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Letter of the General Council to Robert William Hume in New York
| Author(s) | First International Johann George Eccarius |
|---|---|
| Written | 23 April 1870 |
Reproduced from the newspaper clipping pasted into the Minute Book of the General Council
Source: Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 21
Eccarius wrote this letter on the instructions of the General Council after it discussed, on April 19, 1870, Hume’s letter and the memorial in which he suggested that special representatives should be appointed for various nationalities in different countries. The Minutes of the General Council meeting for April 19 contain the following resume of Marx’s speech on the subject: “Citizen Marx disagreed with the memorial as the different nationalities were represented on the Council and the rest must be left to the correspondents of the Association. The letter pointed out that the trade union movement tended to assume the form of secret societies in the United States. This was confirmed by a letter from the German correspondent of New York who appealed to the Council to interfere by trying to dissuade Hume and Jessup from taking part in it.” The Council decided that the Secretary should solicit further information on the question (see The General Council of the First International. 1868-1870, Moscow, 1966, p. 226).
Eccarius’ letter has been preserved in the form of a clipping from an American newspaper (presumably The Democrat) pasted into the Minute Book of the General Council, in the Minute s for May 24, 1870.
London, April 23, 1870
Dear Sir, in answer to yours of the 26th ult. I am directed by the Council to state that the International Association recognises no special national interests among the working men who may happen to have been born in different countries.
One of our aims is to eliminate whatever may yet remain of national antipathies and, perhaps, animosities, from the minds of working men. The Council cannot, therefore, endorse the kind of representation implied in your memorial. General Cluseret had his feelings outraged by the French police, which was probably the reason why the tr ade societies gave him credentials which induced him to institute a comparison between himself and the French ambassador at Washington.[1]The French ambassador at Washington has to vindicate the personal interests of a dynasty, and the property interests of the French traders. The Paris workmen have no such interests to be taken care of on the other side of the Atlantic, against the probable encroachments of the American working men. We consider the interests of the French workmen resident in the United States strictly identical with the interests of all the other working men of the United States.
To facilitate the inter-communication of such as may be separated by difference of language, and perhaps manners, we have correspondents, who are conversant with these things, and to them we trust for managing the rest.
The communication with the United States is distributed among the secretaries of the different nationalities of the General Council. General Cluseret and Mr. Pelletier are our French correspondents in America. They correspond with our Secretary for France.[2] Siegfried Meyer and Vogt are our German correspondents. They correspond with the German Secretary[3] here, and the
General Secretary[4] manages the English correspondence; and beside such trade union officers as Mr. Jessup, we look to you as our correspondent in case any misunderstanding should arise between different nationalities, to endeavour to set matters right, but we cannot admit that either French or Germans have an opposite or special interest from any other workmen, and we always urge them on to take an active part in, and identify themselves with, the movement of the working men of the country, in which they reside, particularly in America.
Respecting the secret society movement, I am instructed to ask you to favour us at your convenience with your opinion as to the cause which has tended to bring about the necessity for secret action. We have been advised to persuade you and friend Jessup to publicly stand up against it, but we suppose there is a necessity for it, or else it would not have come into vogue and moreover it would be presumptuous on our part to offer advice in such a matter, but we wish to know the reasons, to bring them to the knowledge of the working men of the Old World, who have just emerged from conducting their agitation in secret.
Yours faithfully,
J. George Eccarius, General Secretary
- ↑ In March 1870, Cluseret was appointed the General Council's agent for establishing contacts with the French sections in the USA. However, passing himself off as an organiser of the International, Cluseret ignored the already existing sections in the USA and exceeded his powers. Soon, certain sections of the International in the USA censured his behaviour and approached the General Council, Johann Philipp Becker and Eugene Varlin with an inquiry concerning the powers granted to Cluseret. Marx replied to the inquiry in his letter to Sigfrid Meyer and August Vogt of April 9, 1870 and mentioned the matter in a letter to Sorge dated September 1, 1870 (see present edition, Vol. 43).
- ↑ Eugene Dupont.— Ed.
- ↑ Karl Marx.— Ed.
- ↑ Johann Georg Eccarius.— Ed.