tremble,&#8221; she cried, &#8220;tho&#8217; the battle seem thine for a season,</div>
-<div class="verse">Not a drop of my blood shall be wanting to judge thee.</div>
-<div class="verse">Tremble, thou fallen from mercy ere fallen from office.&#8221;</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>This poem, which is a long one, contains a
-tribute to Sumner, as do also &#8220;Tremont Temple,&#8221;
-&#8220;The Senator&#8217;s Return,&#8221; and &#8220;An Hour in the
-Senate.&#8221; I give a brief extract from the last
-named:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Falls there no lightning from yon distant heaven</div>
-<div class="indent">To crush this man&#8217;s potential impudence?</div>
-<div class="indent">Shall not its outraged patience thunder: &#8220;Hence!</div>
-<div class="verse">Forsake the shrine where Liberty was given!&#8221;</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">&#8220;The strong shall rule, the arm of force have sway,</div>
-<div class="indent">The helpless multitude in bonds abide&mdash;&#8221;</div>
-<div class="indent">Again the chuckle and the shake of pride&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">&#8220;God&#8217;s for the stronger&mdash;so great Captains say.&#8221;</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<hr class="tb" />
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Yet, rise to answer, chafing in thy chair,</div>
-<div class="indent">With soul indignant stirred, and flushing brow.</div>
-<div class="indent">Thou art God&#8217;s candidate&mdash;speak soothly now,</div>
-<div class="verse">Let every word anticipate a prayer.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Gather in thine the outstretched hands that strive</div>
-<div class="indent">To help thy pleading, agonized and dumb;</div>
-<div class="indent">Bear up the hearts whose silent sorrows come</div>
-<div class="verse">For utterance, to the voice that thou canst give.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>In the same volume are verses entitled &#8220;Slave
-Eloquence&#8221; and &#8220;Slave Suicide.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>How did the children of the household feel during
-this period of &#8220;Sturm und Drang&#8221;? To the
-older ones, at least, it was a most exciting time.
-While we did not by any means know of all that
-was going on, we felt very strongly the electric
-current of indignation that thrilled through our
-home, as well as the stir of action. My father
-early taught us to love freedom and to hate
-slavery. He gave us, in brief, clear outline, the
-story of the aggressions of the slave power. We
-knew of the iniquity of the Dred Scott decision
-before we were in our teens. Child that I was, I
-was greatly moved when he repeated Lowell&#8217;s
-well-known lines:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,</div>
-<div class="verse">Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>My father had always something of the soldier
-about him&mdash;a quick, active step, gallant bearing,
-and a voice tender, yet strong, &#8220;A voice to lead a
-regiment.&#8221; This was the natural consequence of
-his early experiences in the Greek War of Independence,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>
-when he served some seven years as
-surgeon, soldier, and&mdash;most important of all&mdash;almoner
-of America&#8217;s bounty to the peaceful
-population. The latter would have perished of
-starvation save for the supplies sent out in response
-to Dr. Howe&#8217;s appeals to his countrymen.
-The greater part of his life was devoted to the
-healing arts of the good physician. Yet the portraits
-of him, taken during the tremendous struggle
-of the anti-slavery period, show a sternness not
-visible in his younger nor yet in his later days.</p>
-
-<p>In her poem &#8220;A Rough Sketch&#8221; my mother
-described him as he seemed to her at this time:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">A great grieved heart, an iron will,</div>
-<div class="indent">As fearless blood as ever ran;</div>
-<div class="verse">A form elate with nervous strength</div>
-<div class="indent">And fibrous vigor,&mdash;all a man.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Charles Sumner came often to Green Peace when
-he was in Boston. We children greatly admired
-him. He seemed to us, and doubtless to others,
-a species of superman. I can hardly think of
-those days without the organ accompaniment of
-his voice&mdash;deeper than the depths, round and full.
-When our friend was stricken down in the Senate,
-great was our youthful indignation. Many were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>
-the arguments held with our mates at school and
-dancing-school, often the children of the &#8220;Hunker&#8221;
-class. They sought to justify the attack, and we
-replied with the testimony of an eye-witness to
-the scene (Henry Wilson, afterward Vice-President
-of the United States) and the fact that a colleague
-of Brooks stood, waving a pistol<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> in each hand,
-to prevent any interference in behalf of Sumner.
-We had heard about the cruel &#8220;Mochsa&#8221; with
-which his back was burned in the hope of cure, and
-we lamented his sufferings.</p>
-
-<p>John A. Andrew, afterward the War Governor
-of the State, was another intimate of our household,
-a great friend of both our parents. Genial
-and merry, as a rule, he yet could be sternly eloquent
-in the denunciation of slavery.</p>
-
-<p>Indeed, it was a speech of this nature which first
-brought him into prominence. In the Massachusetts
-Legislature of 1858 the most striking
-figure was that of Caleb Cushing. He had been
-Attorney-General in President Franklin Pierce&#8217;s
-Cabinet and was one of the ablest lawyers in the
-United States. When all were silent before his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>
-oratory and no one felt equal to opposing this
-master of debate, Andrew, a young advocate, was
-moved, like another David, to attack his Goliath.
-In a speech of great eloquence he vindicated the
-action of the Governor and the Legislature in
-removing from office the judge who had sent
-Anthony Burns back into slavery and thus outraged
-the conscience of the Bay State. As a
-lawyer he sustained his opinion by legal precedents.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;When he took his seat there was a storm of
-applause. The House was wild with excitement.
-Some members cried for joy; others cheered,
-waved their handkerchiefs, and threw whatever
-they could find into the air.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
-
-<p>And so, like David, he won not only the battle
-of the day, but the leadership of his people in the
-stormy times that soon followed.</p>
-
-<p>When a box of copperhead snakes was sent to
-our beloved Governor we were again indignant.
-(Political opponents had not then learned to send
-gifts of bombs.)</p>
-
-<p>From Kansas itself Martin F. Conway came to
-us, full of fiery zeal for the Free State cause, although
-born south of Mason and Dixon&#8217;s line.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>He later represented the young State in Congress.
-Samuel Downer and George L. Stearns we often
-saw; both were very active in the anti-slavery
-cause. The latter was remarkable for a very long
-and beautiful beard, brown and soft, like a
-woman&#8217;s hair and reaching to his waist.</p>
-
-<p>We heard burning words about the duty of
-Massachusetts during these assaults of the slave
-power. Could she endure them, or should she not
-rather seek to withdraw from the Union?</p>
-
-<p>These words sound strangely to us now, but it
-must be remembered that in the fifties we had seen
-our fair Bay State made an annex to slave territory.
-Men might well ask one another, &#8220;Can the
-Commonwealth of Massachusetts endure the disgrace
-of having slave-hunts within her borders?&#8221;
-&#8220;The Irrepressible Conflict&#8221; had come. When
-the pro-slavery leaders forced the fugitive-slave
-law through Congress they struck a blow at the
-life of the nation as deadly as that of Fort Sumter.
-The latter was the inevitable sequel of the former.</p>
-
-<p>We saw often at Green Peace another intimate
-friend of our parents&mdash;Theodore Parker, the famous
-preacher and reformer. As he wore spectacles
-and was prematurely bald, he did not leave upon
-our childish minds the impression of grandeur<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>
-inseparably connected with Charles Sumner. Yet
-the splendid dome of his head gave evidence of his
-great intellect, while his blue eyes looked kindly
-and often merrily at us. Having no children of
-his own, he would have liked to adopt our youngest
-sister, could our parents have been persuaded to
-part with her.</p>
-
-<p>Theodore Parker advocated the anti-slavery
-cause with great eloquence in the pulpit. He also
-belonged to my father&#8217;s vigilance committee and
-harbored fugitive slaves in his own home. To one
-couple of runaway negroes he presented a Bible and
-a sword&mdash;after marrying them legally&mdash;a thing not
-always done in the day of slavery. My father succeeded
-in sending away from Boston the man who
-attempted to carry them back to the South, and
-William and Ellen Croft found freedom in England.</p>
-
-<p>Theodore Parker&#8217;s sermons had a powerful influence
-on his great congregation, of which my
-mother was for some time a member. In one of
-her tributes to him she tells us how he drew them
-all toward the light of a better day and prepared
-them also for &#8220;the war of blood and iron.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I found that it was by the spirit of the higher
-humanity that he brought his hearers into sympathy
-with all reforms and with the better society<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>
-that should ripen out of them. Freedom for
-black and white, opportunity for man and woman,
-the logic of conscience and the logic of progress&mdash;this
-was the discipline of his pulpit.... Before
-its [the Civil War&#8217;s] first trumpet blast blew his
-great heart had ceased to beat. But a great body
-of us remembered his prophecy and his strategy
-and might have cried, as did Walt Whitman at a
-later date, &#8216;O captain, my captain!&#8217;&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
-
-<p>Rev. James Freeman Clarke, our pastor for
-many years, was among those whose visits gave
-pleasure and inspiration as well to our household.
-He did not hesitate to preach anti-slavery doctrines,
-unpopular as they were, from his pulpit.
-My mother says of him at this time:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;In the agitated period which preceded the Civil
-War and in that which followed it he in his modest
-pulpit became one of the leaders, not of his own
-flock alone, but of the community to which he
-belonged. I can imagine few things more instructive
-and desirable than was his preaching in
-those troublous times, so full of unanswered question
-and unreconciled discord.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
-
-<p>Her beloved minister was among those who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>
-accompanied my mother on the visit to the army
-which inspired &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic.&#8221; This was written to the tune of:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">John Brown&#8217;s body lies a-moldering in the grave,</div>
-<div class="indent3">His soul is marching on.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>&#8220;Old Ossawotamie Brown&#8221; was the true hero
-of the bloody little war in Kansas, where the Free
-State men finally prevailed, though many lives
-were lost. He has been called &#8220;Savior of Kansas
-and Liberator of the Slave.&#8221; He came at least
-once to Green Peace. My mother has described
-her meeting with him. My father had told her
-some time previously about a man who &#8220;seemed
-to intend to devote his life to the redemption of
-the colored race from slavery, even as Christ had
-willingly offered His life for the salvation of mankind.&#8221;
-One day he reminded her of the person
-so described, and added: &#8220;That man will call here
-this afternoon. You will receive him. His name
-is John Brown.&#8221;...</p>
-
-<p>Later, my mother wrote of this meeting:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;At the expected time I heard the bell ring, and,
-on answering it, beheld a middle-aged, middle-sized
-man, with hair and beard of amber color
-streaked with gray. He looked a Puritan of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>
-Puritans, forceful, concentrated, and self-contained.
-We had a brief interview, of which I only
-remember my great gratification at meeting one
-of whom I had heard so good an account. I saw
-him once again at Dr. Howe&#8217;s office, and then
-heard no more of him for some time.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
-
-<p>Elsewhere she has written apropos of his raid
-at Harper&#8217;s Ferry:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;None of us could exactly approve an act so
-revolutionary in its character, yet the great-hearted
-attempt enlisted our sympathies very strongly.
-The weeks of John Brown&#8217;s imprisonment were
-very sad ones, and the day of his death was one of
-general mourning in New England.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
-
-<p>With the election of Lincoln we seemed to come
-to smoother times. We young people certainly
-did not realize that we were on the brink of civil
-war, although friends who had visited the South
-warned us of the preparations going on there.
-If there should be any struggle, it would be a
-brief one, people said.</p>
-
-<p>Suddenly, like a flash of lightning out of a clear
-sky, came the firing on Sumter. My father came
-triumphantly into the nursery and called out to
-his children: &#8220;Sumter has been fired upon!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>
-That&#8217;s the death-blow of slavery.&#8221; Little did he
-or we realize how long and terrible the conflict
-would be. But he knew that the serpent had received
-its death-wound. All through the long
-and terrible war he cheered my mother by his
-unyielding belief in the ultimate success of our
-arms.</p>
-
-<p>So the prelude ended and the greater tragedy
-began. The conflict of ideas, the most soul-stirring
-period of our history, passed into the conflict
-of arms. In the midst of its agony the steadfast
-soul of a woman saw the presage of victory
-and gave the message, a message never to be forgotten,
-to her people and to the world.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">III<br />
-
-
-<small>MRS. HOWE VISITS THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC</small></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>The Civil War breaks out&mdash;Dr. Howe is appointed a member of the
-Sanitary Commission&mdash;Mrs. Howe accompanies him to Washington&mdash;She
-makes her maiden speech to a Massachusetts regiment&mdash;She
-sees the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps&mdash;She visits
-the army and her carriage is involved in a military movement&mdash;She
-is surrounded by &#8220;Burnished rows of steel.&#8221;</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">&#8220;THE years between 1850 and 1857, eventful
-as they were, appear to me almost a period
-of play when compared with the time of trial which
-was to follow. It might have been likened to the
-tuning of instruments before some great musical
-solemnity. The theme was already suggested, but
-of its wild and terrible development who could
-have had any foreknowledge?&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>In her <i>Reminiscences</i> my mother thus compares
-the Civil War and its prelude. Again she says of
-the former:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Its cruel fangs fastened upon the very heart of
-Boston and took from us our best and bravest.
-From many a stately mansion father or son went<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>
-forth, followed by weeping, to be brought back
-for bitterer sorrow.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Mercifully she was spared this last. My father
-was too old for military service and no longer in
-vigorous health, being in his sixtieth year when the
-war broke out; my eldest brother was just thirteen
-years of age. Nevertheless she was brought into
-close touch with the activities of the great struggle
-from the beginning.</p>
-
-<p>On the day when the news of the attack on
-Fort Sumter was received Dr. Howe wrote to
-Governor Andrew, offering his services:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Since they will have it so&mdash;in the name of God,
-Amen! Now let all the governors and chief men of
-the people see to it that war shall not cease until emancipation
-is secure. If I can be of any use, anywhere,
-in any capacity (save that of spy), command me.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
-
-<p>With what swiftness the &#8220;Great War Governor
-of Massachusetts&#8221; acted at this time is matter of
-history. Two days after the President issued a
-call for troops, three regiments started for Washington.
-Massachusetts was thus the first State
-to come to the aid of the Union&mdash;the first, alas!
-to have her sons struck down and slain.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>Governor Andrew was glad to avail himself of
-Dr. Howe&#8217;s offer of aid. The latter&#8217;s early experiences
-in Greece made his help and counsel
-valuable both to the State and to the nation.
-Gen. Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the
-Army, and Governor Andrew requested him, on
-May 2, 1861, to make a sanitary survey of the
-Massachusetts troops in the field at and near the
-national capital. Before the end of the month
-the Sanitary Commission was created, Dr. Howe
-being one of the original members appointed by
-Abraham Lincoln.</p>
-
-<p>Governor Andrew was almost overwhelmed
-with the manifold cares and duties of his office.
