Letter to Adolf Cluss, about May 15, 1852

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To Adolf Cluss in Washington

[London, 7 and about 15 May 1852]

... Herewith you will find a wrapper, in which the contemptible, craven, half-crazed Tellering mailed his defamatory opus. (Address:) Charles Marx, The Future Dictator of Germany. Now I ask you, what is to be done with the cur? To start a public row with a lunatic of this sort would be doing him too much honour and is the whole object of his manoeuvre. Could you not send the maniac’s wrapper to the New York postal service in my name? Or might not a sound thrashing be the simplest course? I leave the whole thing to you. Naturally any packages of the kind will in future be returned. But by indulging in this sort of gutter-snipe’s trick, the cur also brings me to the notice of the English police, which, under the Tories, is far from pleasant...

Ad vocem Szemere: I am not by nature inclined to be unduly trusting, least of all when it comes to the official great men of 1848/49. But in Szemere’s case, it’s quite a different matter. I am correcting the German translation — for he originally wrote in Hungarian — of his ‘character-sketches’. Every line betrays a superior intellect and the rage of the democrats may be attributed to the contempt and mockery system which he employs with supreme skill. Although, of course, in accordance with the Hungarian line, he places, as in Antiquity, ‘the fatherland and the citizen’ above all else, his writing is imbued with a fundamentally critical spirit. A man who thinks and writes in this way is no Austrian agent. As for the ‘Dear Colonel Webb’, he was negotiating with him without knowing who he was, but broke off as soon as he was informed what was afoot. The story of his fortune is very simple. Szemere himself does not possess a centime. But his wife is the daughter of a (now deceased) Austrian ‘Hof-agent’ (as the Austrian Procureurs du roi are called in Hungary); her old man possessed a fortune of a million. Throughout the 1848/49 revolution Mrs Szemere lived in Vienna with her mother. He had even ordered her to refrain from writing to him and to sever all ties with him until the old woman’s death, when she could collect her fortune. His old mother-in-law died at the end of 1849 and Mrs Szemere, who was, of course, in no way suspect, surreptitiously sold all her worldly goods and turned them into cash. In this she was aided by the minister, Bach, her father’s lawyer, who seized on this opportunity and surreptitiously took his cut. Once her fortune was liquid, Mrs Szemere converted it into bills on London and English stocks, obtained a passport authorising her to visit the water-cure doctor, Priessnitz, in Prussia, but instead travelled to London and thence to her husband in Paris. Those Austrians, however, could lay their hands on nothing with which to gladden their Exchequer. Well, what does all this prove? That Szemere is much too astute to make his enemies a present of a million. I have written to Sz. himself, telling him that, without mentioning Kossuth, he should make a statement about his personal circumstances which I shall get into the New York Tribune for him.

The Austrian spies are in Kossuth’s immediate entourage, notably Madame Pulszky. This Count Pulszky is a Galician Jew by origin. Madame Pulszky, daughter of an ultra-reactionary Jewish banker in Vienna, writes to her mater each week, and from this source the Austrian government finds out anything it wants. It may even be asked whether Count and Countess Pulszky (The Times regularly derided both these individuals for the assumption of their title) have not promised to lure Mr Kossuth into the snare in the hope that they may thereby retrieve their confiscated land. It is known for a fact that as a student, Pulszky denounced his comrades’ demagogic activities to the Austrian government...

Enclosed you will find General Klapka’s declaration of principles, from which you will see that he, too, is starting to rebel against Kossuth. The last part of the document means nothing more than that Klapka is going to participate in Mazzini’s projected coup. I have, if I am not mistaken, already written to you about the plans for a coup hatched by Messrs Mazzini, Kossuth, etc. Nothing could be more welcome to the great powers, especially Bonaparte, and nothing more damaging to ourselves.

I have just received a letter from Cologne, dated 3 May. They are asking for 200 or 250 copies of the Brumaire. So pray ask Weydemeyer to send me forthwith 300 copies via Engels. At the same time, he should advise me of the selling price. I take it that he has already dispatched the 50 copies as promised...

To return to Klapka’s document. I would beg you to keep it secret for the time being. It was given me in confidence, but with permission to publish it. I shall send it to the New York Tribune, and I do not want it to come into circulation before then...

Jones’ stamped paper has come out and the first number has sold surprisingly well. I enclose a cutting from the Notes from which you will see that he has knocked Harney out completely. Mr Harney is proceeding down the primrose path. One article in his paper, signed Spartacus, attacks Chartism for being only a class movement which ought to be replaced by a general and national movement, genuine Mazzinian hot air, etc., etc., etc....

Extracts from the Cologne letter:

‘Recently Mrs Daniels was favoured yet again with a domiciliary visit in the certain expectation that it would yield a letter from you. The Prussian police seem to be as putty in the hands of the first jackass to come along. The prisoners’ case seems to be approaching its conclusion. The examination has been concluded and, for over two months, the files have been back in the possession of the local public prosecutor at the Court of Appeal where, however, they seem incapable of deciding upon the wording of a petition to the Board of indicting magistrates. It is generally rumoured that the thing will he dealt with before a special Court of Assizes in June.’
[Bermbach to Marx 3 May 1852]

Apropos. Ask Weydemeyer if he has yet been to see Dana, who is waiting for him to pass on the information I sent him about the situation of the Cologne prisoners and the conduct of the Prussian government, before writing a leader on the subject. He mustn’t for God’s sake fail to do this, if it can possibly be helped.

If you manage to bring out Freiligrath’s poem against Kinkel et Compe as a broadsheet, you will have an assured sale of 500 copies in the Rhineland alone. But the thing must be done quickly. Otherwise it will be trop tard.

Do not allow the articles, etc., in your possession to age so much that they lose their bouquet. If you can’t get them printed (Eccarius, Engels, etc.), give them to some paper or other, e.g. the Turn-Zeitung, as you think fit. In any case, it is better they should be read than left unread.

If you can’t get Freiligrath’s poem printed, give it to whatever newspaper you think best. If, as a party, we make no effort to be quick off the mark, we shall always arrive post festum...

Few mortals, other than yourself, can boast of having received letters from me on 4 successive mail days; but I was anxious to show Papa Lupus which of us two is the more punctilious...