It became Lincolnâs favorite song and the Unionâs theme song. Her name was Julia Ward Howe, the daughter of a Wall Street banker and the wife of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, director of a school for the blind in Boston, which grew into the famous Perkins Institute. Julia and her husband entertained John Brown in their home and published the anti-slavery journal Commonwealth. In 1861, Julia traveled to Washington, D.C., and saw the city teeming with military, horses galloping all around and innumerable campfires burning. Julia Ward Howe wrote: âI went to bed that night as usual, and slept, according to my wont, quite soundly. I awoke in the gray of the morning twilight;