-Our house was one of the places where he took
-refuge when he greatly needed rest. He was
-obliged to give up going to church early in the
-war because many people followed him there,
-importuning him with requests of all sorts.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the questions of the Civil War were
-brought urgently to my mother&#8217;s mind in her
-own home, just as those of the anti-slavery
-period had been a year or two before.</p>
-
-<p>To quote her <i>Reminiscences</i> again:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The record of our State during the war was a
-proud one. The repeated calls for men and for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>
-money were always promptly and generously
-answered. And this promptness was greatly forwarded
-by the energy and patriotic vigilance of
-the Governor. I heard much of this at the time,
-especially from my husband, who was greatly attached
-to the Governor and who himself took an
-intense interest in all the operations of the war....
-I seemed to live in and along with the war,
-while it was in progress, and to follow all its ups
-and downs, its good and ill fortune with these two
-brave men, Dr. Howe and Governor Andrew.
-Neither of them for a moment doubted the final
-result of the struggle, but both they and I were
-often very sad and much discouraged.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Governor Andrew was often summoned to
-Washington. Dr. Howe&#8217;s duties as a member of
-the Sanitary Commission also took him there.
-Thus it happened that my mother went to the
-national capital in their company in the late
-autumn of 1861. Mrs. Andrew, the Governor&#8217;s
-wife, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, and Mr. and
-Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple were also of the party.</p>
-
-<p>As they drew near Washington they saw ominous
-signs of the dangers encompassing the city.
-Mrs. Howe noticed little groups of armed men
-sitting near a fire&mdash;pickets guarding the railroad,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>
-her husband told her. For the Confederate Army
-was not far off, the Army of the Potomac lying like
-a steel girdle about Washington, to protect it.</p>
-
-<p>This was my mother&#8217;s first glimpse of the Union
-Army which later made such a deep impression
-upon her mind and heart. I have always fancied,
-though she does not say so, that some of the vivid
-images of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; were suggested by
-the scenes of this journey.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;</div>
-<div class="verse">They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;</div>
-<div class="verse">I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps.</div>
-<div class="indent15">His day is marching on!</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Arrived at Washington, the party established
-themselves at Willard&#8217;s Hotel. Evidences of the
-war were to be seen on all sides. Soldiers on
-horseback galloped about the streets, while ambulances
-with four horses passed by the windows
-and sometimes stopped before the hotel itself.
-Near at hand, my mother saw &#8220;The ghastly advertisement
-of an agency for embalming and forwarding
-the bodies of those who had fallen in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>
-fight or who had perished by fever.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> In the
-vicinity of this establishment was the office of the
-New York <i>Herald</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Governor Andrew and Dr. Howe were busy with
-their official duties; indeed, the former was under
-such a tremendous pressure of work and care
-that he died soon after the close of the war.
-The latter &#8220;carried his restless energy and indomitable
-will from camp to hospital, from battle-field
-to bureau.&#8221; His reports and letters show
-how deeply he was troubled by the lack of proper
-sanitation among the troops.</p>
-
-<p>My mother again came in touch with the Army,
-visiting the camps and hospitals in the company
-of Mr. Clarke and the Rev. William Henry Channing.
-It need hardly be said that these excursions
-were made in no spirit of idle curiosity.</p>
-
-<p>In ordinary times she would not look at a cut
-finger if she could help it. I remember her telling
-us of one dreadful woman who asked to be shown
-the worst wound in the hospital. As a result this
-morbid person was so overcome with the horror
-of it that the surgeon was obliged to leave his
-patient and attend to the visitor, while she went
-from one fainting fit into another!</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>Up to this time my mother had never spoken in
-public. It was from the Army of the Potomac
-that she first received the inspiration to do so.
-In company with her party of friends she had made
-&#8220;a reconnoitering expedition,&#8221; visiting, among
-other places, the headquarters of Col. William B.
-Greene, of the First Massachusetts Heavy Artillery.
-The colonel, who was an old friend, warmly welcomed
-his visitors. Soon he said to my mother,
-&#8220;Mrs. Howe, you must speak to my men.&#8221;
-What did he see in her face that prompted him to
-make such a startling request?</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>It must be remembered that in 1861 the women
-of our country were, with some notable exceptions,
-entirely unaccustomed to speaking in public. A
-few suffragists and anti-slavery leaders addressed
-audiences, but my mother had not at this time
-joined their ranks.</p>
-
-<p>Yet she doubtless then possessed, although
-she did not know it, the power of thus expressing
-herself. Colonel Greene must have read
-in her face something of the emotion which
-poured itself out in the &#8220;Battle Hymn.&#8221; He
-must have known, too, that she had already
-written stirring verses. So he not only asked, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>
-insisted that she should address the men under
-his command.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Feeling my utter inability to do this, I ran
-away and tried to hide myself in one of the
-hospital tents. Colonel Greene twice found me
-and brought me back to his piazza, where at last I
-stood and told as well as I could how glad I was
-to meet the brave defenders of our cause and how
-constantly they were in my thoughts.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p>
-
-<p>I fear there is no record of this, her maiden
-speech.</p>
-
-<p>Throughout her long life church-going was a
-comfort, one might almost say a delight, to her.
-During this visit to Washington, where the weeks
-brought so many sad sights, she had the pleasure
-of listening on Sunday to the Rev. William Henry
-Channing. Love of his native land induced him
-to leave his pulpit in England and to return to
-this country in her hour of darkness and danger.</p>
-
-<p>My mother tells us that this nephew of the great
-Dr. Channing was heir to the latter&#8217;s spiritual
-distinction and deeply stirred by enthusiasm in a
-noble cause. &#8220;On Sundays his voice rang out,
-clear and musical as a bell, within the walls of the
-Unitarian church&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>&mdash;her own church. Thus she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>
-listened both in Washington and in Boston, her
-home city, to men who were patriots as well as
-priests.</p>
-
-<p>As she tells the story, one sees how almost all the
-circumstances of her environment tended to promote
-her love of country and to stir the emotions
-of her deeply religious nature. It was by no
-accident that the national song which bears her
-name is a hymn. Written at that time and amid
-those surroundings, it could not have been anything
-else.</p>
-
-<p>Among her cherished memories of this visit was
-an interview with Abraham Lincoln, arranged for
-the party by Governor Andrew. &#8220;I remember
-well the sad expression of Mr. Lincoln&#8217;s deep blue
-eyes, the only feature of his face which could be
-called other than plain.... The President was
-laboring at this time under a terrible pressure of
-doubt and anxiety.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p>
-
-<p>The culminating event of her stay in Washington
-was the visit to the Army of the Potomac on
-the occasion of a review of troops. As the writing
-of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was the immediate result
-of the memorable experiences of that day, I
-shall defer their consideration till the next chapter.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>I have thus sketched briefly the train of events
-and experiences both before and during the Civil
-War which led up to the composition of this
-national hymn. The seed had lain germinating
-for years&mdash;at the last it sprang suddenly into
-being. My mother&#8217;s mind often worked in this
-way. It had a strongly philosophic tendency which
-made her think long and study deeply. But she
-possessed, also, the fervor of the poet. Her mental
-processes were often extremely rapid, especially
-under the stress of strong emotion. She
-herself thought the quick action of her mind was
-due to her red-haired temperament. The two
-opposing characteristics of her intellect, deliberation
-and speed, were perhaps the result of the
-mixed strains of her blood inherited from English
-and French ancestors.</p>
-
-<p>The student of her life will note a number of
-sudden inspirations, or visions, as we may call
-them. Before these we can usually trace a long
-period of meditation and reflection. Her peace
-crusade, her conversion to the cause of woman
-suffrage, her dream of a golden time when men
-and women should work together for the betterment
-of the world, were all of this description.</p>
-
-<p>The &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was the most notable of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>
-these inspirations. In her <i>Recollections of the
-Anti-Slavery Struggle</i> she ascribes its composition
-to two causes&mdash;the religion of humanity and the
-passion of patriotism. The former was a plant of
-slow growth. In her tribute to Theodore Parker,<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>
-she tells us how this developed under his preaching,
-and how he prepared his hearers for the war of
-blood and iron that soon followed.</p>
-
-<p>My mother had long cherished love for her
-country, but it burned more intensely when the
-war came, bursting into sudden flame after that
-memorable day with the soldiers.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;When the war broke out, the passion of
-patriotism lent its color to the religion of humanity
-in my own mind, as in many others, and a
-moment came in which I could say:</p>
-
-<p class="center">Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!</p>
-
-<p>&mdash;and the echo which my words awoke in many
-hearts made me sure that many other people
-had seen it also.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>
-<h2 class="nobreak">IV<br />
-
-
-<small>&#8220;THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC&#8221;</small></h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>&#8220;The crimson flower of battle blooms&#8221; in a single night&mdash;The vision
-in the gray morning twilight&mdash;It is written down in the half-darkness
-on her husband&#8217;s official paper of the U. S. Sanitary
-Commission&mdash;How it was published in the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>
-and the price paid for it&mdash;The John Brown air derived from a
-camp-meeting hymn&mdash;The simple story in her own words.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">OVER and over again, so many times that she
-lost count of them, was my mother asked to
-describe the circumstances under which she composed
-&#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic.&#8221;
-Fortunately she wrote them down, so that we are
-able to give &#8220;the simple story&#8221; in her own words.</p>
-
-<p>The following account is taken in part from her
-<i>Reminiscences</i> and in part from the leaflet printed
-in honor of her seventieth birthday, May 27, 1889,
-by the New England Woman&#8217;s Club. She was
-president of this association for about forty years:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I distinctly remember that a feeling of discouragement
-came over me as I drew near the city
-of Washington. I thought of the women of my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>
-acquaintance whose sons or husbands were fighting
-our great battle; the women themselves
-serving in the hospitals or busying themselves
-with the work of the Sanitary Commission. My
-husband, as already said, was beyond the age of
-military service, my eldest son but a stripling;
-my youngest was a child of not more than two
-years. I could not leave my nursery to follow the
-march of our armies, neither had I the practical
-deftness which the preparing and packing of sanitary
-stores demanded. Something seemed to
-say to me, &#8216;You would be glad to serve, but you
-cannot help any one; you have nothing to give,
-and there is nothing for you to do.&#8217; Yet, because
-of my sincere desire, a word was given me to say
-which did strengthen the hearts of those who
-fought in the field and of those who languished in
-prison.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;In the late autumn of the year 1861 I visited
-the national capital with my husband, Dr. Howe,
-and a party of friends, among whom were Governor
-and Mrs. Andrew, Mr. and Mrs. E. P. Whipple,
-and my dear pastor, Rev. James Freeman Clarke.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The journey was one of vivid, even romantic,
-interest. We were about to see the grim
-Demon of War face to face, and long before we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>
-reached the city his presence made itself felt in the
-blaze of fires along the road, where sat or stood
-our pickets, guarding the road on which we traveled.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;One day we drove out to attend a review of
-troops, appointed to take place at some distance
-from the city. In the carriage with me were
-James Freeman Clarke and Mr. and Mrs. Whipple.
-The day was fine, and everything promised well,
-but a sudden surprise on the part of the enemy
-interrupted the proceedings before they were well
-begun. A small body of our men had been surrounded
-and cut off from their companions, re-enforcements
-were sent to their assistance, and
-the expected pageant was necessarily given up.
-The troops who were to have taken part in it were
-ordered back to their quarters, and we also turned
-our horses&#8217; heads homeward.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;For a long distance the foot soldiers nearly
-filled the road. They were before and behind,
-and we were obliged to drive very slowly. We
-presently began to sing some of the well-known
-songs of the war, and among them:</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8216;John Brown&#8217;s body lies a-moldering in the grave.&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>This seemed to please the soldiers, who cried,
-&#8216;Good for you,&#8217; and themselves took up the strain.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>
-Mr. Clarke said to me, &#8216;You ought to write some
-new words to that tune.&#8217; I replied that I had
-often wished to do so.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;In spite of the excitement of the day I went to
-bed and slept as usual, but awoke next morning in
-the gray of the early dawn, and to my astonishment
-found that the wished-for lines were arranging
-themselves in my brain. I lay quite still
-until the last verse had completed itself in my
-thoughts, then hastily arose, saying to myself, &#8216;I
-shall lose this if I don&#8217;t write it down immediately.&#8217;
-I searched for a sheet of paper and an old stump
-of a pen which I had had the night before and
-began to scrawl the lines almost without looking,
-as I had learned to do by often scratching down
-verses in the darkened room where my little children
-were sleeping. Having completed this, I
-lay down again and fell asleep, but not without
-feeling that something of importance had happened
-to me.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>It will be noted that the first draft of the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was written on the back of a
-sheet of the letter-paper of the Sanitary Commission
-on which her husband was then serving.
-Mr. A. J. Bloor, the assistant secretary of that
-body, has called attention to this. His account<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>
-of the eventful day is given at the close of this
-chapter.</p>
-
-<p>My mother gave the original draft of the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn&#8221; to her friend, Mrs. Edwin P. Whipple,
-&#8220;who begged it of me, years ago.&#8221; Hence below
-the letter-heading:</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Sanitary Commission, Washington, D. C.<br />
-Treasury Building</span><br />
-
-<span class="indentleft"><i>1861</i></span></p>
-
-<p>we find the inscription</p>
-
-<p class="center">WILLARD&#8217;S HOTEL<br />
-<span class="smcap">Julia W. Howe<br />
-to<br />
-Charlotte B. Whipple</span></p>
-
-<p>The draft remained for many years in the possession
-of the latter, until it was sent to Messrs.
-Houghton &amp; Mifflin, in order to have a facsimile
-made for the <i>Reminiscences</i>.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. and Mrs. Whipple were among the familiar
-friends of our household in those days. The
-former achieved brilliant successes both as a writer
-and as a lecturer. He was greatly interested in
-the anti-slavery agitation; &#8220;His eloquent voice
-was raised more than once in the cause of human<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>
-freedom.&#8221; The younger members of our family
-remember him best for his ready and delightful
-wit. The fact that he was decidedly homely
-seemed to give additional point to his funny sayings.
