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Sale 38
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Lot 167
Howe, Julia Ward (1819-1910) Writer, poet, reformer, and lecturer; best remembered for having authored "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Autograph Quotation Signed, 1 page, 4½x7¼", Boston 26 Feb. 1865. Handsomely matted and framed to an overall size of 10x12¾". Being the first verse of the much-loved, patriotic song that Howe wrote in 1862 as an inspiration to Union soldiers fighting against slavery. Autograph quotations signed by Howe during the 1880s are not uncommon, but such an early date as this quotation, written only three years after she composed the song, are extremely rare. In full:
" 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. Julia Ward Howe. Boston, Feb. 26th 1865."
The story of how Julia Ward Howe came to compose her famous song is an interesting one. Julia and her husband George were involved in volunteer work with the Sanitary Commission (which provided care for Union soldiers), and were consequently invited to Washington by President Lincoln in 1862. While visiting a Union Army camp in Virginia, they heard the men singing a catchy tune about the death of radical abolitionist, John Brown, who was hanged for taking over the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry and trying to provoke a slave rebellion in 1859. A clergyman in the party, James Freeman Clarke, who knew that Julia wrote poems, urged her to write a new one for the war effort. She described the events later::
"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 the 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 an old sheet of paper and an old stub of a pen which I had had the night before, and began to scrawl the lines almost without looking, as I learned to do by often scratching down verses in the darkened room when my little children were sleeping. Having completed this, I lay down again and fell asleep, but not before feeling that something of importance had happened to me."
The resulting poem was first published in February 1862 in the Atlantic Monthly (see next lot), and called "Battle Hymn of the Republic." When it was put to the tune of "John Brown's Body," it became the best known Civil War song of the North. Although an important reformer for world peace and woman's suffrage (with Lucy Stone she founded the New England Women's Club, which later became the American Woman Suffrage Association), Howe will always be remembered as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Estimated Value $7,000 - 9,000.
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