ar indemnity the
conquerors added the spoliation of two important provinces, indignation
added itself to regret. The suspicion at once suggested itself that
Germany had very willingly given a pretext for the war, having known
enough of the demoralized condition of France to be sure of an easy
victory, and intending to make the opportunity serve for the forcible
annexation of provinces long coveted.

As I was revolving these matters in my mind, while the war was still in
progress, I was visited by a sudden feeling of the cruel and unnecessary
character of the contest. It seemed to me a return to barbarism, the
issue having been one which might easily have been settled without
bloodshed. The question forced itself upon me, "Why do not the mothers
of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that
human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" I had never
thought of this before. The august dignity of motherhood and its
terrible responsibilities now appeared to me in a new aspect, and I
could think of no better way of expressing my sense of these than that
of sending forth an appeal to womanhood throughout the world, which I
then and there composed. I did not dare to make this public without the
advice of some wise counselor, and sought such an one in the person of
Rev. Charles T. Brooks of Newport, a beloved friend and esteemed pastor.

The little document which I drew up in the heat of my enthusiasm
implored women, all the world over, to awake to the knowledge of the
sacred right vested in them as mothers to protect the human life which
costs them so many pangs. I did not doubt but that my appeal would find
a ready response in the hearts of great numbers of women throughout the
limits of civilization. I invited these imagined helpers to assist me in
calling and holding a congress of women in London, and at once began a
wide task of correspondence for the realization of this plan. My first
act was to have my appeal translated into various languages, to wit:
French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Swedish, and to distribute copies
of it as widely as possible. I devoted the next two years almost
entirely to correspondence with leading women in various countries. I
also held two important meetings in New York, at which the cause of
peace and the ability of women to promote it were earnestly presented.
At the first of these, which took place in the late autumn of 1870, Mr.
Bryant gave me his venerable