-Mrs. Whipple was as handsome as her
-husband was plain&mdash;sweet-tempered and sympathetic,
-yet not wanting in firmness.</p>
-
-<p>Before publishing the poem the author made
-a number of changes, all of which are, as I think,
-improvements. The last verse, which is an anticlimax,
-was cut out altogether.</p>
-
-<p>We find from her letters that she hesitated to
-allow the publication of the original draft of the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> because it contained this final
-verse. She did not consider it equal to the rest of
-the poem.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> After consulting other literary people,
-in her usual painstaking way, she decided to have
-the first draft published.<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> It will be noted that
-in the first verse &#8220;vintage&#8221; has been substituted
-for &#8220;wine press.&#8221; The first line of the third verse
-read originally,</p>
-
-<p class="center">I have read a burning gospel writ in fiery rows of steel.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>The later version,</p>
-
-<p class="center">I have read a fiery gospel, writ in burnished rows of steel:</p>
-
-<p>brings out more clearly the image of the long lines
-of bayonets as they glittered in her sight on that
-autumn afternoon. In the fourth verse the second
-line was somewhat vague in the first draft,</p>
-
-<p class="center">He has waked the earth&#8217;s dull bosom with a high ecstatic beat,</p>
-
-<p>The allusion was probably to the marching feet
-of the armed multitude. The new version,</p>
-
-<p class="center">He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:</p>
-
-<p>is more direct and simple, hence accords better
-with the deeply religious tone of the poem.</p>
-
-<p>In the last stanza,</p>
-
-<p class="center">In the whiteness of the lilies he was born across the sea,</p>
-
-<p>now reads,</p>
-
-<p class="center">In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,</p>
-
-<p>A number of people have asked the meaning
-of this line. The allusion is evidently to the lilies
-carried by the angel, in pictures of the annunciation
-to the Virgin, these flowers being the emblem of
-purity.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>The original version of the second line read,</p>
-
-<p class="center">With a glory in his bosom that shines out on you and me,</p>
-
-<p>The present words,</p>
-
-<p class="center">Transfigures you and me,</p>
-
-<p>give us a clearer and more beautiful image. The
-passion of the poem seems, indeed, to lift on high
-and glorify our poor humanity.</p>
-
-<p>It is interesting to note that my mother associated
-with her husband the line,</p>
-
-<p class="center"><i>He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat</i>;</p>
-
-<p>Not long before her death, new buildings were
-erected at Watertown, Massachusetts, for the
-Perkins Institution for the Blind, founded and
-administered for more than forty years by Dr.
-Howe. His son-in-law, Michael Anagnos, ably
-continued the work during thirty more years.</p>
-
-<p>When we were talking about a suitable inscription
-in memory of the latter, I suggested to my
-mother the use of this line. The answer was,
-&#8220;<i>No, that is for your father.</i>&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The original draft of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; is dated
-November, 1861; it was published in the <i>Atlantic
-Monthly</i> for February, 1862. The verses were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>
-printed on the first page, being thus given the
-place of honor. According to the custom of that
-day, no name was signed to them. James T.
-Fields was then editor of the magazine. My
-mother consulted him with regard to a name for
-the poem. It was he, as I think, who christened
-it &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic.&#8221; The
-price paid for it was five dollars. But the true
-price of it was a very different thing, not to be
-computed in terms of money. It brought its
-author name and fame throughout the civilized
-world, in addition to the love and honor of her
-countrymen. As she grew older and the spiritual
-beauty of her life and thought shone out more and
-more clearly, the affection in which she was held
-deepened into something akin to veneration.</p>
-
-<p>The &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; soon found its way from the
-pages of the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i> into the newspapers,
-thence to army hymn-books and broadsides. It
-has been printed over and over again, in a great
-variety of forms, sometimes with the picture of the
-author, as in the Perry prints. A white silk handkerchief
-now in my possession bears the line,</p>
-
-<p class="center">Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord</p>
-
-<p>worked in red embroidery silk.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>My mother was called upon to copy the poem
-times without number. While she was very willing
-to write a line or even, upon occasion, a verse or two,
-she objected very decidedly, especially in her later
-years, to copying the whole poem. Always responsive
-to the requests of the autograph fiend,
-she felt that so much should not be asked of her.
-For it naturally took time and trouble to make the
-fair copy that came up to her standard. It was
-with some difficulty that I persuaded her to send
-a promised copy to Edmund Clarence Stedman,
-for his collection.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;But mamma, you <i>said</i> you would write it out
-for him.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>With a roguish twinkle, she replied, &#8220;Yes, but
-I did not say <i>when</i>.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>However, the verses were duly executed and
-sent to the banker-poet.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221; has been
-translated into Spanish, Italian, Armenian, and
-doubtless other languages. New tunes have been
-composed for it, but they have failed of acceptance.
-My mother dearly loved music and was a
-trained musician, hence her choice of a tune was no
-haphazard selection. She wrote her poem to the
-&#8220;John Brown&#8221; air and they cannot be divorced.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>I have been so fortunate as to secure from
-Franklin B. Sanborn an account of the origin of
-the words and music of the &#8220;John Brown&#8221; song.
-Mr. Sanborn, biographer of Thoreau, John Brown,
-and others, is the last survivor of the brilliant
-group of writers belonging to the golden age of
-New England literature.</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Concord, Mass.</span>, <i>1916</i>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Hall</span>&mdash;I investigated quite thoroughly the
-air to which the original John Brown folk song was set;...</p>
-
-<p>I happened to be in Boston the day that Fletcher
-Webster&#8217;s regiment (the 12th Mass. Volunteers) came up
-from Fort Warren, landed on Long Wharf, and marched
-up State Street past the old State House, on their way to
-take the train for the Front, in the summer of 1861. As
-they came along, a quartette, of which Capt. Howard Jenkins,
-then a sergeant in this regiment, was a tenor voice, was
-singing something sonorous, which I had never heard. I
-asked my college friend Jacobsen, of Baltimore, who stood
-near me, &#8220;What are they singing?&#8221; He replied, &#8220;That boy
-on the sidewalk is selling copies.&#8221; I approached him and
-bought a handbill which, without the music, contained the
-rude words of the John Brown song, which I then heard
-for the first time, but listened to a thousand times afterward
-during the progress of the emancipating Civil War&mdash;before
-they were superseded by Mrs. Howe&#8217;s inspired lines, which
-now take their place almost everywhere.</p>
-
-<p>The chorus was borne by the marching soldiers, who had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>
-practised it in their drills at the Fort; indeed, it had been
-adapted from a camp-meeting hymn to a marching song,
-for which it is admirably fitted, by the bandmaster of Col.
-Webster&#8217;s regiment, and afterward revised by Dodworth&#8217;s
-military band, then the best in the country. It was this
-thrilling music, with its resounding religious chorus, which
-Mrs. Howe, in company with our Massachusetts Governor
-Andrew, heard near the Potomac, the next November, in
-the evening camps that encircled Washington.</p>
-
-<p class="center">Yours ever,</p>
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">F. B. Sanborn</span>.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>The following account of Mrs. Howe&#8217;s visit to
-Washington and of the circumstances connected
-with the writing of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was
-written by Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of
-the U. S. Sanitary Commission:</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;JULIA WARD HOWE</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;It was the writer&#8217;s privilege to be introduced
-early in the Civil War to Julia Ward Howe, the
-author of &#8216;The Battle Hymn of the Republic,&#8217;
-and now, through the fullness of her days, the
-dean of American literature, though recognized
-long ago as having employed her high gift of
-utterance not merely as the magnet to attract to
-herself an advantageous celebrity, but paramountly
-as the instrument for the righting of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
-wrong and the amelioration of the current conditions
-of humanity.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I was presented to Mrs. Howe by her husband,
-Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, a companion of Lord
-Byron in aiding the Greeks to throw off the yoke
-of the Turks, and the philanthropist who opened
-the gates of hope to the famous Laura Bridgman,
-born blind, deaf, and dumb. Dr. Howe invented
-various processes by which he rescued her from
-her living tomb, as he subsequently did others
-born to similar deprivations, and he was careful
-to leave on record such exhaustive and clear statements
-as to his methods that, after his decease, the
-track was well illumined wherein later any well-doer
-for other victims in like case might open to
-them, through their single physical sense of touch,
-the doors leading to all earthly knowledge so far
-stored in letters....</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Dr. Howe, on the outbreak of the Civil War,
-consented to serve as a member of the U. S.
-Sanitary Commission, a volunteer organization
-of influential Union men, springing from a central
-association in New York City for the relief of the
-forces serving in the war, and consisting of a few
-Union ladies, one of whom, Miss Louisa Lee
-Schuyler, suggested the formation of a similar but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>
-larger and wider-spread body of men, representing
-the Union sentiment of the whole North, into
-which her own society should be merged as one of&mdash;so
-it turned out&mdash;many branches.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Such a body was accordingly enrolled and,
-with Dr. Bellows, a prominent Unitarian clergyman
-of the day, as its president, was appointed a
-commission, by President Lincoln, as a <i>quasi</i>
-Bureau of the War Department, to complement
-the appliances and work of the Government&#8217;s
-Medical Bureau and Commissariat, which, at the
-sudden outbreak of the war, were very deficient.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Of this commission I was the assistant secretary,
-with headquarters at its central office in
-Washington.... On the occasion of General
-McClellan&#8217;s first great review of the Army of the
-Potomac&mdash;numbering at that time about seventy
-thousand men&mdash;at Upton&#8217;s Hill, in Virginia, not
-far from the enemy&#8217;s lines, Dr. Howe asked me to
-accompany him thither on horseback to see it,
-which I did. Mrs. Howe had preceded us, with
-several friends, by carriage, and it was there, in
-the midst of the blare and glitter and bedizened
-simulacra of actual and abhorrent warfare, that
-he did me the honor of presenting me to his wife,
-then known, outside her private circle, only as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>
-the author of a book of charming lyrical essays;
-but for years since recognized, and doubtless, in
-the future, will be adjudged, the inspired creator
-of a war song which for rapt outlook, reverent
-mysticism, and stateliness of expression, as well
-as for more widely appreciated patriotic ardor,
-has more claim, in my estimation, to be styled a
-hymn than not a few that swell the pages of some
-of our hymnals. I have always thought it an
-honor even for the Sanitary Commission with all
-its noble work of help to the nation in its straits,
-and of mercy to the suffering, that Julia Ward
-Howe&#8217;s &#8216;Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8217; should
-have been written on paper headed &#8216;U. S. Sanitary
-Commission,&#8217; as may be seen by a facsimile
-of it in her delightful volume of reminiscences.
-It seems a pity that Mrs. Howe, an accomplished
-musical composer in private, as well as a poet in
-public, should not herself have set the air for her
-own words in that famous utterance of insight,
-enthusiasm, and prophecy.&#8221;</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">V<br />
-
-
-<small>THE ARMY TAKES IT UP</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>Gloom in Libby Prison, July 6, 1863&mdash;The victory of Gettysburg&mdash;Chaplain
-McCabe sings &#8220;Mine eyes have seen the glory of the
-coming of the Lord&#8221;&mdash;Five hundred voices take up the chorus&mdash;The
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; at the national capital&mdash;The great throng
-shout, sing, and weep&mdash;Abraham Lincoln listens with a strange
-glory on his face&mdash;The army takes up the song.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">&#8220;THE Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221; was inspired
-by the tremendous issues of the war,
-as they were brought vividly to the poet&#8217;s mind
-by the sight of the Union Army.</p>
-
-<p>My mother had seen all that she describes&mdash;she
-had been a part of the great procession of &#8220;burnished
-rows of steel&#8221; when her carriage was surrounded
-by the Army. She had heard the soldiers
-singing:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">&#8220;John Brown&#8217;s body lies a-moldering in the grave,</div>
-<div class="indent2">His soul is marching on.&#8221;</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Old John Brown who had</p>
-
-<p class="center">Died to make men free,</p>
-
-<p>whose spirit the army knew to be with them!</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>All this sank deeply into the heart of the poet.
-The soul of the Army took possession of her.
-The song which she wrote down in the gray
-twilight of that autumn morning voiced the
-highest aspirations of the soldiers, of the whole
-people. Hence, when the armies of freedom heard
-it, they at once hailed it as their own. My mother
-writes in her <i>Reminiscences</i>:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The poem, which was soon after published
-in the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, was somewhat praised on
-its appearance, but the vicissitudes of the war
-so engrossed public attention that small heed was
-taken of literary matters. I knew, and was content
-to know, that the poem soon found its way
-to the camps, as I heard from time to time of its
-being sung in chorus by the soldiers.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>This was the beginning, but the interest increased
-as the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; became more and
-more widely known, until it grew to be one of the
-leading lyrics of the war. It was &#8220;sung, chanted,
-recited, and used in exhortation and prayer on
-the eve of battle.&#8221; &#8220;It was the word of the
-hour, and the Union armies marched to its
-swing.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The &#8220;singing chaplain&#8221;&mdash;Rev. Charles Cardwell
-McCabe of the 122d Ohio Regiment of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>
-Volunteers, did much to popularize this war
-lyric. Reading it in the <i>Atlantic Monthly</i>, he was
-so charmed with the lines that he committed
-them to memory before arising from his chair. A
-year or so later, while attending the wounded men
-of his regiment, after the battle of Winchester
-(June, 1863), he was taken prisoner and carried
-to Libby Prison. Here he was a living benediction
-to the prisoners. Deeply religious by nature
-and blest with a cheerful, happy disposition, he
-kept up the spirits of his companions, ministering
-alike to their bodily and spiritual needs. Thus he
-begged three bath-tubs for them, an inestimable
-treasure, even though these had to serve the needs
-of six hundred men. Books, too, he procured for
-them, for the prisoners at this time comprised a
-notable company of men&mdash;doctors, teachers, editors,
-merchants, lawyers. &#8220;We bought books
-when we needed bread,&#8221; the chaplain tells us.</p>
-
-<p>With the music of his wonderful voice he was
-wont to dispel the gloom that often settled upon
-the inmates of the prison. Many stories are told
-of its power, pathos, and magnetism. Whenever
-the dwellers in old Libby felt depression settling
-upon their spirits they would call out, &#8220;Chaplain,
-sing us a song.&#8221; Then &#8220;The heavy load<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>
-that oppressed us all seemed as by magic to be
-lifted.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p><a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>July 6, 1863, was a dark day for the prisoners.
-They were required to cast lots for the selection
-of two captains who were to be executed. These
-officers were taken to the dungeon below and told
-to prepare for death. Then the remaining men
-huddled together discussing the situation. The
-Confederate forces were marching north, and a
-terrible battle had been fought. Grant was striving
-to capture Vicksburg, the key to the Mississippi,
-with what result they did not know. The
-Richmond newspapers brought tidings of disaster
-to the Union armies. In startling head-lines the
-prisoners read: &#8220;Meade defeated at Gettysburg.&#8221;
-&#8220;The Northern Army fleeing to the mountains.&#8221;
-&#8220;Grant repulsed at Vicksburg.&#8221; &#8220;The campaign
-closed in disaster.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>A pall deeper and darker than death settled
-upon the Union prisoners. The poor, emaciated
-fellows broke down and cried like babies. They
-lost all hope. &#8220;We had not enough strength left
-to curse God and die,&#8221; as one of them said later.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;By and by &#8216;Old Ben,&#8217; a negro servant, slipped<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>
-in among them under pretense of doing some work
-about the prison; concealed under his coat was
-a later edition of the paper, on which the ink
-was scarcely dry. He looked around upon the
-prostrate host, and called out, &#8216;Great news in de
-papers.&#8217; If you have never seen a resurrection,
-you could not tell what happened. We sprang to
-our feet and snatched the papers from his hands.
