Letter to Friedrich Engels, September 10, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 10 September 1870


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. IV, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 10 September 1870

Dear FRED,

You and Dupont must forgive me for answering so late and then only in a few lines. I am OVERWHELMED with political BUSINESS.

You can see from the enclosed pieces of imbecility from opposite places—one from Paris, the other from Brunswick—just how pleasant our task is made for us.

You know that I sent instructions to Brunswick.[1] I assumed—mistakenly—that I was not dealing with uncouth BABIES, but with educated people who must be aware that the brutal language of a letter is not designed 'for printing', and furthermore that instructions have to contain confidential hints that are not intended to be revealed in the blare of publicity. WELL! These jackasses not only print 'word-for-word' extracts from my letter. They point their pitchforks at me, identifying me as the author. And they print sentences, such as the one about 'shifting the centre of gravity of the continental labour movement from France to Germany', etc., which were intended to spur them on, but which were not to be published now under any circumstances.[2] I suppose I must be grateful to them at least for not having published my criticism of the French workers. And to cap it all the fellows even sent their compromising mishmash IN HOT HASTE—to Parisl (To say nothing of Brussels and Geneva.)

I shall really tell them a few home truths, but the damage is done! On the other hand, there are the fools in Paris! They have sent me piles of their absurd chauvinistic manifesto[3] which the English workers here greeted with derision and indignation that I had the greatest difficulty in preventing from being expressed publicly. I am supposed to send the thing to Germany en masse, probably to prove the Germans that they first have to withdraw across the Rhine before they arrive homel And furthermore, instead of writing a rational answer to my letter,[4] the fellows take the liberty of sending me instructions by telegraph (instructions from ex-student Longuet!) on how I must set about agitating in Germany I Quel malheur!a

I have set everything in motion here for the workers to force their government to recognise the French Republic.[5] (The series of MEETINGS begins on Monday.b) Gladstone WAS WILLING ENOUGH at first. But the Queenc was under Prussian instructions and there was also the oligarchic part of the CABINET!

I am sorry to see that that lousy, importunate, vain and over-ambitious babbler Cluseret has got his hooks into Grousset of the Marseillaise, a very able, staunch and courageous man.

The new Address[6] (THANKS for your contribution to it) will be printed by Tuesday. It is long, but that was unavoidable.

Your articles on the FORTIFICATIONS of Paris and the bombardment of Strasbourg are masterly.[7]

Tell Dupont that I am in complete agreement with his views, and that I expressly commissioned Serraillier to write to him saying that he should not leave Manchester pro nuncf}

Schorlemmer here the evening before last.

Salut

Your

K. M.

Apropos! Prof. Schäffle of Tübingen has published a massive and idiotic book[8] against me (it costs 12/6d!).

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, 'Letter to the Committee of the Social Democratic Workers' Party' (see also this volume, p. 65).
  2. ↑ Marx is referring to the Manifesto issued on 5 September 1870 by the Brunswick Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party (Manifest des Ausschusses der sozial-demokratischen Arbeiterpartei. An alle deutschen Arbeiter!). The Manifesto proclaimed the German working class's loyalty to the cause of internationalism and called on German workers to organise mass protest meetings against the Prussian government's plans for annexations. Excerpts from the letter which Marx and Engels wrote to the Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party (see present edition, Vol. 22, pp. 260-62) were included in the Manifesto with a note that they had been written by 'one of our oldest and most meritorious comrades in London'.
  3. ↑ The proclamation by the French sections of the International to the German people was published in Der Volksstaat, No. 73, on 11 September 1870 (see Note 101).
  4. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  5. ↑ The General Council of the International including Marx played a major part in organising the movement of British workers for recognition of the French Republic by the British government. From 5 September mass demonstrations were held in London, Birmingham, Newcastle and other English cities.
  6. ↑ K. Marx, 'Second Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco-Prussian War'.
  7. ↑ F. Engels, Notes on the War, XVI and XVII.
  8. ↑ A. E. F. Schäffle, Kapitalismus und Socialismus mit besonderer Rücksicht auf Geschäfts- und Vermögensformen.