Letter to Johann Philipp Becker, April 9, 1860

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Letter to Johann Philipp Becker in Paris

London N.W., 9 April 1860

9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park,

Haverstock Hill

My dear friend Becker,

First, my most sincere thanks for your letter, for the verbal information you gave to Siebel and for sending the correspondence. Apart from anything else, I ought to account Sieur Vogt’s attack a blessing, if only because it has brought me into closer contact with the doyen of our revolution and our emigration. I do not, by the by, share the Philistines’ astonishment at the consistency of your behaviour. Hitherto I have always found that, once they set out on a revolutionary course, all men of really reliable character—I would mention only old Levasseur, Cobbet, Robert Owen, Lelewel and General Mellinet—constantly draw fresh strength from their setbacks and become ever more resolute, the longer they swim in the stream of history.

The next reason for my writing—other than the desire to convey my thanks to you personally—is that I have been commissioned by my old friend J. Weydemeyer to enlist correspondents in Europe for the Stimme des Volks. This paper, I should say, has been founded in Chicago by the American Workers’ League, whose headquarters have moved from New York to Chicago. It is a daily paper and may acquire even greater importance since Chicago is increasingly becoming the metropolis of the North-West. I enclose the heading of the prospectus.

Terms are as follows: You would have to contribute once a week. Fee 2 dollars per article. This would come to ABOUT £5 or 125 fr. a quarter. The fee is a small one, nor could it be otherwise in the case of a workers’ paper. On the other hand, my friend Weydemeyer’s character is a guarantee of prompt payment, which cannot exactly be said of German-American papers elsewhere. If you agree to this request, you could start next week, but notify me beforehand.

The parcel containing the invaluable correspondence came by post, the day before S. arrived in London. I shall get them bound and always keep them at your disposal. Among them is a document of a column mutinying against Willich, which is highly characteristic of this Don Quixote.

I should be very glad—and it would be of great importance to my pamphlet—if you, with your intimate knowledge of Fazy, could send me a thumb-nail sketch of his goings-on since the coup d’état, also a vignette of the man’s character. I regard Vogt simply as the servant of Fazy, whom I once saw in Paris (1843) and whom I at once sized up correctly by his being a former contributor to the National (on which the best of them were bad).

Lommel’s little work is entertaining and has some useful revelations about 1847/48. But I can’t agree with his extremely parochial ideas about the origins of the year of revolution. However it is, perhaps, the very narrowness of his outlook that enables him to portray vividly and with true insight the ground with which he is personally familiar.

Your two little poems about Leibniz and ‘What of it?’ pleased me enormously and it would be a good idea if you were to enclose them (assuming you agree to my proposal) with your first article for Weydemeyer. W.’s address is:

J. Weydemeyer, CARE OF Chicago Arbeiterverein, BOX 1345, Chicago, 111. United States. (111. stands for Illinois.)

With fraternal greetings,

Yours truly,

K. Marx