-Some one struck a light and held aloft a dim
-candle. By its light we read these head-lines:</p>
-
-<p>&#8216;Lee is defeated! His pontoons are swept
-away! The Potomac is over its banks! The
-whole North is up in arms and sweeping down
-upon him!&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The revulsion of feeling was almost too great to
-endure. The boys went crazy with joy. They
-saw the beginning of the end.&#8221; Chaplain McCabe
-sprang upon a box and began to sing:</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord&mdash;&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>and the five hundred voices sang the chorus,
-&#8220;Glory, Glory, Hallelujah,&#8221; as men never sang
-before. The old negro rolled upon the floor in
-spasms of joy. I must not forget to add that the
-two captains were <i>not</i> executed, after all.</p>
-
-<p>Chaplain McCabe remained in Libby Prison<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>
-until October, 1863, when an attack of typhoid
-fever nearly cost him his life. As soon as his
-health would permit, he resumed his labors in behalf
-of the Army, this time as a delegate of the
-United States Christian Commission. His deep
-religious feeling, of which patriotism was an integral
-part, had a great influence among the
-soldiers. Wherever he went he took the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn&#8221; with him. &#8220;He sang it to the soldiers
-in camp and field and hospital; he sang it in school-houses
-and churches; he sang it at camp-meetings,
-political gatherings, and the Christian Commission
-assemblies, and all the Northland took it up.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p>
-
-<p>As he wrote the author:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I have sung it a thousand times since and
-shall continue to sing it as long as I live. No
-hymn has ever stirred the nation&#8217;s heart like &#8216;The
-Battle Hymn of the Republic.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>I must not forget to say that the singing chaplain
-made excellent use of this war lyric to raise
-funds for the work among the soldiers. With
-his matchless voice he sang thousands of dollars
-out of the people&#8217;s pockets into the treasury of
-the Christian Commission.</p>
-
-<p>On February 2, 1864, a meeting in the interests<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>
-of the Christian Commission was held in the hall
-of the House of Representatives at Washington.
-Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President of the United
-States, presided. Abraham Lincoln was present,
-and an immense audience filled the hall. Various
-noted men spoke; then Chaplain McCabe made
-a short speech and, &#8220;by request,&#8221; sang the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn.&#8221; The effect on the great throng was
-magical. &#8220;Men and women sprang to their feet
-and wept and shouted and sang, as the chaplain
-led them in that glorious &#8216;Battle Hymn&#8217;; they
-saw Abraham Lincoln&#8217;s tear-stained face light up
-with a strange glory as he cried out, &#8216;<i>Sing it
-again!</i>&#8217; and McCabe and all the multitude sang
-it again.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
-
-<p>Doubtless many Grand Army posts have
-among their records stories of the inspiring influence
-of this song in times of trouble or danger.
-Such an anecdote was related at the Western home
-of Mrs. Caroline M. Severance, where Acker Post
-had been invited to meet my mother:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Capt. Isaac Mahan affectingly described a
-certain march on a winter midnight through
-eastern Tennessee. The troops had been for days
-without enough clothing, without enough food.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>
-They were cold and wet that stormy night, hungry,
-weary, discouraged, morose. But some one
-soldier began, in courageous tones, to sing &#8216;Mine
-eyes have seen&mdash;&#8217; Before the phrase was finished
-a hundred more voices were heard about the hopeful
-singer. Another hundred more distant and
-then another followed until, far to the front and
-away to the rear, above the splashing tramp of
-the army through the mud, above the rattle of
-the horsemen, the rumble of the guns, the creaking
-of the wagons, and the shouts of the drivers, there
-echoed, louder and softer, as the rain and wind-gusts
-varied, the cheerful, dauntless invocation
-of the &#8216;Battle Hymn.&#8217; It was heard as if a
-heavenly ally were descending with a song of
-succor, and thereafter the wet, aching marchers
-thought less that night of their wretched selves,
-thought more of their cause, their families, their
-country.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Mr. A. J. Bloor, assistant secretary of the
-United States Sanitary Commission, has given us
-some vivid pictures of the soldiers as they sang
-the hymn:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Time and again, around the camp-fires scattered
-at night over some open field, when the
-Army of the Potomac&mdash;or a portion of it&mdash;was on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>
-the march, have I heard the &#8216;Battle Hymn of
-the Republic&#8217;&mdash;generally, however, the first verse
-only, but in endless repetition&mdash;sung in unison by
-hundreds of voices&mdash;occasions more impressive
-than that of any oratorio sung by any musical
-troupe in some great assembly-room. And I remember
-how, one night in the small hours, returning
-to Washington from the front, by Government
-steamer up the Potomac, with a party of
-&#8216;San. Com.&#8217; colleagues and Army officers, mostly
-surgeons, we found our horses awaiting us at the
-Seventh Street dock; and how, mounting them,
-we galloped all the long distance to our quarters,
-singing the &#8216;Battle Hymn&#8217;&mdash;this time the whole
-of it&mdash;at the top of our voices.&#8221;</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">VI<br />
-
-
-<small>NOTABLE OCCASIONS WHERE IT HAS BEEN SUNG</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>By great crowds in the street after Union victories in the Civil War&mdash;On
-the downfall of Boss Croker&mdash;At Memorial Day celebrations
-from the Atlantic to the Pacific&mdash;At the Chicago convention
-where the General Federation of Women&#8217;s Clubs indorsed
-woman suffrage&mdash;At Brown University and Smith College when
-Mrs. Howe received the degree of LL.D.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">&#8220;THE Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221; has been
-sung and recited thousands of times, by
-all sorts of people under widely varying circumstances,
-yet the key-note of it is most fitly struck
-when men and women are lifted out of themselves
-by the power of strong emotion. In times of
-danger and of thanksgiving the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221;
-is now, as it was in the &#8217;sixties, the fitting vehicle
-for the expression of national feeling. Indeed, it
-has been so used in other countries as well as in
-our own. In my mother&#8217;s journal the entry often
-occurs, &#8220;They sang my &#8216;Battle Hymn.&#8217;&#8221; Usually
-she makes no comment.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>It would, of course, be impossible and it might
-be tedious to rehearse all the notable occasions
-where this national song has been given. Yet
-many of them have been so full of interest as to
-demand a place in the story of the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn.&#8221; The record would be incomplete without
-them. I give a few which will serve as
-samples.</p>
-
-<p>In New York City there was a good deal of disloyal
-sentiment during the Civil War. Here the
-draft riots took place in the summer of 1863, when
-the guns from the battle of Gettysburg were rushed
-to the metropolis. Here the cannon, their wheels
-still deeply incrusted with mud, were drawn up,
-a grim reminder to the rioters of the actual
-meaning of war. To these the sight of a uniform
-was odious. My husband, David Prescott Hall,
-then a young lad returning from a summer camping
-trip, was chased through the streets by some
-excited individuals. As he had a knapsack on his
-back, they mistook him for a soldier.</p>
-
-<p>It need scarcely be said that New York City
-had also a large loyal population. In the early
-days of the war men suspected of secession sympathies
-were visited by deputations of citizens who
-insisted upon their displaying the flag. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
-found it wiser to do so. After one of the final
-victories of the war, perhaps the taking of Richmond,
-a great crowd gathered before the bulletin-board
-of a New York newspaper. Some one
-started to sing the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; and the
-whole mass of people took it up, &#8220;<i>Glory, Glory,
-Hallelujah!</i>&#8221; What else could so well have expressed
-the joy and thanksgiving of our people,
-weary of four long years of fratricidal war! My
-husband, who was present, described the scene as
-being most impressive.</p>
-
-<p>F. B. Sanborn in his <i>Early History of Kansas</i>
-tells us an interesting story of the singing of the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; on a very different occasion.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;People were gathered together to hear a sermon
-from Col. James Montgomery, a man of undaunted
-courage and a veteran both of the Civil
-War and of the Kansas struggle. The place was
-Trading Post, where, during the Kansas troubles,
-some fourteen years before this time, a massacre
-had been perpetrated. Among his audience were
-survivors and relatives of the slain. There were
-present, too, a score of men who had &#8216;shouted
-amen when their renowned leader registered his
-vow that the blood of the dead and the tears of
-the widows and children should not be shed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>
-vain.&#8217; Montgomery was of the indomitable
-Scotch-Irish blood, tall and slender, with a shaggy
-shock of long black hair and even shaggier whiskers.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;As he arose to begin the services and fixed his
-gaze on the familiar faces of those who had suffered
-and whose sufferings he had so fully avenged,
-a gleam of joy and satisfaction seemed to blaze
-from his penetrating eyes and thrilled the audience
-into perfect accord. He hesitated a moment,
-and then requested all to arise and sing
-&#8216;The Battle Hymn of the Republic.&#8217; The noble
-thought of that grand hymn stirred the crowd to
-the deepest depths of feeling. The text was in
-keeping with the occasion:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;&#8216;Be not deceived. God is not mocked, for
-whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
-reap.&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The discourse was powerful and impressive.
-He reminded his hearers of his prophecy that the
-remaining years of slavery could be numbered
-on the fingers of one hand, and that he should
-lead a host of negro soldiers, arrayed in the
-national uniform, in the redemption of the country
-from the curse of slavery. A few days afterward
-the old Covenanter was dead!&#8221;</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>To the Grand Army of the Republic Julia Ward
-Howe was especially dear. On Memorial Day a
-detachment always visits and decorates her grave,
-with simple but impressive ceremonies. Upon
-that of her husband, which lies next to hers, the
-Greeks always lay flowers. This festival of remembrance
-comes only three days after my
-mother&#8217;s birthday, May 27th. In 1899, when she
-was eighty years of age, the ceremonies in Boston
-were of unusual interest.</p>
-
-<p>The Grand Army of the Republic held a celebration
-in Boston Theater, Major-General Joseph
-Wheeler, formerly an officer in the Confederate
-Army, having been invited to deliver the address.
-Mrs. Howe rode thither in an open carriage with
-the general&#8217;s two daughters, &#8220;<i>very</i> pleasant girls.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The Philadelphia <i>Press</i> thus describes the occasion:</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;BOSTON WARMED UP</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The major has just returned from Boston,
-where he was present at the Memorial Day
-services held in Boston Theater.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;It was the real thing. I never imagined possible
-such a genuine sweeping emotion as when
-that audience began to sing the &#8216;Battle Hymn.&#8217;
-If Boston was cold, it was thawed by the demonstration<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>
-on Tuesday. Myron W. Whitney started
-to sing. He bowed to a box, in which we first
-recognized Mrs. Howe, sitting with the Misses
-Wheeler. You should have heard the yell. We
-could see the splendid white head trembling;
-then her voice joined in, as Whitney sang, &#8216;In
-the beauty of the lilies,&#8217; and by the time he had
-reached the words, &#8216;As He died to make men
-holy, let us die to make men free,&#8217; the whole
-vast audience was on its feet, sobbing and singing
-at the top of its thousands of lungs. If volunteers
-were really needed for the Philippines, McKinley
-could have had us all right there.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>This was in her adopted city of Boston, where
-she had lived for more than half a century. The
-Grand Army men of California gave her a similar
-reception on Memorial Day, 1888.</p>
-
-<p>We quote extracts from the San Francisco papers
-describing it:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The Grand Opera House never contained a
-larger audience. Not only were all the chairs
-taken up but every inch of standing-room was pre-empted.
-There were many persons who could not
-gain an entrance.... Mr. Dibble next called the
-attention of the audience to the fact that Mrs.
-Julia Ward Howe, the author of &#8216;The Battle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>
-Hymn of the Republic,&#8217; was among the guests of
-the evening.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;At this juncture an enthusiastic gentleman in
-one of the front seats sprang up and called for
-three cheers for Mrs. Howe. They were given
-with a vim, Mrs. Howe acknowledging the compliment
-by rising and bowing.... The next event
-upon the program was the singing of &#8216;The
-Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8217; by J. C. Hughes.
-The singing was preceded by a scene rarely witnessed
-and which was not on the printed program.
-General Salomon introduced Mrs. Howe
-to the audience in an appreciative speech.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;A beautiful floral piece was then presented to
-Mrs. Howe, which she acknowledged in fitting
-terms, while the audience gave three cheers and
-a tiger for the author of &#8216;The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic.&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Mrs. Howe advanced to the footlights, beaming
-with pleasure. She then said:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;&#8216;My dear friends, I cannot, with my weak
-voice, reach this vast assemblage; but I will endeavor
-to have some of you hear me. I join in
-this celebration with thrilled and uplifted heart.
-I remember those camp-fires, I remember those
-dreadful battles. It was a question with us<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>
-women, &#8220;Will our men prevail? Until they do,
-they will not come home.&#8221; How we blessed them
-when they did; how we blessed them with our
-prayers when they were on the battle-field. Those
-were times of sorrow; this is one of joy. Let us
-thank God who has given us these victories.&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;As Mrs. Howe was about to resume her seat
-the audience rose <i>en masse</i>, and from the dress-circle
-to the upper gallery rung a round of cheers.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The audience remained standing while Mr.
-Hughes sang the stirring words of the hymn, and
-joined heartily in the chorus as by request. At
-the last chorus Mrs. Howe stepped forward and
-joined in the song, closing with a general flutter
-of handkerchiefs.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>My mother visited the Pacific coast twice in
-the latter years of her life, as her beloved sister,
-Mrs. Adolphe Mailliard, then lived there. She
-was received in a way that was very gratifying to
-her and her family.</p>
-
-<p>One of the most dearly prized privileges of a self-governing
-people is that of constant grumbling
-over the administration of affairs and of finding
-fault with our rulers&mdash;who, in the last analysis,
-are ourselves. In England men write to the <i>Times</i>;
-in America we write to many papers and we complain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>
-endlessly. This would evidently be impossible
-under a despotic Government, and it
-sometimes seems as if we indulged too freely in
-depreciating our own country and its institutions.
-Yet deep down in the hearts of our people is a love
-of our native land which flames forth brightly on
-great occasions. The country which produced the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; is not lacking in true patriotism.
-So long as our people use it to express their deepest
-emotions we need fear no serious treason to the
-Republic. The danger of our frequent fault-finding
-is that we thus allow our righteous indignation
-to evaporate in mere words.</p>
-
-<p>Supineness in politics, an indolence which permits
-unworthy men to usurp the reins of government,
-is one of our great sins as a nation. Yet the corrupt
-manipulator who goes too far meets an uprising
-of popular indignation which thoroughly
-surprises him. From the New York <i>Sun</i> we quote
-the story of such a day of retribution.</p>
-
-<p>At the downfall of Boss Croker &#8220;a throng
-gathered in Madison Square. Not even in a
-Presidential election in recent years have there
-been such innumerable hosts as gathered in front
-of the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Hoffman House
-last night to hear of the doom of Croker and his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>
-cronies. Cheer upon cheer ascended when the
-mighty army read that Low was far ahead and
-would win in the great battle.&#8221; Some one struck
-up the &#8220;Battle Hymn.&#8221; &#8220;All over the square
-were heard the thousands singing this great hymn....
