Julia
Ward,
the daughter of a wealthy banker,
was born on 27th May, 1819. She developed radical political opinions
and was active in the American Anti-Slavery
Society.
In 1843 Julia married Samuel
Gridley Howe, a fellow campaigner against slavery.
The couple were both members of the Free-Soil
Party and between 1851 and 1853 Julia and her husband edited the
anti-slavery journal Commonwealth.
She also published several volumes of poetry including Passion
Flowers
(1854) and Words
for the Hour
(1857). In 1862 the Atlantic Monthly
published her Battle
Hymn of the Republic.
In 1868 Howe founded the New England Women's
Suffrage Association. The following
year Howe and Lucy Stone formed the American
Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Between 1870 and 1890 Howe
and Stone edited the organization's magazine, the Woman's
Journal.
Julia Ward Howe,
who in 1898 became the first woman to be elected to the American
Academy of Arts, died in 1910.
(1)
Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic (1862)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful
lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred
circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening
dews and damps
l can read His righteous sentence by the dim and
flaring lamps
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows
of steel,
"As ye deal with my condemners, So with you
my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent
with his heel
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded form the trumpet that shall never
call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His
judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant,
my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded form the trumpet that shall never
call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His
judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant,
my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across
the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you
and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make
men free,
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
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