Letter to Joseph Weydemeyer, April 16, 1852

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 16 April 1852


First published in New Yorker Volks-zeitung, No. 12, 14 January 1931
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


ENGELS TO JOSEPH WEYDEMEYER[1]

IN NEW YORK

Manchester, 16 April 1852

Dear Weydemeyer,

Yesterday received your letter of 30 (?) March, together with the account of the revolutionary assembly.[2] I note that you have begun to stamp your letters, which is nonsensical; this CONCERN, id est Messieurs Ermen & Engels, can pay the postage. The things have been sent on to Marx.

The day before yesterday I arrived back here from London, where I had spent Easter. Marx's youngest child[3] was very ill and, as I now learn from him,[4] has since died—the second already in London. As you can imagine, his wife is greatly afflicted by it. There has also been some illness in Freiligrath's family, but things are going better there.

Dronke, as you will know, was arrested on his way through Paris. It was partly his own fault for, despite his earlier expulsion, the little man had lingered there for 3 weeks. Now he writes to say that he has been removed from the Mazas prison and taken back to the Préfecture de Police, to be sent to Boulogne and England on Good Friday evening. But up till now we have heard nothing more of him. The little man shows a remarkable talent for constantly getting INTO MISCHIEF, but no doubt he will turn up one of these days. Then the whole of the N. Rh. Z. will be in England, for Weerth, though he is in Hamburg again just now, still has connection with Bradford and, no matter how he struggles, will always find himself cast up there again.

It seems probable that our Cologne friends[5] will appear before the Court of Assizes in May, since the Board of indicting magistrates was expected to have decided their case by Monday, 5 April, and will certainly not have discharged them. This is just as well; the public prosecutor would immediately have appealed against an acquittal. If a certain Hansen of Cologne, a working man, should arrive in New York, treat him according to his deserts. The fellow, a member of the League since 1848, administered, i.e. drank, the monies collected for the prisoners before absconding to America.

In the camp of the National Loaners there is considerable dissatisfaction with Reichenbach, the treasurer, for keeping so tight a hold on the purse-strings, since in any case more money has already been spent than can decently be accounted for and, as a well-to-do and respectable citizen, he is faced with the ominous prospect of the forthcoming audit. Hence Kinkel and Willich are furious, but to no effect: Kinkel must return to his tutoring and now, as in the past, Willich is begging and borrowing with an impudence hitherto found only among Polish patriots. Thus, throughout the noble émigré alliance, the most glorious confusion reigns and, if the Guarantors' Congress takes place, or has already taken place, things will come to a very pretty pass. Löwe of Calbe and the rest of the Frankfurters[6] are now also at daggers drawn with Kinkel, 'a chap with whom one can but compromise oneself.

Has Teilering got his statement into any of the papers?[7] Voilà ce qu'il nous importe de savoir[8] for, if so, Marx can attack it. We would, by the way, be very glad if Dana would send us copies of Marx's articles[9] ; we have only had the first 6 and should be glad to have the following ones. If Dana pleads too much work, the best thing would be for you to get hold of them yourself and send them here. Marx has long been meaning to write to you about this, but just now is probably not in a state to turn his thoughts to it. See what you can do, for we must have a complete set here; later on that sort of thing will also be important as a document.

My strategical article[10] is no longer any good and is all the less suitable for a collection as the essentials were not really in it, but in my letter to you.[11] So do not hesitate to file it away. As soon as I have time to work undisturbed and some prospect of publication, I shall send you articles on the development of commerce and on the present state of the English industrial bourgeoisie.[12] For the present I must spend the next fortnight or 3 weeks exclusively on the study of Russian and Sanscrit, in which I am now engaged[13] ; later, when my material arrives from Germany, I shall turn to military matters, but there is plenty of time for that and as a task it is less arduous.

The post is about to go—many regards to your wife and to Cluss.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This letter was published in English for the first time, slightly abridged, in Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Letters to Americans. 1848-1895, International Publishers, New York, 1953
  2. ↑ The reference here is to Weydemeyer's letter to Marx and Engels of 6 April 1852. The part addressed to Engels bore no date, thus giving rise to Engels' doubts. Engels has in mind here a meeting of the German petty-bourgeois refugees convened in New York on 3 April 1852 by the representatives of the American Revolutionary League (see Note 173) and presided by Fickler. Goegg and Fickler, who vied with Kinkel in raising funds in the USA for the so-called German-American revolutionary loan (see Note 27), tried to make Kinkel's supporters agree to the association of the rival emigrant organisations. This was also reported in Cluss' letter to Wolff of 4-6 April 1852
  3. ↑ Franziska
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 78.
  5. ↑ the Communist League members arrested and detained under investigation
  6. ↑ former deputies to the Frankfurt National Assembly of 1848-49
  7. ↑ Judging by Weydemeyer's letter to Marx of 11 May 1852 Müller-Tellering's letter containing slanderous attacks on Marx was not accepted by the American newspapers
  8. ↑ That is what it is important for us to know
  9. ↑ Engels is referring to his series of articles, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany.
  10. ↑ F. Engels, 'England', I.
  11. ↑ See this volume, pp. 18-19.
  12. ↑ The reference is to Engels' series of articles on England written for Die Revolution. Two articles got lost on their way to the USA (see this volume, p. 16). Manuscripts of the last two articles have survived (see present edition, Vol. 11). The first of these was written by Engels on 23 January and published on 15 November 1852 in the Turn-Zeitung (New York) to which Weydemeyer contributed. The second, written on 30 January 1852, was not published during Engels' lifetime, but was used by Weydemeyer in a number of his own writings for the press
  13. ↑ ibid., p. 67.