-There has not been such a scene in New York
-City since war days.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Among the notable occasions we must certainly
-count the unveiling of the Shaw Monument.
-Here the art of St.-Gaudens has preserved in immemorial
-stone the story of Robert Gould Shaw
-and his colored soldiers, the heroes of Fort Wagner.
-The monument stands just within old Boston
-Common, facing the State House. The ceremonies
-of dedication included a procession and a
-meeting in Music Hall, where Prof. William James
-and Booker Washington made the principal addresses,
-and the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was sung.</p>
-
-<p>My mother is best known as the author of the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn.&#8221; Soon after the war she began her
-efforts in behalf of the woman&#8217;s cause, which
-eventually won for her the great affection of her
-countrywomen as well as a reputation extending
-to foreign shores. She was deeply interested both
-in the club and in the suffrage movement. She
-lived to see the full flowering of the former and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>
-partial success of the latter. Despite the many
-weary trials and delays she never lost faith in the
-ultimate victory of the suffrage cause. &#8220;I shall live
-to see women win the franchise in New York State,&#8221;
-she declared, not many years before her death.</p>
-
-<p>In the early days of the club movement my
-mother, like most of her fellow-suffragists, thought
-it best not to mingle the two issues. While the
-more advanced thinkers among the club women
-believed in the enfranchisement of their sex, the
-majority did not.</p>
-
-<p>At last the two movements&mdash;like two rapidly
-flowing streams that have long been drawing
-nearer together&mdash;joined in one mighty river. I
-have often wished my mother could have lived to
-see that wonderful day at Chicago when the
-General Federation of Women&#8217;s Clubs&mdash;an association
-comprising more than one and a half
-million women&mdash;declared themselves, amid cheers
-and tears, in favor of votes for women. Every
-one was deeply moved; the delegates embraced
-one another, and the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was sung&mdash;a
-hymn this time of joyous thanksgiving for the
-victory obtained, yet of solemn dedication, too, to
-the hard labor still to be performed before the
-good fight could be fully won.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>My mother describes one occasion where the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was given in dumb show before
-the Association for the Advancement of Women.
-She was very much attached to this pioneer society,
-of which she was the president during many
-years. The association held annual congresses in
-different parts of the United States, the proceedings
-eliciting much interest. When they were at
-X&mdash;&mdash; one of the members invited the society
-to visit a school for young girls of which she was
-the principal.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;After witnessing some interesting exercises we
-assemble in the large hall, where a novel entertainment
-has been provided for us. A band of
-twelve young ladies appear upon the platform.
-They wear the colors of &#8216;Old Glory,&#8217; but after a
-new fashion, four of them being arrayed from head
-to foot in red, four in blue, and four in white.
-While the &#8216;John Brown&#8217; tune is heard from the
-piano, they proceed to act in graceful dumb show
-the stanzas of my &#8216;Battle Hymn.&#8217; How they did
-it I cannot tell, but it was a most lovely performance.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
-
-<p>In the early days of the woman movement a
-hard struggle was necessary in order to secure for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>
-girls the advantages of the higher education. Into
-this my mother threw herself with her accustomed
-zeal. A lifelong student and lover of books, she
-ardently desired to secure for other women the advantages
-she herself so highly prized. Enjoying
-robust health, and accustomed to prolonged mental
-labor, she never doubted the capacity of her sex
-for serious study. So, despite the gloomy prognostications
-of learned doctors (all men), she and
-her fellow-suffragists persevered until the battle
-was won. Thus it was very fitting that the three
-institutions which bestowed honorary degrees
-upon her&mdash;Tufts College, Brown University, and
-Smith College&mdash;all counted women among their
-students. Her youngest daughter, Maud Howe
-Elliott, thus describes the scene at Providence:<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
-
-<p>&#8220;On June 16th (1909) Brown University, her
-husband&#8217;s <i>alma mater</i> and her grandfather&#8217;s,
-conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Laws....
-Her name was called last. With the deliberate
-step of age, she walked forward, wearing her
-son&#8217;s college gown over her white dress, his mortar-board
-cap over her lace veil. She seemed less
-moved than any person present; she could not see<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>
-what we saw, the tiny gallant figure bent with
-four score and ten years of study and hard labor.
-As she moved between the girl students who
-stood up to let her pass, she whispered: &#8216;How tall
-they are! It seems to me the girls are much taller
-than they used to be.&#8217; Did she realize how much
-shorter she was than she once had been? I think
-not. Then, her eyes sparkling with fun while all
-other eyes were wet, she shook her hard-earned
-diploma with a gay gesture in the faces of those
-girls, cast on them a keen glance that somehow
-was a challenge, &#8216;Catch up with me if you can!&#8217;&#8221;
-The band played the air of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221;
-and applause followed her as she went back to her
-seat.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;She had labored long for the higher education
-of women, suffered estrangement, borne ridicule
-for it&mdash;the sight of those girl graduates, starting
-on their life voyage equipped with a good education,
-was like a sudden realization of a lifelong
-dream, uplifted her, gave her strength for the
-fatigues of the day.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>A similar scene was enacted in October, 1910,
-shortly before her death, when Smith College conferred
-the same degree upon her.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Opposite the platform, as if hung in air, a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>
-curving gallery was filled with white-clad girls,
-some two thousand of them; as she entered they
-rose like a flock of doves, and with them the
-whole audience. They rose once more when her
-name was called, last in the list of those honored
-with degrees, and as she came forward, the organ
-pealed, and the great chorus of fresh young voices
-broke out with&mdash;</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;&#8216;Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;It was the last time.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p>
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>
-<h2 class="nobreak">VII<br />
-
-
-<small>HOW AND WHERE THE AUTHOR RECITED IT</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>The simplicity and deep earnestness of her manner&mdash;Her clear and
-musical voice which never grew old&mdash;How Susan B. Anthony
-&#8220;mixed up&#8221; two songs&mdash;Gladdened by the love and honor which
-it brought her, Mrs. Howe repeats the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; in all
-parts of the country before all sorts of audiences, small and great&mdash;Why
-its appeal to the human heart is universal.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">IT may be imagined that the heart of the woman
-who wrote the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; was greatly
-gladdened by the love and honor which it brought
-her. She enjoyed to the full the beautiful affection
-shown her by her countrymen and countrywomen,
-and, in my opinion, her happy and sympathetic
-relations with them prolonged her life.
-She was glad to live, despite the physical weakness
-of old age, because she knew that she was widely
-beloved and could still be of use. Her mind remained
-clear and brilliant to the very last.</p>
-
-<p>The honors paid her she received with the
-humility that dreads over-praise. In her journal
-she questions her worthiness to be made so much<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>
-of, and hopes to the end that she may be able to do
-something of value to mankind.</p>
-
-<p>The recital of her &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; gave so much
-pleasure that she was very willing to repeat it,
-under suitable circumstances. She was asked
-to do so at all times and seasons and in all sorts of
-places. People who requested her to recite her
-war lyric at the close of a lecture did not realize
-the fatigue that it entailed upon a person no longer
-young and already weary with speaking. Yet I
-doubt if she ever refused, when it was possible for
-her to comply with the request. Not long before
-her death, some ladies, calling upon her at her
-summer home near Newport, begged her to recite
-then and there the &#8220;Battle Hymn.&#8221; She was
-loth to do so, feeling the solemn words were not
-at all in keeping with the light and pleasant chat
-of a morning visit. As one of the callers was
-frankly an old lady, my mother at length consented.
-According to her custom when asked to
-recite under such circumstances, she withdrew for
-a few minutes before beginning.</p>
-
-<p>There are thousands of people now living, I suppose,
-who have heard the author&#8217;s recitation of
-the &#8220;Battle Hymn.&#8221; Yet because there are
-thousands who never did hear it, and because<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>
-these things slip so easily out of mind, it is well to
-give some description of it &#8220;<i>Lest we forget</i>.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>My mother repeated the verses of the hymn
-simply, yet with a solemnity that was all the more
-impressive because there was no effort at elocutionary
-or dramatic effect. Yet there was sufficient
-variety in the recitation to avoid any approach
-to monotony. Thus she repeated the lines</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;O be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet!&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>with uplifted hands, a downward glance at her
-feet, and voice slightly raised. Her distinct enunciation
-and the clear, musical tones of a voice that
-never grew old, made the words audible even in a
-large auditorium.</p>
-
-<p>Her deeply serious manner, corresponding so
-well as it did with the solemn, prophetic words of
-the &#8220;Battle Hymn,&#8221; made the recitation very
-impressive.</p>
-
-<p>We saw before us the woman who had been
-privileged to speak the word for the hour, in the
-dark days of her country&#8217;s history. It was like
-seeing some priestess of old delivering the sacred
-oracle to her people. Though the message was
-repeated so many times, it never lost its power to
-stir the souls of those who heard it.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>It should be said that the habit of speaking very
-carefully, my mother formed early in life. Having
-a brother who stammered, she was very anxious
-to avoid that defect of speech. The beauty of
-her voice was due to its careful training in the
-Italian school of singing in her youth. Doubtless
-the habit of public speaking also tended to preserve
-it.</p>
-
-<p>She occasionally repeated &#8220;The Flag,&#8221; a more
-dramatic and more personal poem than the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn.&#8221; Her rendering of it, accordingly, was
-more dramatic.</p>
-
-<p>On public occasions my mother was often introduced
-as &#8220;The author of &#8216;The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic.&#8217;&#8221; Sometimes the introducer would, by
-mistake, substitute the name of another war song,
-good of its kind, but hardly to be compared with
-my mother&#8217;s hymn. She used to say, rather
-plaintively, that Miss Susan B. Anthony (the well-known
-suffrage leader) <i>would</i> mix up the two songs,
-introducing her as &#8220;<i>The author of the &#8216;Battle Cry of
-Freedom.&#8217;</i>&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>It was a joy to her to be associated with the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn,&#8221; yet she sometimes grieved a
-little because this so greatly overshadowed all her
-other literary productions. She had labored long<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>
-and earnestly with pen and voice, writing both
-prose and poetry which won commendation from
-her comrades in the world of letters. Hence she
-was glad to be remembered as the author, not only
-of her war lyric, but of other compositions as well.</p>
-
-<p>My mother was asked to repeat this more and
-more often as its fame increased and as she herself
-became ever dearer to her countrymen. As early
-as 1865 we find that she was urged to recite it at
-Newport at the close of her lecture in Mr. Richard
-Hunt&#8217;s studio. Among those in the audience was
-George Bancroft, the historian, a prominent figure
-in Newport society of the olden days. Mr. Bancroft
-had held various offices under the Federal
-Government, that of Secretary of the Navy among
-others. When the Civil War broke out there was
-a good deal of secession feeling among the summer
-residents of the watering-place, but Mr. and Mrs.
-Bancroft were steadfastly loyal to the Union.</p>
-
-<p>It is interesting to note that among the many
-places where its author recited the &#8220;Battle
-Hymn,&#8221; at least one city in the heart of the South
-is included. Mrs. Howe spent the winter of 1884-85
-in New Orleans, having been invited to preside
-over the woman&#8217;s department of the exposition
-held there in that year.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>The experience involved much hard work, but
-also much pleasure. She made many friends in
-the Crescent City, whither she and I returned
-eleven years later for a congress of the Association
-for the Advancement of Women. We were the
-guests of her old friend, Mrs. King, the mother of
-Grace King, the novelist, and were entertained by
-mother and daughters with charming hospitality.</p>
-
-<p>I confess that it surprised me when, at an
-afternoon reception in the King drawing-room, my
-mother was asked to repeat the &#8220;Battle Hymn,&#8221;
-and did so. This showed us how much the old
-ill-feeling between North and South had died out.
-It demonstrated also the universal and therefore
-non-sectional quality of the poem, of which more
-will be said in the following chapter.</p>
-
-<p>The &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; may be called universal
-in still another sense, since it appeals to men and
-women of all religious creeds. When Mrs. Howe
-was especially requested to recite it before a
-council of Jewish women, it gave her &#8220;an unexpected
-thrill of satisfaction.&#8221; She was warmly
-received and welcomed, but felt some anxiety
-lest the verse beginning &#8220;In the beauty of the
-lilies Christ was born across the sea&#8221; might disturb
-her hearers. The president assured her,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>
-however, that there was nothing in it to hurt
-their feelings.</p>
-
-<p>My mother was so intimately associated with the
-woman movement that she was called upon to
-repeat her war lyric before many feminine audiences.
-We have spoken of her interest in
-women&#8217;s clubs. She was also interested in the
-patriotic societies, being a member of the D. A. R.
-and of the Colonial Dames of Rhode Island.
-One of the Boston chapters of the former is named
-in honor of the Old South Meeting-house, a venerated
-landmark of the city. When the congregation
-left their old place of worship and moved to
-the Back Bay, it required a tremendous effort
-on the part of the women of Boston to raise the
-necessary funds and to save the historic building
-from destruction. Here, in December, 1906, the
-Old South Chapter had a meeting where there
-was &#8220;much good speaking.&#8221; My mother recited
-her &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; and told them something of
-her Revolutionary ancestors. She remembered
-her forebears with affectionate pride as noble men
-and women whose example she strove to imitate.</p>
-
-<p>A long life brings its penalties as well as its
-pleasures. Living to the age of nearly ninety-two
-years, my mother survived all the friends of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
-her youth and most, if not all, of her contemporaries.
-Hence she was called upon to attend
-many funerals, considering this a duty, in accordance
-with old-fashioned ideas. A temporary
-lameness prevented her attending the obsequies
-of the poet Longfellow, an early friend of her husband&#8217;s,
-whom she also had known well for many
-years. She was able, however, to testify to her
-friendship for the gentle poet by giving her services
-for the Longfellow Memorial held at the Boston
-Museum. Here she took part in an authors&#8217; reading,
-reciting the &#8220;Battle Hymn,&#8221; as well as some
-verses composed in honor of the poet.</p>
-
-<p>That she should be invited to do so shows a
-great change in public opinion since the early
-years of their acquaintance. In the &#8217;forties and
-&#8217;fifties it was not thought fitting that a lady should
-even sign her name to a poem or a novel, much
-less read it in public. When my mother published
-some verses in a volume edited by Mr.
