Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 10, 1852

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MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 10 August 1852 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

First, I enclose the original text of Kossuth's SECRET CIRCULAR. Next, the report 1. on the guarantors' sitting of 6 August, 2. on Goegg's meeting of 7 August.

As to 1. Present: Kinkel, Willich, Reichenbach, Löwe of Calbe, Meyen, Schurz (not Techow this time), Schimmelpfennig, Imandt; I know of no others. Not forgetting Schärttner.

Kinkel had had the indispensable third member (Techow) of the alliance elected in America and Switzerland. There still remained the participation in the election of the 12-15 London guarantors. Here, as I told you, the election of Techow fell through and then he declared that he could not accept as he was leaving for Australia.

Kinkel proposed to proceed with a new election of the third man. Fell through again.

Löwe of Calbe: First: 'The German loan has miscarried because the political circumstances (May 1852 186) in view of which it was undertaken are no longer present, and the presupposed amount of 20,000 dollars has not been raised.' Second: 'The monies to be returned to the American committees.'

The first part of this motion was carried, the second rejected.

Imandt: 'If the majority of the remaining guarantors share my view, the money to hand should be used to publish a German newspaper in London.' 'Reichenbach will remain TRUSTEE of the money.' 'A committee is to be elected consisting of Reichenbach, Löwe and Schimmelpfennig, and Kinkel and Willich will hand over to it the lists of the guarantors in America and Switzerland; the previous committee has nothing more to do with the matter; the new committee will advise the guarantors abroad of the resolutions taken and will obtain their opinion.'

Reichenbach supported Imandt's motions, all were carried. Kinkel and Willich protested on the grounds that the disposal of the money did not rest solely with the body of guarantors. Only the donors of the money, or respectively the finance committees set up in America, could exercise the right of disposal.

Sic transit gloria. Willich is more determined than ever to go to America, provided he can raise the fare.

As to 2. Meeting called by Finance Minister Goegg, back from America without finances.

Present: In the chair: Damm himself (not yet slipped off to Australia). Goegg. Ronge. Dr Strauss. Sigel, the other one. Franck (from Vienna). Oswald. Dralle. (These all 'agitators'.) Kinkel. Schurz. Meyen. Willich. Imandt. Schily. Becker. One of Schärttner's waiters. The tipsy Lumpenproletarian Herweg from Neuss. Candidate Hentze from Königsberg. Garthe. A stripling (unknown) from Vienna.

Goegg opened the sitting, described his activity in America, owing to which birth was given to a revolutionary league, an act as a result of which the American Republic was supposed to be 'tumbled' and hence birth to be given to a German-Baden republic—the victory of the American Democrats over the Whigs to be ensured, etc. The modest young man further asserted (an opinion attested by the newly arrived candidate of philosophy Hentze) that Germans in all provinces stood with their eyes fixed on London so that, at the crucial moment when those present at the meeting fell into each other's arms, they could let out a thunderous hurrah that would resound across the ocean a thousand times o'er. Hence he demanded that the meeting constitute itself a branch of the Revolutionary League and no longer leave their poor compatriots to languish in that attitude of expectancy.

Imandt: Thanked Goegg for his information on American conditions. Suggested moreover that the meeting should disperse, since only a general and publicly convened meeting of refugees could take a decision.

Damm ruled him out of order. Kinkel: (Already during Goegg's eloquent speech, this sensitive poet-martyr had, by rolling his eyes, signified his irrevocable determination to spread out his arms in reconciliation). He, too, was aware that Germany was looking to them. He was in a position to clasp the conciliatory hand. As a sacrifice to the cause, he would forget the grave injustice he had suffered. He, too, was aware that not only the liberation of Germany, but also the revolutionising of America, lay in their hands. None so great, said he, in an allusion to Ruge's 'agent of the Prince of Prussia', as he who mastered himself. However he, for his part, demanded that the Revolutionary League should also now guarantee his loan. Even though he and the 'honourable' Willich might not see eye to eye politically, nevertheless they would, he believed, have achieved great things together.

Imandt: Respected the Christian humility of Kinkel who had forgotten that Ruge had called him an agent of the Prince of Prussia, who had, for sheer love of the revolution, had repressed the indignation in his burning breast which, 2 months earlier (May), had prompted, in the presence of the guarantors, the solemn declaration: 'as a good republican, he could only regard as injurious to his honour the suggestion that he should go with Ruge, his wicked detractor, and, rather than reconcile himself with the wicked Ruge, would retire from all political activity'. It was out of Christian humility that Kinkel had drained the bitter cup which Fickler had prepared for him with his horribly insulting letters (in one of those letters Fickler had described him as 'a turkey strutting on a dung-heap'); he had become, as indeed Goegg's friends maintained he had always been, simple of heart if he could bring himself to fall into the arms of his American rivals. The 'union' between Messrs Kinkel and Goegg was a fine thing, for although it really had no other purpose than that the former with the help of the latter should strive to get the upper hand in the administration of the loan funds, and that the latter with the help of the former should seek to worm his way into that administration, yet a peace agreement between two men of such stature might nevertheless ensure that the political parties throughout the world similarly became reconciled, that the constitutionalist held out his hand to the republican and the socialist to the republican, that henceforward the proletarians would no longer be exploited by the bourgeois and, in short, that everyone would embrace every one else and shout hip-hip-hurray. For the fact of Kinkel's having said in America that he regarded the proletarians as cannon fodder (as once in Bonn and Cologne he had adulated Cavaignac) and this, despite his alliance with the 'honourable' Willich, did not affect the issue. There was at most one trifling matter outstanding: like all people who, instead of studying the difference between the various parties and championing their interests, indulged in scatter-brained folly about uniting opposing elements, Kinkel could be reproached with a total lack of principle, etc. He would further draw Kinkel's attention to the fact that he could at most conclude agreements on his behalf, but not on behalf of the body of guarantors. Finally, Imandt moved that the Revolutionary League in America be left to its own devices and that all should go home. Whereupon Imandt went.

Incidents: Damm constantly interrupted Imandt and wanted to rule him out of order. As a Rhinelander, the tipsy Herweg felt obliged, so long as Imandt was present, to manifest approbation and, while Imandt was speaking of 'great men', he 'lorgnetted' the company with his pipe. During the passage about 'the proletarians', the painter, Franck, rose in indignation and said: 'I can't stand it any more. I grunt.' Imandt replied that this was something he had in common with other animals, whereupon Franck decamped. Kinkel denied the 'cannon fodder'. Imandt told the whole story about Schnauffer and the Wecker, whereat Kinkel fell silent. At the word 'Cavaignac', he again broke in: 'Citizen Imandt, when did the Bonner Zeitung appear?' Imandt: It was all the same to him whether it had been before or after the June insurrection. He had read about the thing himself.

Conclusion: The sitting went on for 2 more hours. Goegg pleaded that they should join the Revolutionary League, at least temporarily. The afore-mentioned stripling from Vienna declared anyone who delayed in joining by so much as an hour to be a 'traitor to his country'. Nevertheless, after the majority had rejected every, I repeat, every motion, the company went home without having founded a branch of the American-European-Australian Revolutionary League.

Your

K. M.