| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 30 April 1852 |
MARX TO JOSEPH WEYDEMEYER[1]
IN NEW YORK
London, 30 April 1852 28 Dean Street, Soho
Dear Weydemeyer,
The news of the printing is very welcome.[2] You must not take Lupus' letter[3] so much au sérieux.[4] In our very straitened circumstances there is, you know, inevitably a surplus of irritation which must always be 'discounted' if one is to strike a right balance.
Neither I nor Engels has received your anti-Kinkel article in the Turn-Zeitung.[5] I await it with keen interest since your anti-Heinzen polemic was a model of its kind.[6]
I am horrified to learn that Pfänder's statements are appearing in the pamphlet.[7] That sort of thing is all very well for a weekly where what crops up today is submerged tomorrow in the welter of time. In a pamphlet, on the other hand, it acquires altogether too much permanence, looks too much like a party manifesto and, if we want to attack the swine, there are, of course, better and different ways of doing so than in Pfänder's statement. Unfortunately this will arrive too late.— Just now I am negotiating with a bookseller here who is to get your Revolution sent to Germany. More about this next week.
As regards the newly invented lacquer varnish about which I and Bangya wrote to you,[8] you must not let the thing out of your own hands. It might set you up in funds at one stroke. Write and tell me when the EXHIBITION opens in New York,[9] and all you know about it. You can make use of the opportunity both to strike up acquaintances and to establish all the connections with foreign businessmen necessary to a forwarding agency. Write to me at once, giving full details of the expenses you thereby incur. We must, of course, let you have these en avance. In the first place you will need a fellow to keep a constant eye on the stuff at the Exhibition, since you yourself cannot spend the whole day in the building for the sake of it. Secondly, you will need money for advertisements and announcements in the newspapers. So let us have a detailed estimate of expenses.
As to Szemere, his pamphlet[10] will soon be READY. But since I cannot, as he asks, send him a 'bundle' of copies of the Revolution, and since our enemies may have whispered in his ear that your paper has appeared only twice before submerging again, I cannot just now get any money from that quarter, for the confidence of these people has been shaken. But he is coming here in person and I shall then straighten everything out.
It would be a pity if your anti-Kinkel polemic were not to appear in the very first number. The fellow is going utterly to pot. A Dane by the name of Goldschmidt lampooned him splendidly in the feuilleton of the Kölner Zeitung, recounting his meeting with him and Schurz in London.[11] Dronke, finally released from custody in Paris, has arrived here and is saying that in private friend Schurz declares Kinkel a jackass whom he only intends to exploit. This man, Kinkel's 'modest liberator', has smuggled an article into the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung[12] in which he proclaims himself 'the only important man among the London émigrés', declares Kinkel and Ruge to be 'out-moded' and, in proof of his own greatness, cites the fact that he is marrying a 'rich' girl, Ronge's sister-in-law, and that, after completion of the nuptials, he will remove to America. Quel grand homme! Quant à Tellering[13] keep me au fait about this individual. As soon as I think fit, I can destroy him, not only in the eyes of our party, but in the eyes of all parties.[14]
Yesterday, then, Mr Kinkel held his Guarantors' Congress.[15] Mr Willich did not appear; he is very embittered with Kinkel as a result of the news which we conveyed to him by a roundabout route (we had had it from Cluss). Mr Ruge sent a letter in which he declared Kinkel to be an agent of the 'King of Prussia',[16] and gave himself superior airs. Mr Reichenbach declared that he wanted to have nothing more to do with the filthy business. Thus a definitive committee was elected, seven in number—of the alleged communists only Willich, who is unlikely to accept. In addition, Löwe of Calbe, who has already refused. Next, Kinkel, Schütz of Mainz, Fickler. I do not know who the other two are. According to some reports, the curs have 3,000 dollars in cash and, according to others, 9,000. They immediately resolved that the 7 members of the provisional government should receive payment,[17] a fact you must report in the Turn-Zeitung.[18] For the rest, the whole dungheap is disintegrating.
Keep at least some of the copies of the Revolution READY for Germany until you receive my order.
I have forwarded your letter to Jones. He cannot possibly pay anything. He is as dépourvu[19] as ourselves, and we all write for him gratis. Cluss will have told you about the battle between Jones and Harney. I have sent him details of it.[20] However, the things must be kept from the American Press for as long as possible.
Big business and industry are now doing better than ever in England and hence on the Continent. As a result of the exceptional circumstances—California, Australia, England's commercial penetration of the Punjab, Sind and other only recently conquered parts of India, it may well be that the crisis will be postponed until 1853. But then its eruption will be appalling. And until that time there can be no thought of revolutionary convulsions.
The trial of the Cologne people has again been deferred, this time until the July Assizes. By then the Assizes, i.e. the JURIES, will probably have been abolished in Prussia.
Philistine Lüning, so Dronke tells me, has been here with his spouse in order to unify Agitation and Emigration[21] —fruitlessly, of course.
Farewell. Warmest regards to your wife from my wife and myself.
Your
K. M.
Hardly ever have I seen anything more stupid than Bruno Bauer's article on 'the decline of England'.[22]
How did the fellow manage to get in with Dana?