-Longfellow in those early days, they appeared as
-anonymous. By his advice, her first book of
-poems, <i>Passion Flowers</i>, bore no name upon the
-title-page.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">VIII<br />
-
-
-<small>TRIBUTES TO &#8220;THE BATTLE HYMN&#8221;</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>From Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Conan Doyle, Ralph
-Waldo Emerson, William Dean Howells,<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> U. S. Senator George
-F. Hoar, Thomas Starr King, Ina Coolbrith, and others&mdash;The
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; and the &#8220;Marseillaise&#8221;&mdash;What Rudyard Kipling
-said of it in &#8220;The Light that Failed&#8221;&mdash;English reprints distributed
-among the soldiers of the present war.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">THE appeal of &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the
-Republic&#8221; is so wide that it takes in all
-classes of mankind, all, at least, who love freedom.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">Wherever rise the peoples,</div>
-<div class="indent">Wherever sinks a throne,</div>
-<div class="verse">The throbbing heart of freedom</div>
-<div class="indent">Finds an answer in his own.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>So wrote the poet Whittier of Samuel Gridley
-Howe, remembering his services to the Greeks,
-to the Poles and others. The lines are equally
-true of his wife, Julia Ward Howe, and of the
-spirit animating her war lyric. Although written
-in the midst of the greatest civil war that was
-ever fought and won, there is no word of North<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>
-or South, no appeal to local pride or patriotism,
-no word of sectional strife or bitterness. The God
-to whom appeal is made is the God of freedom.
-The enemy to be overcome, the serpent who is to
-be crushed beneath the heel of the hero, is slavery.</p>
-
-<p>It is amusing and yet sad to find that some
-literal souls have fancied that my mother intended
-to designate the Southerners by &#8220;the grapes of
-wrath.&#8221; Needless to say that the writer intended
-no such narrow and prosaic meaning.</p>
-
-<p>The &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; may well be compared to
-the &#8220;Marseillaise.&#8221; The man is to be pitied who
-can hear either of them without a thrill of answering
-emotion. Both have the power to move
-their hearers profoundly, yet they are as different
-as the two nationalities which gave them
-birth. The French national hymn appeals to us
-by its wonderfully stirring music more than by the
-words. We can imagine how the latter aroused
-to a frenzy of feeling the men of the French Revolution,
-when they rose to throw off the yoke of
-centuries of oppression and misrule. Feudalism
-perished in France to the fiery music of the
-&#8220;Marseillaise.&#8221; Slavery died in America to the
-old &#8220;John Brown&#8221; tune, as slow and steadfast in
-movement as the Northern race who sang it.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>In our war lyric we seem to hear an echo
-of the old cry, &#8220;The sword of the Lord and of
-Gideon.&#8221; Yet we did not fully recognize its
-tremendous power until Kipling christened it
-&#8220;<i>The terrible Battle Hymn of the Republic</i>.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>In the closing scene of <i>The Light that Failed</i><a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
-we are shown a group of English newspaper correspondents
-about to start for a war in the Soudan.
-They are met together for a last evening of song
-and merrymaking, yet one of their number &#8220;by
-the instinct of association began to hum the terrible
-Battle Hymn of the Republic. Man after
-man caught it up&mdash;it was a tune they knew well,
-till the windows shook to the clang, the Nilghai&#8217;s
-deep voice leading:</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;&#8216;Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Sir A. Conan Doyle pays a similar tribute to
-its power in <i>Through the Magic Door</i>:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Take the songs which they sang during the
-most bloody war which the Anglo-Celtic race has
-ever waged&mdash;the only war in which it could have
-been said that they were stretched to their uttermost
-and showed their true form ... all had a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>
-playful humor running through them. Only one
-exception do I know, and that is the most tremendous
-war song I can recall; even an outsider
-in time of peace can hardly read it without emotion.
-I mean, of course, Julia Ward Howe&#8217;s war
-song of the Republic, with the choral opening line,</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8216;Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>If that were ever sung upon a battle-field the
-effect must have been terrific.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>During the present war in Europe, an English
-lady has had a large number of copies of the
-&#8220;Hymn&#8221; printed and distributed, through the
-Young Men&#8217;s Christian Association, to the soldiers.
-They contain the following explanation: &#8220;This
-magnificent &#8216;Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8217; was
-written in 1861 by a famous American lady,
-Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, for the Army of the
-Northern States of America, which were then
-engaged in a &#8216;Holy War&#8217; to rid the South of
-slavery and to preserve the Union of the States.
-It is said to have done more to awaken the spirit
-of patriotism and to have inspired more deeds of
-heroism than any other event of the American
-Civil War.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>It is pleasant and heartening to read these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>
-tributes of praise from distinguished Englishmen.
-That our &#8220;Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221; should
-so strongly appeal to them shows us the essential
-unity of the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon
-race, even though oceans roll between
-Great Britain and America.</p>
-
-<p>The strange glory that came over the face of
-Abraham Lincoln and the tears he shed on hearing
-the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; will always be, for his
-countrymen, the most precious tribute to its power.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The chaplain afterward stated that in his
-conversation with Mr. Lincoln at his reception, the
-President said to him, &#8216;Take it all in all, the
-song and the singing, that was the best I ever
-heard.&#8217;&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p>
-
-<p>To the steadfast and courageous soul of another
-great American, who also has held the high office
-of President of these United States, Theodore
-Roosevelt, this war hymn strongly appealed. His
-book, <i>Fear God and Take Your Own Part</i>, is
-prefaced by &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221;
-and by the following dedication:</p>
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;This book is dedicated to the memory of<br />
-<span class="smcap">Julia Ward Howe</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>because in the vital matters fundamentally affecting
-the life of the Republic she was as good a
-citizen of the Republic as Washington and Lincoln
-themselves. She was in the highest sense a good
-wife and a good mother, and therefore she fulfilled
-the primary law of our being. She brought up
-with devoted care and wisdom her sons and her
-daughters. At the same time she fulfilled her
-full duty to the commonwealth from the public
-standpoint. She preached righteousness and she
-practised righteousness. She sought the peace
-that comes as the handmaiden of well-doing.
-She preached that stern and lofty courage of soul
-which shrinks neither from war nor from any
-other form of suffering and hardship and danger
-if it is only thereby that justice can be served.
-She embodied that trait more essential than any
-other in the make-up of the men and women of
-this Republic&mdash;the valor of righteousness.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>In the letter given below, Hon. George F. Hoar,
-United States Senator from Massachusetts, compares
-&#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221; with
-the &#8220;Marseillaise&#8221; and with the &#8220;British National
-Anthem.&#8221;</p>
-
-<div class="blockquot">
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Worcester, Mass.</span>, <i>May 22, 1903</i>.</p>
-
-<p>I was thinking, just as I got your letter asking me to send
-a greeting to your meeting and to Mrs. Howe, of the great<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>
-power, in framing the character of nations, of their National
-Anthems. Fletcher of Saltoun said, as every child knows,
-&#8220;Let me make the songs of a people, and I care not who
-make their laws.&#8221; No single influence has had so much to
-do with shaping the destiny of a nation, as nothing more
-surely expresses national character, than what is known
-as the National Anthem. France adopted for hers the
-&#8220;Marseillaise.&#8221; Its stirring appeal</p>
-
-<p class="center">Sons of France, awake to glory!</p>
-
-<p>led the youth of France to march through Europe, subduing
-kingdoms and overthrowing dynasties, till &#8220;forty centuries
-looked down on them from the pyramids.&#8221; At last the
-ambition of France perished and came to grief, as every
-unholy ambition is destined to perish and come to grief,
-and her great Emperor died in exile at St. Helena.</p>
-
-<p>Is there anything more cheap and vulgar than the National
-Anthem of our English brethren, &#8220;God Save the King&#8221;?</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">O Lord our God, arise!</div>
-<div class="verse">Scatter his enemies</div>
-<div class="verse">And make them fall.</div>
-<div class="verse">Confound their politics,</div>
-<div class="verse">Frustrate their knavish tricks;</div>
-<div class="verse">On him our hopes we fix;</div>
-<div class="verse">God save us all!</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>England, I hope, knows better now. But she has acted
-on that motto for a thousand years.</p>
-
-<p>New England&#8217;s Anthem,</p>
-
-<p class="center">The breaking waves dashed high,</p>
-
-<p>one of the noblest poems in all literature, was written by a
-woman.</p>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>We waited eighty years for our American National Anthem.
-At last God inspired an illustrious and noble woman to utter
-in undying verse the thought which we hope is forever to
-animate the soldier of the Republic.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,</div>
-<div class="verse">With a glory in His bosom which transfigures you and me;</div>
-<div class="verse">As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,</div>
-<div class="verse">While God is marching on!</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Julia Ward Howe cannot yet vote in America. But her
-words will be an inspiration to the youth of America on many
-a hard-fought field for liberty many a century after her successors
-will vote.</p>
-
-<p class="center">I am faithfully yours,</p>
-
-<p class="right"><span class="smcap">George F. Hoar</span>.</p>
-
-<p><span class="smcap">Miss Alice Stone Blackwell.</span></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>In the journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson we
-find this tribute to his friend, Julia Ward Howe:</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I honour the author of the &#8216;Battle Hymn&#8217; and
-of &#8216;The Flag.&#8217; She was born in the city of New
-York. I could well wish she were a native of
-Massachusetts. We have had no such poetess in
-New England.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The little bit of State pride voiced in the regret
-that my mother was not a native of the old Bay
-State, surprises us in a man of such wide sympathies
-as Mr. Emerson. In Whittier&#8217;s early poems
-also the local feeling is strongly pronounced. We
-should remember, however, that during the nineteenth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>
-century a good deal of sectional feeling
-still existed in the different States. The twentieth
-century finds us more closely united as a people
-than we have ever been before.</p>
-
-<p>Edmund Clarence Stedman happily characterizes
-the war hymn in the following passage.
-It occurs in a letter to me, asking that my mother
-would copy it for him.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;I can well understand what a Frankenstein&#8217;s
-monster such a creation grows to be&mdash;such a poem
-as the &#8216;Battle Hymn&#8217; when it has become the
-sacred scroll of millions, each one of whom would
-fain obtain a copy of it.&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
-
-<p>Those who have visited the White Mountains
-will remember that one of the peaks is called
-&#8220;Starr King.&#8221; It was named for Thomas Starr
-King, a noted Unitarian preacher in the middle
-of the nineteenth century. Shortly before the
-Civil War he accepted a call to San Francisco.
-In addition to officiating in the church there he
-soon took upon his shoulders a task that was too
-heavy for his somewhat frail physique. This was
-nothing less than persuading the people of California
-to remain loyal to the Union. There was a
-good deal of secession sentiment on the Pacific<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>
-coast in 1861. Starr King and his fellow-Unionists
-succeeded in their undertaking, but he paid
-the penalty of overwork with his life. Hence his
-memory is beloved and revered on the shores of
-the Pacific as well as on those of the Atlantic.
-One can imagine what the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; must
-have meant to him, weary as he was with his
-strenuous labors. He pronounced it &#8220;a miraculously
-perfect poem.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Another &#8220;Spray of Western Pine&#8221; was contributed
-to the garland of praise by Ina Coolbrith,
-one of the last survivors of the golden age of
-California literature.</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">JULIA WARD HOWE</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">When with the awful lightning of His glance,</div>
-<div class="indent">Jehovah, thro&#8217; the mighty walls of sea</div>
-<div class="indent">His people led from their long bondage free,&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">A Woman&#8217;s hand, too light to lift the lance,</div>
-<div class="verse">Miriam, the Prophetess, with song and dance,</div>
-<div class="indent">With timbrel, and with harp and psaltery,</div>
-<div class="indent">Struck the proud notes of triumphs yet to be,</div>
-<div class="indent">And voiced her Israel&#8217;s deliverance.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">So in our own dear Land, in strife to save</div>
-<div class="indent">Another race oppressed, when light grew dim,</div>
-<div class="indent">And the Red Sea of blood loomed fatefully</div>
-<div class="verse">To overwhelm, the God of freedom gave</div>
-<div class="indent">Thro&#8217; Woman&#8217;s lips His sacred battle hymn</div>
-<div class="indent2">That rang thro&#8217; combat on to victory!</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>When memorial services were held in honor of
-my mother, Boston&#8217;s great Symphony Hall was
-crowded to its utmost capacity. Many were the
-beautiful tributes to her given by men and women
-of national reputation. None, however, equaled
-in heartfelt eloquence the speech of Lewis, the
-distinguished negro lawyer. As he poured out
-the gratitude of his race to the woman who had
-written &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic,&#8221; I
-suddenly realized for the first time what the words
-meant to the colored people.</p>
-
-<p class="center">As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;To make us, black men and black women, free!&#8221;
-The appeal was to the white men of our country,
-bidding them share the freedom they so dearly
-prized with the despised slave. And this triumphant
-gospel of liberty with its stirring chorus of
-&#8220;Glory, glory, hallelujah&#8221; was sung wherever the
-Northern army went. It was the first proclamation
-of emancipation. If it moves us, how must
-it have affected the people to whom it was a
-prophecy of the longed-for deliverance from
-bondage.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">IX<br />
-
-
-<small>MRS. HOWE&#8217;S LESSER POEMS OF THE CIVIL WAR</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>Her poetic tribute to Frederick Douglass&mdash;&#8220;Left Behind,&#8221; &#8220;Our
-Orders,&#8221; &#8220;April 19&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;The Flag&#8221; followed the second battle
-of Bull Run&mdash;&#8220;The Secesh&#8221; in the Newport churches&mdash;&#8220;The
-First Martyr,&#8221; &#8220;Our Country,&#8221; &#8220;Harvard Student&#8217;s Song,&#8221;
-&#8220;Return&#8221;&mdash;How &#8220;Our Country&#8221; lost its musical setting&mdash;&#8220;The
-Parricide&#8221; written on the day of Lincoln&#8217;s funeral to express
-her reverence.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">MY mother&#8217;s natural mode of expressing herself
-was by poetry rather than by prose.
-She wrote verses from her earliest years up to the
-time of her death. It is true that some of her
-best work took the form of prose in her essays,
-lectures, and speeches,<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> yet whenever her feelings
-were deeply moved she turned to verse as the fittest
-vehicle for her use.</p>
-
-<p>We have seen that she began to write poems
-protesting against human slavery at an early
-period of her career. Thus her first published<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>
-&#8220;On the Death of the Slave Lewis.&#8221; In <i>Words
-for the Hour</i> we find several poems dealing with
-slavery, the struggle in Kansas, the attack on
-Sumner, and kindred subjects. The titles of these
-and some quotations from them are given in
-Chapter I. The verses on &#8220;Tremont Temple&#8221;
-contain tributes to Sumner and Frederick Douglass,
-the negro orator. The first two are as follows:
-volume, <i>Passion Flowers</i> (1853), contained verses</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Two figures fill this temple to my sight,</div>
-<div class="indent">Whoe&#8217;er shall speak, their forms behind him stand;</div>
-<div class="verse">One has the beauty of our Northern blood,</div>
-<div class="indent">And wields Jove&#8217;s thunder in his lifted hand.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">The other wears the solemn hue of Night</div>
-<div class="indent">Drawn darker in the blazonry of pain,</div>
-<div class="verse">Blotting the gaslight&#8217;s mimic day, he slings</div>
-<div class="indent">A dangerous weapon, too, a broken chain.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>When the Civil War broke out, she poured forth
-the feelings that so deeply moved her in a number
-of poems. &#8220;The Battle Hymn of the Republic&#8221;
-is the best known of these, as it deserves to be.
