Letter to Friedrich Engels, September 14, 1870

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 14 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 in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 14 September 1870

DEAR FRED,

Am sending 12 COPIES of the ADDRESS[2] at the same time as this letter. Various minor printing errors, small words omitted, etc., but nothing that distorts the meaning. This will be corrected in the second edition. You must bear in mind that the GENERAL COUNCIL HAS

a V. Hugo, 'Aux allemands', Le Rappel No. 455, 10 September 1870 and Le Moniteur universel. No. 253, 10 September 1870. - b Wilhelm [I], 'Der Königin Augusta in Berlin', Königlich Preußischer Staats-Anzeiger, No. 253, 7 September 1870. - c In the original the word 'educated' is written in Berlin dialect [3]

TO DEAL WITH SUSCEPTIBILITIES in every direction, and so cannot write as we both could in our own names.

The news from Brunswick[4] arrived yesterday evening from Liebknecht, but with Wilhelm's usual vagueness and hence unusable. I have sent notices about it today to the Pall Mall, Echo, etc.a

The FACT itself is very good. This time the witch-hunt against the 'demagogues'[5] is beginning before the end of the war, and is aimed at workers rather than the student windbags of yore. It is very good that the Prussians are showing themselves in their true colours, and are destroying any possible illusions in the working class even before peace is concluded. Moreover, the working class can only be stirred to action by direct persecution on the part of the state.

The 'Republic'—even the mere word—has given the matter quite a new turn. E.g. Mr George Potter—that hero of the workers from the Bee-Hive—has PUBLICLY declared himself A REPUBLICAN. This shows you the mood in London. I hope that the Prussian policies of the Court will produce a lot of ill-feeling here. It is a splendid

LEVER, the UNCONSTITUTIONAL INTERFERENCE OF THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF George III AND THE MOTHER-IN-LAW OF Fritzb!

For all that Bismarck is a jackass. Just because everything went right for him as long as he was the instrument of the aspirations to German unity, he has now lost his head to such an extent that he imagines himself able to throw all scruples to the winds and pursue specific Prussian policies, not merely externally, but internally too.

Yesterday there was a workers' meeting in a pub in Lincoln Inn Fields. We were sitting in our own meeting as usual on Tuesdays. A telegram arrived TO COME TO THE RESCUE. The PEACE SOCIETY 56 fellows, who have been actively 'buying up' workers (e.g. Cremer), had as good as managed to assure themselves of a majority, albeit a slight one. Our sudden appearance TURNED THE SCALE. At issue was a number of resolutions on behalf of the FRENCH REPUBLIC, which the PEACE SOCIETY claims could lead to war with Prussia. I have today sent detailed instructions to Belgium and Switzerland, ditto to the UNITED STATES.

The enclosed letter from Serraillierc will interest Dupont and yourself. Only a part of it is enclosed, since the other part contains

a K. Marx, 'Concerning the Arrest of the Members of the Central Committee of the Social-Democratic Workers' Party'. - b Queen Victoria, whose daughter, Victoria Adelaide Marie Louise, was married to Frederick William, Crown Prince of Prussia. - c See this volume, p. 80.

FAMILY AFFAIRS and so has remained in the possession of Mme Serraillier.

Salut

Your

K. M. SECRETARY FOR RUSSIA!

Schäffle's book is called Kapitalismus und Socialismus etc.

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Writings on the Paris Commune, Monthly Review Press, New York-London, 1971.
  2. ↑ K. Marx, 'Second Address of the General Council of the International Working Men's Association on the Franco Prussian War'.
  3. ↑ (jebildetsten).
  4. ↑ This refers to the Déclaration réglant divers points de droit maritime (Declaration Regulating Various Items of Maritime Law), a supplement to the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856 which marked the end of the Crimean War of 1853-56. It was signed on 16 April 1856 by the representatives of Austria, France, Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey. The Declaration formulated the rules of war at sea, incorporating the principles of armed neutrality, which were proclaimed in 1780 by the government of Catherine II and envisaged the abolition of privateering, immunity of neutral cargo in enemy vessels and of enemy cargo in neutral vessels (with the exception of war contraband), and the recognition only of a real blockade. Lord Clarendon, British representative at the Paris Congress, signed the Declaration on behalf of his country.
  5. ↑ On 9 September 1870 Wilhelm Bracke, Leonhard von Bonhorst, Spier, Kühn, Gralle, and Ehlers, members of the Brunswick Committee of the German Social-Democratic Workers' Party, as well as Sievers, a printer, were arrested for publishing the Manifesto on the war on 5 September (see Note 107). In November 1871 these members of the Brunswick Committee were brought to trial (see Note 335).