Letter to Friedrich Engels, September 11, 1867

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 11 September 1867


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 3, Berlin, 1930
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 11 September 1867

DEAR FRED,

Regarding the 'transatlantic Ocean', it is a matter for the final corrector to put right such lapsus pennae.[2] I see that the Zukunft has reprinted this splendid 'flow' along with the greater part of the preface.[3]

The translation in The Bee-Hive[4] is by Eccarius. I believe that most of the errors stem not from him, but, because of his bad hand-writing, from The Bee-Hive's CORRECTORS. I would naturally have preferred you to do the translation. However, as Eccarius offered his services de prime abord,[5] and is now on the staff of The Bee-Hive, that was not feasible.

I shall personally deliver the coup de grâce to those Proudhonist jackasses at the next congress in Brussels. I have DIPLOMATICALLY MANAGED the whole affair and did not want to COME OUT personally before my book appears and our Association is firmly rooted. By the by, I shall give them a caning in the OFFICIAL REPORT of the GENERAL COUNCIL (despite all their efforts, the Parisian wind-bags were unable to prevent our re-election[6] ).

MEANWHILE our Association has made great progress. The wretched Star, which wanted to ignore us entirely, announced in its leading article yesterday that we are more important than the PEACE CONGRESS.[7] Schulze-Delitzsch could not prevent his ' Workers Association in Berlin from joining us.[8] Those wretches from among the English TRADE UNIONISTS, who think we are too 'extreme', are coming flocking. Besides the Courrier français, there have been reports on our congress in Girardin's Liberté, Siècle, Mode, Gazette de France, etc. Les choses marchent[9] And when the next revolution comes, and that will perhaps be sooner than might appear, we (i.e., you and I) will have this mighty ENGINE at our disposal. COMPARE WITH THIS THE RESULTS OF MAZZINFS, ETC, OPERATIONS SINCE 30 YEARS! And with no money to boot! And with the intrigues of the Proudhonists in Paris, Mazzini in Italy and the jealous Odger, Cremer, Potter in London, with the Schulze-Delitzsch and the Lassalleans in Germany! We can be well satisfied!

My children arrived back safe and in good spirits with Lafargue yesterday.[10] He has brought an enormous crystal goblet (holds IV2 POTS) back with him for you. He appears to be impressed with your 'transatlantic Ocean'.

In these days, Lafargue would like to visit you for 3 days at this time before his lectures begin again. The most awkward thing about it is that he is demanding (of course, not being IN THE SECRET OF MY MONEY-AFFAIRS) that I should accompany him, and I have not yet found a satisfactory excuse for turning down this tour, which I just cannot manage.

I am exceedingly vexed with Meissner. He has wasted weeks in bringing out the book. Why?

Salut.

Your

K. M.

2nd letter from Lessner enclosed.[11]

Apropos. Our plump poet's[12] begging-campaign, which, vide[13] the latest Hermann,[14] is not proceeding quite as desired, has had one good result.[15] Kätchen of the sturdy calves[16] is to get married. Notice of betrothal to A CERTAIN Kröker (a most poetic name) in the Zukunft[17]

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Correspondence. 1846-1895. A Selection with Commentary and Notes, Martin Lawrence Ltd., London [1934].
  2. ↑ slips of the pen
  3. ↑ to the first volume of Capital (Die Zukunft, No. 206, 4 September 1867)
  4. ↑ of a part of the preface to the first volume of Capital (The Bee Hive Newspaper, No. 308, 7 September 1867)
  5. ↑ initially
  6. ↑ The activity of the Proudhonists at the International's Lausanne Congress (see Note 462) and the fact that they had some of their resolutions adopted, gave particular urgency to the struggle for the assertion of the main programme principles of scientific communism. In Marx's opinion, this task was to be carried out by the next Congress of the International which was to be held in Brussels in September 1868. Thanks to the energetic preparatory work that was done by Marx and his followers, die decisions of the Brussels Congress, especially the one on the collective ownership of land, paralysed to a considerable extent the influence of the Proudhonists in the International Association.
  7. ↑ The League of Peace and Freedom—a pacifist organisation that was set up in 1867 with the active participation of Victor Hugo, Giuseppe Garibaldi and other democrats. The League owed its origin to the anti-war sentiments of the masses. However, its leaders held pacifist positions; they failed to see the social causes of war and often confined its anti-war activity to mere declarations.
    The League's constituent congress was originally scheduled for 5 September 1867 in Geneva. Its organising committee, which enjoyed the support of a number of radical and democratic public figures like John Stuart Mill and the Reclus brothers', also counted on the participation of the leaders of the European proletariat. Therefore the committee sent invitations to the sections of the Internationa] and its leaders, Marx included, to attend the congress. It was also decided to postpone the opening of the congress until 9 September, so that the delegates of the Lausanne Congress of the International (due on 2-8 September) could take part in it too.
    The International's attitude towards the League of Peace and Freedom was discussed both in the General Council and in local sections. Marx's speech at the Council meeting of 13 August 1867 and the resolution adopted at his proposal (see present edition, Vol. 20, p. 204) formulated the principles of the International's tactics in such a bourgeois-democratic movement. In contrast to the unconditional support of the League, which is what the leaders of the British trade unions inclined towards, the International's tactics envisaged both the joint participation with the democrats in the struggle against the threat of war, provided the class independence of the proletarian organisation was retained, and a revolutionary proletarian approach towards the questions of war and peace in opposition to bourgeois pacifist illusions. Marx believed that the International should not take part in the League's congress on an official basis because that would mean the International's solidarity with its bourgeois programme. However, it was recommended that the International's members should attend the congress privately in order to influence its decisions in a revolutionary-democratic way.
  8. ↑ The Berlin Workers' Association was founded in January 1863 and was under the influence of the men of Progress (see Note 99), especially of Schulze- Delitzsch, and propagandised bourgeois co-operative societies. When the International Working Men's Association was set up, the advanced members of the Berlin Workers' Association were attracted towards it and sought to get rid of the liberals' protection. In October 1868 there was a split in the Berlin Workers' Association. Its radical members formed the Democratic Workers' Association which recognised the programme approved by the Nuremberg Congress of the Union of German Workers' Associations (headed by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht) based on the International's principles. The Democratic Workers' Association waged a vigorous struggle against the Lassalleans. In 1869 it joined the Social-Democratic Workers' Party which came into being at the Eisenach Congress.
  9. ↑ Things are going ahead.
  10. ↑ See this volume, pp. 396 97.
  11. ↑ A reference to Lessner's letter of 7 September 1867 in which he informed Marx about the proceedings of the Lausanne Congress of the International (for Lessner's previous letter about the Congress see Note 472).
  12. ↑ Ferdinand Freilig rath
  13. ↑ see
  14. ↑ Hermann, 7 September 1867.
  15. ↑ A reference to the subscription for Ferdinand Freiligrath that was started in the spring of 1867. The poet's admirers wanted to present him with a 'people's donation' since he had lost his post of manager in the English branch of the Bank of Switzerland after the latter's bankruptcy. With this aim in view, committees were organised in Britain, Germany and the United States through which funds were gathered. Reports about the subscription were regularly published in the London newspaper Hermann.
  16. ↑ Käthe Freiligrath
  17. ↑ Die Zukunft, No. 208 (supplement), 6 September 1867.