Sara Hammond Palfrey

Overview

Sara Hammond Palfrey born Boston, MA December 11, 1823 (d. 1914). American poet; pacifist opposed to Spanish-American War.

Quotations

The Holy Ghost is beginning to arouse the conscience of Christendom against the superstition of war. . .
’The strangers I sought in far-off lands
To plunder, to main, to slay,
To reave them of children and wives, their homes
In ashes so red to lay’
‘Ruffian! Murderer!’
‘Nay; for I followed the multitude,
When I went to do this evil;
The long streets cheered, and we called it War!’
‘Did Christ lead, or the devil?’

(“Judgment to Come”, Springfield Republican, 1899 in Liberty Poems, p. 97)