Letter to Auguste Vermorel, August 27, 1867

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 27 August 1867


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934
Translated from the French
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO AUGUSTE VERMOREL[1]

IN PARIS

London, 27 August 1867
1 Modena Villas, Maitland Park,
Haverstock Hill

Citizen,

Two things astonish me in your newspaper,[2] for whose character, courage, good will and talent I have respect.

1. You are turning your paper into an echo for Russian lies (and Greek, the Greeks having been taken in by the Russians) about the so-called revolution in Crete.[3] May I be permitted to send you an English extract on the true state of affairs in Candia.[4]

2. You reproduced the canards (of Russian origin) concerning the initiative North America is to take against the Turks. You ought to know that the President of the United States does not have the power to declare war. The Senate alone can decide. If President Johnson, who is a dirty tool of the SLAVEHOLDERS, although you are so naive as to make him out to be a second Washington, seeks to win a little popularity by entangling foreign-policy affairs and BY SWAGGERING ABROAD, the YANKEES are neither children nor French. The mere fact that he has taken the initiative amid all this tentative exploration suffices to nullify any serious effect it may have.

You must excuse my taking the liberty of writing to you thus. We are both pursuing the same aim, the emancipation of the proletariat. This entitles us to be frank with one another.

I would ask you not to publish these lines. I am addressing them to you privately and as a friend.

Greetings and fraternity,

Karl Marx
Member of the General Council
of the International Working
Men's Association

I am most astonished at your plaudits for the Peace League.[5] It is no less (I refer to the Peace Congress) than cowardice in action. One must either protest in Berlin and Paris, or else—if one is too cowardly to do that—at least not deceive the public with ambiguous, ineffectual and declamatory pronouncements.

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in K. Marx, On America and the Civil War. Edited and translated by Saul K. Padover, New York, 1972.
  2. ↑ Le Courrier français
  3. ↑ In the summer of 1866 the Greek population of Crete (Candia) rose against Turkish domination demanding union with Greece. Despite the cruel punitive measures taken by the Turkish troops against the insurgents and civilians, the struggle continued, supported by volunteers from many other countries.
    The events on Crete brought about a new aggravation of the international contradictions in the Middle East. In November 1866 the Russian government proposed that the European powers should demand from the Turkish Empire the transfer of Crete to Greece. However, the western powers preferred Crete to remain under the Turkish rule since they were afraid that the position of Russia in the region might be strengthened and the national liberation movement of the nations ruled by the Sultan be further stepped up. The support of the Crete insurgents went no further than a joint statement made by Russia, France, Italy and Prussia of 29 October 1867 which recommended that the Turkish government should restrain from bloody excesses on Crete. In 1869 the insurrection was completely suppressed.
  4. ↑ Crete
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 420.