-The others, however, while varying as to merit,
-show the same patriotism, indignation against
-wrong, and elevation of spirit. The woman&#8217;s tenderness
-of heart breathes through them, too, as
-in the story of the dying soldier:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p>
-
-
-<p class="center">LEFT BEHIND</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">The foe is retreating, the field is clear;</div>
-<div class="verse">My thoughts fly like lightning, my steps stay here;</div>
-<div class="verse">I&#8217;m bleeding to faintness, no help is near:</div>
-<div class="indent3">What, ho! comrades; what, ho!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">The battle was deadly, the shots fell thick;</div>
-<div class="verse">We leaped from our trenches, and charged them quick;</div>
-<div class="verse">I knew not my wound till my heart grew sick:</div>
-<div class="indent3">So there, comrades; so there.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">We charged the left column, that broke and fled;</div>
-<div class="verse">Poured powder for powder, and lead for lead:</div>
-<div class="verse">So they must surrender, what matter who&#8217;s dead?</div>
-<div class="indent3">Who cares, comrades? who cares?</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">My soul rises up on the wings of the slain,</div>
-<div class="verse">A triumph thrills through me that quiets the pain:</div>
-<div class="verse">If it were yet to do, I would do it again!</div>
-<div class="indent3">Farewell, comrades, farewell!</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>It will be remembered that the first blood shed
-in the Civil War was in Baltimore. There the
-Massachusetts troops, while on their way to defend
-the national capital, were attacked by &#8220;Plug-Uglies&#8221;
-and several soldiers were killed. My
-mother thus describes the funeral in Boston:<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>&#8220;We were present when these bodies were received
-at King&#8217;s Chapel burial-ground, and could
-easily see how deeply the Governor was moved
-at the sad sight of the coffins draped with the
-national flag. This occasion drew from me the
-poem:</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">&#8220;OUR ORDERS</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="first">&#8220;Weave no more silks, ye Lyons Looms;</div>
-<div class="indent">To deck our girls for gay delights!</div>
-<div class="verse">The crimson flower of battle blooms,</div>
-<div class="indent">And solemn marches fill the night.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="first">&#8220;Weave but the flag whose bars to-day</div>
-<div class="indent">Drooped heavy o&#8217;er our early dead,</div>
-<div class="verse">And homely garments, coarse and gray,</div>
-<div class="indent">For orphans that must earn their bread!&#8221;</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p class="center">(We give the first two of the six verses.)</p>
-
-<p>Other verses published in <i>Later Lyrics</i> under the
-title &#8220;April 19&#8221; commemorate the same event.
-They were evidently written in the first heat of
-indignation at the breaking out of the rebellion,
-yet her righteous wrath always gave way to a
-second thought, tenderer and more merciful than
-the first. We see this in the last verse of the
-&#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; and in various other poems of
-hers. The opening verses of &#8220;April 19&#8221; are:</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">A spasm o&#8217;er my heart</div>
-<div class="indent">Sweeps like a burning flood;</div>
-<div class="verse">A sentence rings upon mine ears,</div>
-<div class="indent">Avenge the guiltless blood!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Sit not in health and ease,</div>
-<div class="indent">Nor reckon loss nor gain,</div>
-<div class="verse">When men who bear our Country&#8217;s flag</div>
-<div class="indent">Are set upon and slain.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>Of her &#8220;Poems of the War&#8221; &#8220;The Flag&#8221; ranks
-second in popular esteem and has a place in many
-anthologies. She thus describes the circumstances
-under which it was composed:<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Even in gay Newport there were sad reverberations
-of the strife. I shall never forget an
-afternoon on which I drove into town with my
-son, by this time a lad of fourteen, and found
-the main street lined with carriages, and the carriages
-filled with white-faced people, intent on I
-knew not what. Meeting a friend, I asked:
-&#8216;Why are these people here? What are they waiting
-for and why do they look as they do?&#8217;</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;&#8216;They are waiting for the mail. Don&#8217;t you
-know that we have had a dreadful reverse?&#8217; Alas!
-this was the second battle of Bull Run. I have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>
-made some record of it in a poem entitled &#8216;The
-Flag,&#8217; which I dare mention here because Mr.
-Emerson, on hearing it, said to me, &#8216;I like the
-architecture of that poem.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The opening verse is as follows:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">There&#8217;s a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are more dear to me</div>
-<div class="verse">Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty;</div>
-<div class="verse">And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue</div>
-<div class="verse">As the hope of a further heaven, that lights all our dim lives through.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Before the war, Newport had been a favorite
-resort for Southerners. During the summer of
-1861 a number were still there, and it must be
-confessed some of them behaved with very little
-tact. According to reports current at the time,
-these individuals carried politics inside the church
-doors. When the prayer for the President of the
-United States was read, they arose from their knees
-in order to show their disapproval. At its conclusion
-they again knelt. Women would draw
-aside the voluminous skirts then in fashion, to
-prevent their coming in contact with the United
-States flag. I have always fancied that the lines
-in &#8220;The Flag,&#8221;</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span></p>
-
-<p class="center">Salute the flag in its virtue, or pass on where others rule,</p>
-
-<p>were inspired by this behavior of &#8220;The Secesh,&#8221;
-as we then called them. Some of these persons,
-although belonging to good society, had the bad
-taste to boast in our presence of how the South
-was going to &#8220;whip&#8221; the North. At a certain
-picnic among the Paradise Rocks, my mother resolved
-to give these people a lesson in patriotism.
-One of our number, a quiet, elderly lady, was
-selected to act as America, the queen of the occasion.
-She was crowned with flowers, and we all
-saluted her with patriotic songs.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The First Martyr&#8221; tells the story of a visit
-to the wife of John Brown before the latter&#8217;s
-execution:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">My five-years&#8217; darling, on my knee,</div>
-<div class="verse">Chattered and toyed and laughed with me;</div>
-<div class="verse">&#8220;Now tell me, mother mine,&#8221; quoth she,</div>
-<div class="indent">&#8220;Where you went i&#8217; the afternoon.&#8221;</div>
-<div class="verse">&#8220;Alas! my pretty little life,</div>
-<div class="verse">I went to see a sorrowing wife,</div>
-<div class="indent">Who will be widowed soon.&#8221;</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<hr class="tb" />
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Child! It is fit that thou shouldst weep;</div>
-<div class="verse">The very babe unborn would leap</div>
-<div class="verse">To rescue such as he.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>&#8220;Our Country&#8221; contains no word about the
-civil strife, although it is classed with &#8220;Poems of
-the War&#8221; in her volume entitled <i>Later Lyrics</i>.
-A prize was offered for a national song while the
-war was in progress, and Mrs. Howe sent in this
-poem, Otto Dresel composing the music. Mr.
-Dresel was a prominent figure in the musical world
-of Boston for many years and wrote a number of
-charming songs.</p>
-
-<p>The prize which had been offered for the national
-song was never awarded, if I remember aright, and
-Mr. Dresel decided to use the tune he had composed,
-for the &#8220;Army Hymn&#8221; of Oliver Wendell
-Holmes. This was &#8220;superbly sung by L. C.
-Campbell, assisted by the choir and band&#8221; at
-the opening exercises of the Great Metropolitan
-Fair held in New York during the Civil War, for
-the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;Our Country&#8221; thus lost its musical setting, to
-my mother&#8217;s regret.</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">OUR COUNTRY</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">On primal rocks she wrote her name,</div>
-<div class="indent">Her towers were reared on holy graves,</div>
-<div class="verse">The golden seed that bore her came</div>
-<div class="indent">Swift-winged with prayer o&#8217;er ocean waves.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>
-<div class="verse">The Forest bowed his solemn crest,</div>
-<div class="indent">And open flung his sylvan doors;</div>
-<div class="verse">Meek Rivers led the appointed Guest</div>
-<div class="indent">To clasp the wide-embracing shores;</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Till, fold by fold, the broidered Land</div>
-<div class="indent">To swell her virgin vestments grew,</div>
-<div class="verse">While Sages, strong in heart and hand,</div>
-<div class="indent">Her virtue&#8217;s fiery girdle drew.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">O Exile of the wrath of Kings!</div>
-<div class="indent">O Pilgrim Ark of Liberty!</div>
-<div class="verse">The refuge of divinest things,</div>
-<div class="indent">Their record must abide in thee.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">First in the glories of thy front</div>
-<div class="indent">Let the crown jewel Truth be found;</div>
-<div class="verse">Thy right hand fling with generous wont</div>
-<div class="indent">Love&#8217;s happy chain to furthest bound.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Let Justice with the faultless scales</div>
-<div class="indent">Hold fast the worship of thy sons,</div>
-<div class="verse">Thy commerce spread her shining sails</div>
-<div class="indent">Where no dark tide of rapine runs.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">So link thy ways to those of God,</div>
-<div class="indent">So follow firm the heavenly laws,</div>
-<div class="verse">That stars may greet thee, warrior-browed,</div>
-<div class="indent">And storm-sped angels hail thy cause.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>
-<div class="verse">O Land, the measure of our prayers,</div>
-<div class="indent">Hope of the world, in grief and wrong!</div>
-<div class="verse">Be thine the blessing of the years,</div>
-<div class="indent">The gift of faith, the crown of song.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>The news of Lincoln&#8217;s assassination dealt a
-stunning blow to our people. The rejoicings over
-the end of the Civil War were suddenly changed
-to deep sorrow, indignation, and fear. How
-widely the conspiracy spread we did not know.
-It will be remembered that other officers of the
-Federal Government were attacked. My mother
-wrote that nothing since the death of her little
-boy<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> had given her so much personal pain. As
-usual, she sought relief for her feelings in verse.
-&#8220;The Parricide,&#8221; written on the day of Lincoln&#8217;s
-funeral, expresses her love and reverence for the
-great man, her horror of the &#8220;Fair assassin,
-murder&mdash;white,&#8221; whom she bids:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">With thy serpent speed avoid</div>
-<div class="indent">Each unsullied household light,</div>
-<div class="verse">Every conscience unalloyed.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>As usual, compassion followed anger. &#8220;Pardon,&#8221;
-written a few days later, after the death of Wilkes
-Booth, is the better poem of the two.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span></p>
-
-<p class="center">PARDON</p>
-
-<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Wilkes Booth&mdash;April 26, 1865</span></p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Pains the sharp sentence the heart in whose wrath it was uttered,</div>
-<div class="indent3">Now thou art cold;</div>
-<div class="verse">Vengeance, the headlong, and Justice, with purpose close muttered,</div>
-<div class="indent3">Loosen their hold.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Death brings atonement; he did that whereof ye accuse him,&mdash;</div>
-<div class="indent3">Murder accurst;</div>
-<div class="verse">But, from that crisis of crime in which Satan did lose him,</div>
-<div class="indent3">Suffered the worst.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Back to the cross, where the Saviour uplifted in dying</div>
-<div class="indent3">Bade all souls live,</div>
-<div class="verse">Turns the reft bosom of Nature, his mother, low sighing,</div>
-<div class="indent3">Greatest, forgive!</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>On July 21, 1865, Harvard University held
-memorial exercises in honor of her sons who had
-given their lives for their country. The living
-graduates of that day numbered only twenty-four
-hundred, including the aged, sick, and absent.
-Of these more than five hundred went out to fight
-in behalf of the Union, many of them to return no
-more. Their names may be seen engraved on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>
-marble tablets of Memorial Hall, Cambridge, a
-daily lesson in patriotism to the undergraduates
-who frequent it. Full of fun and nonsense as the
-latter are, they will permit no disrespect to the
-memory of the heroes of the Civil War. If
-visitors enter without removing their hats, an instant
-clamor arises, forcing them to do so.</p>
-
-<p>On this Commencement day of 1865 a notable
-assemblage gathered at Harvard. In addition to
-other distinguished people there were present, as
-Governor Andrew said in his address, a &#8220;cloud of
-living witnesses who have come back laden with
-glory from the fields where their comrades fell.&#8221;
-Phillips Brooks made a prayer, Ralph Waldo
-Emerson and others spoke. Oliver Wendell
-Holmes, Rev. Charles T. Brooks, James Russell
-Lowell, his brother Robert, John S. Dwight, and
-Mrs. Julia Ward Howe contributed poems. The
-verses of the latter were read by her friend, Mr.
-Samuel Eliot. The opening ones are as follows:</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">RETURN</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">They are coming, oh my Brothers, they are coming!</div>
-<div class="indent">From the formless distance creeps the growing sound,</div>
-<div class="verse">Like a rill-fed forest, in whose rapid summing,</div>
-<div class="indent">Stream doth follow stream, till waves of joy abound.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>
-<div class="verse">These have languished in the shadow of the prison,</div>
-<div class="indent">Long with hunger pains and bitter fever low;</div>
-<div class="verse">Welcome back our lost, from living graves arisen,</div>
-<div class="indent">From the wild despite and malice of the foe.</div>
-</div></div></div>
-
-<p>Another of her war poems speaks in the name
-of the sons of the old university. When it was
-published in the newspapers, a careless typesetter
-made some errors in setting it up. I remember
-how troubled she was when the line</p>
-
-<p class="center">O give them back, thou bloody breast of Treason&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>was printed &#8220;beast&#8221; of Treason.</p>
-
-<p>We give a single verse of the &#8220;Harvard Student&#8217;s
-Song&#8221;:</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">Remember ye how, out of boyhood leaping,</div>
-<div class="indent">Our gallant mates stood ready for the fray,</div>
-<div class="verse">As new-fledged eaglets rise, with sudden sweeping,</div>
-<div class="indent">And meet unscared the dazzling front of day?</div>
-<div class="verse">Our classic toil became inglorious leisure,</div>
-<div class="indent">We praised the calm Horatian ode no more,</div>
-<div class="verse">But answered back with song the martial measure,</div>
-<div class="indent">That held its throb above the cannon&#8217;s roar.</div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The other &#8220;Poems of the War&#8221; published in
-<i>Later Lyrics</i> are entitled &#8220;Requital,&#8221; &#8220;The Question,&#8221;
-&#8220;One and Many,&#8221; &#8220;Hymn for a Spring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>
-Festival,&#8221; &#8220;The Jeweller&#8217;s Shop in War-time,&#8221;
-and &#8220;The Battle Eucharist.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>In these we see how deeply the writer&#8217;s soul was
-oppressed by the sorrow of the war and the horrors
-of the battle-field. We see, too, how it
-turned ever for comfort and encouragement to the
-Cross and to the Lord of Hosts.</p>
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>
-
-<h2 class="nobreak">X<br />
-
-
-<small>MRS. HOWE&#8217;S LOVE OF FREEDOM AN INHERITANCE</small></h2>
-</div>
-<div class="blockquot">
-<div class="hangingindent">
-<p>Stories of Gen. Francis Marion&mdash;Mrs. Howe&#8217;s kinship with the
-&#8220;Swamp Fox&#8221;&mdash;The episode that saved &#8220;Marion&#8217;s Men&#8221;&mdash;The
-splendid sword that rusted in its scabbard&mdash;John Ward, one of
-Oliver Cromwell&#8217;s Ironsides&mdash;Samuel Ward, the only Colonial
-governor who refused to enforce the Stamp Act&mdash;Roger Williams,
-founder of Rhode Island and champion of religious liberty.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<p class="drop-cap">WE have seen that my mother&#8217;s love of
-freedom was in part the result of environment.
