Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, April 20, 1871

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 20 April 1871


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN LEIPZIG

London, 20 April 1871
122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Liebknecht,

I must tell you today in all haste about the so-called INTERNATIONAL DEMOCRATIC ASSOCIATION,[1] which you may well never have heard of and which, therefore, might be confused with us.

The association is a caricature of the IWMA. It has vegetated in obscurity here for a number of years, but expresses its desire, from time to time, to present itself to a wider public, i.e. to make itself ridiculous, exhibiting at the same time a certain secondary tendency to let itself quietly be mistaken for the IWMA. Since these people again held a meeting on the Paris Commune in Hyde Park last Sunday[2] —a meeting which under their auspices was inevitably doomed to failure (they even let it be known that we had sent delegates, even though, when they sent a deputation to us, we roundly refused to do so)—and since they now also intend to establish branches on the Continent and will presumably send deputations to you as well, it has become necessary to make you acquainted with them. In the first place, there is Weber, that old trouble-maker from the Palatinate, whom you know; and secondly, Le Lubez, whom you have also come across. I enclose a cutting in which they present their muddled programme to the world in muddled language. Insofar as it is comprehensible, it is purely bourgeois; what they have to say on the subject of providing work and, alternatively, of making provision for those unable to work, is already fulfilled by the English Poor Law.[3] They take good care not to say a word about capital and labour. The NATIONALISATION OF LAND is so universally accepted here that they cannot evade it, and in itself is so little in conflict with bourgeois interests that only the day before yesterday a Tory who has his million thalers in safe keeping told me that he was in favour of it. Weber is also, as you know, a supporter of Heinzen and a pure 'democrat'.

As long as these fellows pursued their activities in obscurity here, we left them to themselves, but if they choose to expand, conflicts will be unavoidable and we shall then have to hit them where it hurts.

So the Volksstaat was confiscated again yesterday for lèse majesté, as we hear on the telegraph.[4] I am astonished that it did not happen earlier. You are extremely impudent. But 'after all, this is only right and proper', as Frederick II used to say.

The Vogt story[5] should be kept alive for a while. It is evident from the context that Karl Vogt is the only Vogt who can be meant. In the first place, no other Vogt is so well known as to be referred to as Vogt, tout court, without first name and address. In the second place, what other Vogt performed such valuable services at that time for the Bonaparte family that he should have been given 40,000 frs in August, i.e. immediately after the conclusion of the Italian campaign? Moreover, the formula, il lui a été remis en Août 1859',[6] indicates that he had received other remittances. The more frequently you return to the point, the more the bourgeois press, which suppresses all this, will find itself forced to take note of it. You might also bring it to the attention of the Proletarier and the Volkswille. Since experience has taught me that Stieber's agents are as clumsy at opening letters as they are at fabricating conspiracies, I hereby inform you once and for all that all my letters to you are securely sealed with my seal and the initials F. E. in Gothic script. The Prussians cannot yet in all decency break open sealing-wax on rubber, and certainly not so that it cannot be noticed. Mostly they just tear open the side of the envelope with their oafish fists. So if my seal is not clear and legible you will know what has happened. It will at any rate infuriate the fellows to have to let a letter addressed to you and with F. E. on the seal pass through their hands unbroken.

It is time for the post and I still have all sorts of things to tell you, but I must end now.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ The International Democratic Association included petty-bourgeois French and German emigres in London and also English bourgeois Republicans. In April 1871 members of the Association founded the Universal Republican League. Its leaders invited the General Council of the International to join, but their proposal was rejected unanimously at the General Council meeting on 25 April 1871. With his letter Engels enclosed a newspaper clipping with the League's programme.
  2. ↑ 16 April
  3. ↑ The Poor Law of 1834—An Act for the Amendment and Better Administration of the Laws Relating to the Poor in England and Wales—provided for only one form of relief for the able-bodied poor: workhouses with a prison-like regime.
  4. ↑ Its revolutionary publications brought Der Volksstaat frequent harassment from the Prussian government. In April alone several issues were impounded 'for insulting state authorities and the Emperor of Germany'.
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 130.
  6. ↑ 'it was remitted to him in August 1859'