Letter to Karl Marx, November 27, 1861

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 November 1861


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 41
An extract from this letter was first published in English in: Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Civil War in the United States, New York, 1937


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 27 November 1861

Dear Moor,

Have the YANKEES gone quite out of their minds, playing such a mad trick on the CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS?[1] The FACT that even over here in the Channel, a warship was lying in wait for the MAIL STEAMER shows that general instructions had gone out from Washington. There could be no clearer casus belli[2] than to forcibly seize political prisoners on board a foreign vessel. The fellows must be completely crazy to saddle themselves with a war against England. If war should really break out, you could send your letters to New York via Germany or Le Havre, under cover to a third party, but you'll have to take care that you're not aiding and abetting the ENEMIES of the QUEEN.[3]

I was delighted to hear that Bakunin had bolted. The poor devil must have been very much the worse for wear. What a way to make a journey round the world!

Monsieur Bonaparte would also seem to get no money and Fould pretty well at his wits' end.[4] I can't help wondering what's going to happen there.

Things are going swimmingly in Russia and Poland, and now there's also a chance that good old Prussia may at long last be involved in a crisis, provided the electors don't allow themselves to be intimidated again.[5] But the purse, the purse! That may well serve to keep the few 'men of Progress' afloat a little while longer. In Cologne it is even rumoured that good old Heinrich Bürgers might stand for Parliament.

Varnhagen's Tagebücher[6] must be quite interesting. All the same, the fellow was a scurvy, cowardly knave. There was quite a witty article about the thing in the Kreuz-Zeitung,—full of spite and malice, of course.[7]

On 1 December, I shall send you another fiver. Many regards,

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ This refers to the Trent affair
  2. ↑ cause of war
  3. ↑ Victoria
  4. ↑ An allusion to the financial crisis experienced by Bonapartist France in the autumn of 1861, when the national exchequer was one milliard francs in the red. On this see Marx's articles 'Monsieur Fould' and 'France's Financial Situation' (present edition, Vol. 19).
  5. ↑ This refers to the second round of elections to the Lower House (Chamber of Deputies) of the Prussian Diet, held on 6 December 1861.
  6. ↑ K. A. Varnhagen von Ense, Tagebücher. Aus dem Nachlaß Varnhagen's von Ense, Bd. I-II, Leipzig, 1861.
  7. ↑ 'Varnhagen und seine "Pulverkammer"', Neue Preussische Zeitung, 24 November 1861 (supplement).