-It was also an inheritance from men who
-had fought for civil and religious liberty, with the
-sword and with the pen, on both sides of the
-Atlantic. Of the founder of the Ward family in
-America, we know that he fought for the English
-Commonwealth and against &#8220;Charles First, tyrant
-of England.&#8221; He was one of Oliver Cromwell&#8217;s
-Ironsides, serving as an officer in a cavalry regiment.
-After the republic perished and the Stuart
-line in the person of Charles II. returned to the
-throne, doughty old John Ward came to America,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>
-bringing his good sword with him. Whether it
-was ever used on this side of the water, the record
-does not say, but it was preserved in the family
-for nearly a century.</p>
-
-<p>His descendants held positions of trust and responsibility
-under the State, his grandson and
-great-grandson being each in his turn governor of
-Rhode Island. The latter, Gov. Samuel Ward, has
-the distinction of being the only Colonial governor
-who refused to take the oath to enforce the Stamp
-Act. As the Chief Executive of &#8220;little Rhody&#8221;
-was chosen by the people, his views were naturally
-more democratic than those of governors appointed
-by the crown. Still, it took courage to refuse
-to obey the royal mandate. He early foresaw the
-separation from Great Britain and wrote to his
-son in 1766, &#8220;These Colonies are destined to an
-early independence, and you will live to see my
-words verified.&#8221; He was a member of the Continental
-Congresses of 1774 and 1775. The latter
-resolved itself into a committee of the whole
-almost every day, and Governor Ward was constantly
-called to the chair on such occasions, until
-he was seized with fatal illness, March 13, 1776,
-dying soon afterward.</p>
-
-<p>At this time vaccination had not been discovered,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>
-the only preventive of the terrible scourge
-of smallpox being inoculation. Now Governor
-Ward could not spare time for the brief illness
-which this process involved. In addition to his
-duties in Congress he was obliged, owing to the
-physical disability of his colleague, Gov. Stephen
-Hopkins, to conduct all the official correspondence
-of the Rhode Island delegation, with the Government
-and citizens of the colony. His services
-were required on many committees, notably on the
-secret committee which contracted for arms and
-munitions of war. Hence, worn down by overwork,
-he fell an easy victim to smallpox. He died
-three months before his colleagues signed the
-Declaration of Independence. As he early saw
-the necessity of separation from the mother
-country, he would certainly have affixed his
-signature to it had he lived. His descendants may
-be pardoned for thinking that he made a great mistake
-in not taking the time required for inoculation.</p>
-
-<p>Many of Governor Ward&#8217;s letters have been preserved.
-These show his ardent patriotism as well
-as the devout religious spirit of the men of 1776.
-He writes to his brother: &#8220;I have realized with
-regard to myself the bullet, the bayonet, and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>
-halter; and compared with the immense object
-I have in view they are all less than nothing.
-No man living, perhaps, is more fond of his children
-than I am, and I am not so old as to be tired
-of life; and yet, as far as I can now judge, the
-tenderest connections and the most important
-private concerns are very minute objects. Heaven
-save my country! I was going to say is my first,
-my last, and almost my only prayer.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Gov. Samuel Ward was a Seventh-Day Baptist.
-The little church in which he worshiped at Newport
-has all the charm of the best architecture of
-that period. It now forms part of the Historical
-Society&#8217;s rooms.</p>
-
-<p>His son, Lieut.-Col. Samuel Ward, grandfather
-of Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, joined the Continental
-Army when the Revolution broke out. Governor
-Ward writes of &#8220;the almost unparalleled sufferings
-of Samuel,&#8221; and these were indeed severe.
-Of the ill-fated expedition to Quebec, Colonel
-Ward writes: &#8220;We were thirty days in a wilderness
-that none but savages ever attempted to pass.
-We marched one hundred miles upon shore with
-only three days&#8217; provisions, waded over three rapid
-rivers, marched through snow and ice barefoot ...
-moderately speaking, we have waded one hundred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>
-miles.&#8221; The result of this exposure was &#8220;the
-yellow jaundice.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>The Americans were overpowered by superior
-numbers, Colonel Ward being taken prisoner with
-many others. He was also at Valley Forge in that
-terrible winter when the American Army endured
-such great privations.</p>
-
-<p>It is interesting to note that Colonel Ward assisted
-in raising a colored regiment in the spring
-of 1778. He commanded this in the engagement
-on the island of Rhode Island, near the spot where
-his granddaughter and her husband established
-their summer home a century later. From the
-peaceful windows of &#8220;Oak Glen&#8221; one sees, in the
-near foreground, the earthworks of the Revolution.</p>
-
-<p>In spite of all the hardships endured during the
-Revolutionary War, Colonel Ward lived to be
-nearly seventy-six years of age. My mother well
-remembered her grandfather with his courtly
-manner and mild, but very observing, blue eyes.
-With the indulgence characteristic of grandparents,
-he permitted the Ward brothers to play cards at his
-house, a thing they were forbidden to do at home.</p>
-
-<p>The State of Rhode Island is represented in the
-statue-gallery of the national Capitol by Roger
-Williams, pioneer of religious liberty and founder<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>
-of the State, and by Gen. Nathaniel Greene, who
-rendered such important service during the Revolutionary
-War. My mother was related to both
-men, being a direct descendant of the former.</p>
-
-<p>Whether or no Massachusetts was justified in
-driving out Roger Williams, we will not attempt to
-decide. He was evidently a person who delighted
-in controversy in a day when religious toleration
-was almost unknown.</p>
-
-<p>To him belongs the honor of being the first to
-found a State &#8220;upon the distinctive principle of
-complete separation of Church and State.&#8221; Maryland
-followed not long after the example set by the
-&#8220;State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Not in Massachusetts alone did people object
-to his doctrines. His work, <i>The Bloody Tenent of
-Persecution</i>, was burned in England by the common
-hangman, by order of Parliament.</p>
-
-<p><i>George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe</i> seems
-a volume of formidable proportions to the modern
-reader. With Quaker doctrines Roger Williams
-had small patience, although he permitted members
-of the persecuted sect to live in the Colony. It
-seems that G. Fox did not avail himself of an offer
-of disputation on fourteen proposals. His opponents<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>
-claimed that he &#8220;slily departed&#8221; to avoid the
-debate. It went on just the same, being &#8220;managed
-three days at Newport and one day at Providence.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>This volume, <i>George Fox</i>, etc.<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>, is dedicated to
-Charles II. by &#8220;Your Majestyes most loyal and
-affectionate Orator at the Throne of Grace.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>One can guess how much attention the Merrie
-Monarch paid to the fourteen &#8220;proposalls&#8221;<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> and
-the elaboration thereof.</p>
-
-<p>The best testimony to the essential gentleness
-and goodness of this eccentric divine is the behavior
-toward him of the Indians. During King
-Philip&#8217;s war they marched on Providence with the
-intention of burning it.</p>
-
-<p>&#8220;The well-attested tradition is that Roger Williams,
-now an old man, alone and unarmed, save
-with his staff, went out to meet the band of approaching
-Indians. His efforts to stay their
-course were unavailing, but they allowed him to return
-unmolested, such was the love and veneration
-entertained for him by these savages.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Of my mother&#8217;s ancestors on the maternal side,
-the most interesting was her great-great-uncle,
-Gen. Francis Marion, the partisan leader of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>
-Revolution. She was descended from his sister
-Esther, &#8220;The Queen Bee of the Marion Hive,&#8221; the
-general himself having no children.</p>
-
-<p>Many romantic stories are told of him. He was
-present at a drinking-party during the siege of
-Charleston when the host, determined that no one
-should leave the festivities until some particularly
-fine Madeira had been disposed of, locked the
-door and threw the key out of the window.
-Marion had no notion of taking part in any excesses,
-so he made his escape by jumping out of
-the window. A lame ankle was the result, and
-the Huguenot left the city, all officers unfit for
-duty being ordered to depart. Marion took
-refuge now with one friend, now with another, and
-again he was obliged to hide in the woods, while recovering
-from this lameness. The accident was
-a most fortunate one, however. If he had remained
-in Charleston he would have been obliged
-to surrender and the brigade of &#8220;Marion&#8217;s Men&#8221;
-might never have existed.</p>
-
-<p>How he formed it in the darkest hour of the war
-in the South is a matter of history. How, like
-so many will-o&#8217;-the-wisps, they led the British
-a weary dance &#8220;thoro&#8217; bush, thoro&#8217; brier,&#8221; all
-through the woods and the swamps of South<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>
-Carolina, is a tale that delights the heart of every
-school-boy.</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">Well knows the fair and friendly moon</div>
-<div class="indent">The men that Marion leads,</div>
-<div class="verse">The glitter of the rifles,</div>
-<div class="indent">The scamper of their steeds;</div>
-<div class="verse">&#8217;Tis life to guide the fiery barb</div>
-<div class="indent">Across the moonlit plain:</div>
-<div class="verse">&#8217;Tis life to feel the night-wind</div>
-<div class="indent">That lifts the tossing mane.</div>
-<div class="verse">A moment in the British camp,</div>
-<div class="indent">A moment and away,</div>
-<div class="verse">Back to the pathless forest</div>
-<div class="indent">Before the peep of day.<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></div>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The best-known story tells of the British officer
-who was brought blindfolded into Marion&#8217;s camp
-and entertained at a dinner consisting solely of
-sweet potatoes. Small wonder that he made up his
-mind the Americans could not be conquered, since
-they were able to subsist on such scanty rations!</p>
-
-<p>Reversing the text of Scripture, General Marion
-provided his men with swords made of saws, ammunition
-being scanty. He was as well known
-for his humanity as for his ingenuity. It is said
-that once, wishing to draw his sword, he found it
-rusted into the scabbard, so little had it been used.</p>
-
-<p>When my mother, as occasionally happened in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>
-her later years, would quietly slip off on some expedition
-which her daughters feared was too much
-for her strength, we would remember her kinship
-with the &#8220;Swamp Fox.&#8221;</p>
-
-<p>Of her parents, it should be said that both were
-deeply religious. Her mother, Julia Cutler Ward,
-a woman of very lovely character and intellectual
-tastes, died at the early age of twenty-seven. Her
-father, Samuel Ward, one of the &#8220;Merchant
-Princes of Wall Street,&#8221; was well known for his
-integrity, liberality, and public spirit. He was
-especially interested in the causes of temperance
-and religion, being &#8220;one of the foremost promoters
-of church-building in the then distant West.&#8221; He
-was also one of the founders of the New York
-University, and owned the first private picture-gallery
-in New York.</p>
-
-<p>Thus we see that my mother, like so many of
-her fellow-Americans, came from a long line of
-God-fearing and patriotic men and women. In
-the words of the &#8220;Battle Hymn&#8221; we hear not
-only the voice of the Union Army, but an echo
-of all the aspiring thoughts and noble deeds of the
-builders of our great Republic.</p>
-
-
-<p class="center">THE END</p>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES:</h2>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> Abraham Lincoln said of this law: &#8220;I look upon that enactment
-not as a law, but as a violence from the beginning. It was conceived
-in violence and is being executed in violence&#8221; (letter to Joshua F.
-Speed, August 24, 1855).</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> From <i>The Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe</i>. Dana,
-Estes &amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> &#8220;Chev&#8221; was the abbreviation of Chevalier, a title bestowed on
-him for his services in the Greek Revolution. He was called
-&#8220;Chev&#8221; by certain intimate friends.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> The Kansas and Nebraska bill.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Protesting against the Missouri Compromise.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> From <i>Reminiscences</i> by Julia Ward Howe. Houghton, Mifflin
-&amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> <i>Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle.</i> By Julia Ward Howe.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Letter from Dr. S. G. Howe to Charles Sumner.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <i>Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe.</i> Dana, Estes &amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> History declares that a colleague of Brooks did thus stand, to
-prevent any one&#8217;s coming to Sumner&#8217;s assistance. About the
-pistols, I am not sure.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Sketch of John Albion Andrew by Eben F. Stone.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle.</i> By Julia Ward Howe.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> <i>Reminiscences</i> by Julia Ward Howe.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> From <i>Journals and Letters of Samuel Gridley Howe</i>. Dana,
-Estes &amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> <i>Reminiscences.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> See Chap. ii, page 33.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> <i>Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Struggle.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, 1899.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> In the reprint of the &#8220;Battle Hymn,&#8221; made in England for the
-use of the soldiers during the present war, this discarded verse has,
-through some misunderstanding, been included.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> See <i>Julia Ward Howe</i>, Vol. II, Chap. xi.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> This account of the day in Libby Prison is compiled from the
-<i>Washington Star</i> and from the <i>Life of Chaplain McCabe</i>.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> <i>Life of Chaplain McCabe.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> <i>Reminiscences</i> by Julia Ward Howe.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> <i>Julia Ward Howe.</i> By Laura E. Richards and Maud Howe
-Elliott.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> <i>Life of Julia Ward Howe.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> See Chapter IX.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> In the later editions of the novel another scene is substituted for
-this.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> <i>Life of Chaplain McCabe</i>&mdash;&#8220;the singing chaplain.&#8221;</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> <i>Julia Ward Howe.</i> Houghton, Mifflin &amp; Co.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> Mr. Howells writes in his <i>Literary Boston Thirty Years Ago</i>:
-&#8220;I heard Mrs. Howe speak in public and it seemed to me that she
-made one of the best speeches I had ever heard.&#8221;</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> <i>Reminiscences</i>, p. 261.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 258.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Samuel Gridley Howe, Jr., who died in May, 1863, aged three
-and a half years.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> <i>George Fox Digged Out of His Burrowe.</i></p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> &#8220;Proposalls&#8221;&mdash;I here quote Roger Williams&#8217; spelling.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> William Cullen Bryant&#8217;s &#8220;The Song of Marion&#8217;s Men.&#8221;</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" />
-
-<div class="chapter">
-<div class="transnote">
-<p class="ph1">TRANSCRIBER&#8217;S NOTES:</p>
-
-
-<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.</p>
-
-<p>Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.</p>
-
-<p>Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.</p>
-</div></div>
-
-
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC ***</div>
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