Letter to Friedrich Adolph Sorge, January 21, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 21 January 1871


First published in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F. A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO FRIEDRICH ADOLPH SORGE[1]

IN HOBOKEN

London, 21 January 1871
1 Maitland Park Road, Haverstock Hill, N.W.

Dear Mr Sorge,

All reports from the German sections in America are to be sent to me. Eccarius is only the correspondent for the Yankees. As Secretary TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL he has nothing to do with FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.

I had completely forgotten the business about the 'contribution' of the German section.[2] On receiving your letter, therefore, I wrote to Eccarius[3] whose reply, which I enclose, can also serve as a receipt.

I have already written about the FORMATION of the CENTRAL COUNCIL (we would have preferred the term Central Committee to avoid confusion).[4]

I have not received Kellogg.[5] It was presumably sent in a yellow envelope that I received from the POST OFFICE here. It was torn open and had been stamped 'NO CONTENTS'. I expect that the envelope was not strong enough.

A few weeks ago I sent to your address a large parcel of publications of the GENERAL COUNCIL of different dates but up to now have had no notice of receipt. They belonged to me personally and I sent them because the supplies of the GENERAL COUNCIL are quite exhausted (for the majority of its publications).

Yours sincerely,

K. Marx

  1. ↑ On 19 December 1870 The Times published Gladstone's letter, dated 15 December, which announced an amnesty of the condemned Fenians (on the Fenians see Note 6). However, this amnesty was hedged round with numerous reservations, which caused Engels to compare it with the shabby amnesty of political prisoners announced in Prussia in January 1861 on the occasion of William I's accession to the throne.
  2. ↑ Arrested in July 1862, Nikolai Chernyshevsky was kept in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St Petersburg until 1864 and then sentenced to seven years hard labour and exile for life in Siberia.
  3. ↑ Marx wrote this letter on a form from Borkheim's office bearing its address: 9 Billiter Square, E.C.
  4. ↑ See this volume, p. 101.
  5. ↑ E. Kellogg, A New Monetary System...