Letter to Friedrich Engels, October 10, 1859

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 10 October 1859


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXII, Moscow, 1929
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 10 October 1859

DEAR Frederick,

The money arrived on Saturday and really 'saved our lives', for on that day the gang of creditors, or part of it, launched a concerted attack. MY BEST THANKS. Likewise for the manuscript.[1]

I enclose herewith my Tribune article on Kossuth.[2] Let Lupus have a look at it as well. Then send it back to me. There'll be a major rumpus, since Pulszky is the Tribune's London correspondent. T h e words b I eitere 'AUSTRIAN SYMPATHIES', 'ANTI-NAPOLEONIC RAGE', etc., are taken from Pulszky's LETTER in the Tribune in which h e sought to defend Kossuth and Co.[3] IN FACT I'm surprised that, in THESE CIRCUMSTANCES and in view of its general faible for Kossuth, the Tribune printed the article. True, I enclosed a brief note in German which put heart into Dana.

Collet has sent Kossuth 5 COPIES of the last Free Press. T h e Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung has reproduced the thing.[4] Likewise the Weser-Zeitung. Collet came to see me yesterday. Statesman Blind had called on him and complained forcefully about his (Collet's) having failed to preserve editorial secrecy vis-à-vis myself. H e (Collet) must call on me to prevent my doing any more MISCHIEF. T h e Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung was 'A RUSSIAN (!) ORGAN', which was why he (Blind) would not hold out a helping hand to it.[5] T o me, Collet said: *'At the outset, he made upon me the impression of a very sneakish fellow.' * Statesman Blind, like the gentleman he is, has not deigned to answer Liebknecht, and imagines he's been able to spike my guns through Collet. THE FOOL! At the same time he tried to get Collet to tell him who had written about Kossuth in the [Free] Press. Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ F. Engels, 'Infantry'.
  2. ↑ On 23 August 1859 the New-York Daily Tribune published an anonymous item marked 'From Our Own Correspondent' (written by the Hungarian emigrant Ferenc Pulszky) which was an attempt to justify Kossuth's ties with Napoleon III. Early in September Marx sent two articles to the paper exposing the ties of both Kossuth and his followers, including Pulszky, with Bonapartist circles. The facts testifying to Kossuth's dealings with Napoleon III, which Marx cited in the two articles were given to him by Bertalan Szemere on 1 September 1859 when the latter visited him in London. The Tribune published, on 24 September, one article by Marx on the subject, 'Kossuth and Louis Napoleon' (present edition, Vol. 16), possibly combining the two he had sent. Whether Marx's private letter to the Tribune editor, Charles Dana, was used in it is not known, for the letter has not been found. On 28 September the London Free Press published Marx's article 'Particulars of Kossuth's Transaction with Louis Napoleon', which was a condensed version of the Tribune article.—494, 497, 507, 525
  3. ↑ [F. Pulszky,] 'From Our Own Correspondent. Monday, August 7, 1859', New-York Daily Tribune, No. 5720, 23 August 1859.
  4. ↑ [K. Marx,] 'Ludwig Kossuth und Louis Napoleon', Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 276 (supplement), 3 October 1859. (It was a German translation of Marx's article 'Particulars of Kossuth's Transaction with Louis Napoleon' published in The Free Press, No. 10, 28 September 1859.)
  5. ↑ On 22 June 1859 the Allgemeine Zeitung reprinted the pamphlet Zur Warnung, which induced Vogt, in July, to bring an action for libel against the paper. The case was heard on 24 October 1859. In early August the editors of the Allgemeine Zeitung had asked Liebknecht for proof of the accusations against Vogt contained in Zur Warnung. Liebknecht requested Marx to help him obtain Blind's admission that he, Blind, was the author of the anonymous pamphlet. Marx considered such an admission necessary also because Vogt had declared Marx to be the author of the pamphlet. Besides, Marx wanted to expose the cowardice of this petty-bourgeois democrat who dared not challenge Bonaparte's agents openly and was, as it were, aiding and abetting Vogt in his dispute with the Allgemeine Zeitung. Though Marx emphatically condemned the paper's conservative views, in this case he assisted it in the interests of the common struggle against Bonapartism. The court dismissed Vogt's action (see present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 111-32, also pp. 3 and 8-9).—488, 503, 507, 514, 519, 520