Letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt, October 28, 1868

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 28 October 1868


First published abridged in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXV, Moscow, 1934, and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 32, Moscow, 1964
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO SIGFRID MEYER AND AUGUST VOGT

IN NEW YORK

London, 28 October 1868

Dear Meyer and Vogt,

The enclosed credentials for Meyer (I have added the same for you[1] ) will show you that your wish had already been met by 13 October. Meyer's appointment was printed in The Bee-Hive[2] on 3 October.[3] The GENERAL COUNCIL has resolved that the German correspondents shall correspond with me, Pelletier (for the French) with Dupont, and Eccarius with Jessup. I myself suggested the latter, as I have no time for more correspondence. You can hand the enclosed lines to Jessup[4] and, at the same time, show him your credentials.

With regard to Eccarius there is some misunderstanding. I have never quarrelled with him; on the contrary I have supported him to this day against the ATTACKS by the English, etc.[5] But he—his preponderant and often narrow-minded egoism perhaps developed as a result of his circumstances—commits unpleasant tomfooleries from time to time. I generally take no notice of this. Now and then my patience is exhausted. I give him a brain washing, and ALL is RIGHT AGAIN for the time being. The poor devil is, at present, very ill, and he always utilises such moments to say his pater peccavi.[6] To what Liebknecht is referring, according to Vogt's letter, I have absolutely no idea. I, at least, have never written a word to anybody against Eccarius EXCEPT in my letter to Meyer, at a moment when I was upset by letters from our other delegates to the Brussels Congress in which they denounced Eccarius.[7] But it is quite possible that Eccarius wrote to Liebknecht without my knowledge in such a way that moved the latter to make his remarks to Vogt. This would be peculiar, since just at that time I had a big dispute with the English about and for Eccarius.

As far as Sorgeh is concerned, no further action. My lines to Jessup explain the TEMPORARY character of the credentials.

Cards for members are no longer available, must be reprinted. Liebknecht is dabbling too much in south German patriotism, and he should not print such nonsense about 'state and society'[8] containing the exact opposite of our opinions. Salut. In all haste.

Yours

K. Marx

Apropos. Do you know Dietzgen? He has now returned from Petersburg to the Rhine to establish himself as a small tanner. He is one of the most gifted workers I know, I mean by correspondence. I don't know him personally.

A translation of my book is now appearing in Russian in St. Petersburg.[9] Or did I already inform you of this?

[Enclosure]

[London,] 256 High Holborn, W. C.

Citizen A. Vogt is appointed on 13 October 1868 by the General Council of the International Working Men's Association as corresponding Secretary for the year 1868-69 for the International Working Men's Association (German section in America).

13 October 1868

On behalf of the General Council

Karl Marx

SECRETARY FOR GERMANY

  1. ↑ The General Council's credentials for August Vogt, which Marx enclosed with his letter to Meyer and Vogt of 28 October 1868, are published according to the copy made by Sigfrid Meyer on the copy of Marx's letter to Jessup of 28 October 1868.
  2. ↑ The Bee Hive, No. 364, 3 October 1868, 'The International Working Men's Association'.
  3. ↑ In the original erroneously 10 October
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 147.
  5. ↑ At the General Council meeting of 8 October 1867 Peter Fox, James Carter and Robert Shaw accused Eccarius of misrepresenting the reports on the Lausanne Congress published in The Times on 6, 9, 10 and 11 September 1867. See also Marx's letters to Engels of 4 and 9 October 1867, present edition, Vol. 42.-97, 106, 148
  6. ↑ Father, I have sinned (Luke 15: 21).
  7. ↑ See this volume, p. 97.
  8. ↑ Demokratisches Wochenblatt, No. 41, 10 October 1868, 'Der Staat und die soziale Frage'.
  9. ↑ Marx is referring to a letter written to him by Nikolai Danielson on 30 (18) September 1868, with a postscript by Nikolai Lyubavin dated 14 (2) October. Danielson wrote: 'The significance of your latest work—Capital. Critique of Political Economy—has prompted one of local publishers (N. Polyakov) to undertake its translation into Russian. The various attendant circumstances make it desirable to publish the second volume simultaneously with the first. Therefore, as the publisher's representative, I request you, should you consider it possible, to send me sheets of the second volume as soon as they have been published.' In his reply, Marx enclosed a note on his own literary and political activities, which was used in the preface to Capital's Russian edition (see this volume, pp. 123-25 and Note 196).