HOWE 



2855 



HOWE 



business on his own account, and became edi- 

 tor and joint owner of a weekly called The 

 Acadian. After a year he sold his interest to 

 his partner, and purchased The Nova Scotian, 

 which he edited until his election to the Nova 

 Scotia assembly in 1836. In 1830 he began to 

 write a series of Legislative Reviews, in which 

 he criticized, first with caution and later with 

 increasing boldness, the public men of Nova 

 Scotia. All government officials were then 

 appointed by the lieutenant-governor and were 

 independent of the people, and, notably in 

 Halifax, were guilty of glaring dishonesty. 

 Howe's attacks on them culminated in an arti- 

 cle in his paper on January 1, 1835, when the 

 charge of corruption was openly made. So 

 specific was the charge that prosecution for 

 libel was the answer. The jury took just ten 

 minutes to decide that he was not guilty. 



His Political Career. The result of this re- 

 markable episode was that Howe became the 

 hero of the people. In dramatic fashion he 

 had given the deathblow to the old system of 

 municipal government, and in 1841 a new sys- 

 tem of elected city officials was provided by 

 statute. In November, 1836, Howe was elected 

 to the assembly, which, under his leadership, 

 brought about many important reforms (see 

 NOVA SCOTIA, subtitle History}, and after a bit- 

 ter struggle with the governor responsible gov- 

 ernment was won in 1848. Howe was ap- 

 pointed to the executive council as provincial 

 secretary, and two years later went to England 

 to secure funds for the Intercolonial Railway, 

 a scheme which was very close to his heart. 

 He finally (1854) resigned from the cabinet, 

 and took the position of chief commissioner 

 of railways. He remained in the assembly, 

 however, until 1863, except for an interval of a 

 year. From 1860 to 1863 he was premier of 

 Nova Scotia. 



In the latter year the British government 

 appointed him fisheries' commissioner to the 

 United States. In this position his duties pre- 

 vented him from taking an active part in the 

 movement for Confederation, although he had 

 for years written and spoken of the desirability 

 of such a plan. It has been said, no doubt 

 with some degree of truth/ that if Howe had 

 been present at the Charlottetown and Quebec 

 conferences, and had helped to draft the resolu- 

 tions, he would have been heart and soul in 

 favor of Confederation. However that may 

 be, Howe became the leading opponent of the 

 plan, and after it was adopted tried to have 

 the British North America Act repealed. Fail- 



ing in this, he sought and obtained better finan- 

 cial terms for Nova Scotia. He was elected 

 to the House of Commons in 1867, and in 1869, 

 though a lifelong Liberal, accepted the presi- 

 dency of the council in the Macdonald Minis- 

 try. In 1870 he became Secretary of State, 

 and in May, 1873, was appointed lieutenant- 

 governor of Nova Scotia. His death came un- 

 expectedly on June 1, 1873. G.H.L. 



HOWE, JULIA WARD (1819-1910), a distin- 

 guished woman whose activities covered the 

 fields of authorship, philanthropy and politics. 

 Her best-known poem, which thrilled the 

 North and was sung with patriotic fervor for 

 many years, was 

 The Battle Hymn 

 of the Republic; 

 it was written 

 while she was vis- 

 iting military 

 camps near Wash- 

 ington in 1861, 

 soon after the 

 outbreak of the 

 War of Secession, 

 and has been 

 called the "Mar- JULIA WARD HOWE 

 seillaise of the unemotional Yankee." After 

 the slavery question had been settled, Mrs. 

 Howe became active in the cause of woman's 

 suffrage, prison reform and universal peace. 

 She was likewise deeply interested in clubs, 

 notably the New England Women's Club, of 

 which she was made president in 1872. Among 

 her volumes of poems are Passion Flowers and 

 From Sunset Ridge; her prose writings include 

 A Trip to Cuba, her fascinating Reminiscences , 

 and Sex and Education. 



Mrs. Howe was born in New York City, but 

 spent much of her life in Boston. She retained 

 her brilliant intellectual powers and quick wit 

 and humor to the last, dying at the age of 

 ninety-one, one of the most revered women 

 of her time. One of the stories which shows 

 her famous use of repartee tells of her acknowl- 

 edgment of a card: "Greetings to Boston's 

 greatest Trinity Howe, Higginson and Hale." 

 "Well," she exclaimed, "they can't say that we 

 drop our 'H's' in Boston." 



HOWE, the family name of two British 

 soldiers, brothers, both of whom fought for 

 England in the struggle with the American 

 colonies. 



Richard Howe, Earl (1726-1799), was one of 

 England's distinguished naval officers during 

 its numerous wars of the eighteenth century. 



