Mr. Washburne the American Ambassador in Paris

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This Address of the General Council, drawn up by Marx, exposes the demagogical and provocative part played by bourgeois diplomacy in relation to the Paris Commune, citing as an example the activities of Mr. Washburne, American Ambassador in Paris. Marx showed that, from the start, the American diplomats joined international reaction in its struggle against the Commune. Washburne, while expressing his sympathy for the Communards, in actual fact used his position in Paris to act against the Commune. Though he stayed in Paris, he maintained constant contacts with the Versailles Government and often went to Versailles to convey information about the situation in the city. During the days of the Commune, he corresponded with Bismarck and the latter’s representatives in Versailles, inciting them to armed actions. At the same time, in order to disrupt the defence of Paris, American diplomats tried to make the Communards entertain hopes that Prussia would remain neutral and act as mediator. That was the primary aim pursued by Washburne in suggesting that contacts be established with the Prussian command.

When writing this Address, Marx used the letter by Mr. Reid, the Paris correspondent of The Daily Telegraph (Section I) and the communication of Serraillier, a Communard and member of the General Council (Section II). On returning to England Reid delivered lectures in support of the Paris Commune, contacted Marx and met him on July 1, 1871 (see this volume pp. 552-53). On July 4, the General Council unanimously passed a resolution to cooperate with Reid in disseminating truthful information about the Paris Commune and the General Council’s Address The Civil War in France. On July 7, the Sub-Committee of the General Council, having discussed Washburne’s subversive activities against the Commune, adopted a draft Address written by Marx. On July 11, the Address was unanimously approved by the General Council and published in London as a pamphlet. On August 1, the New York Central Committee for the United States’ Sections of the International had it published in the bourgeois New York newspaper The Sun. Sorge and other members of the New York Committee supplied the Address with a preface explaining the significance of the Commune. Concerning Washburne, it stated that “he belongs to that large family of State parasites, feeding upon the public crib...”; the New York Committee called on the workers to give no credence to the information about the Commune received “through the channel of its deadly adversaries—a subsidised press” and to remember that the Commune “was a workingmen’s government, and as such was hated, dreaded and calumniated by all the privileged classes and their ubiquitous mouthpieces and subordinates...”.

The Address “Mr. Washburne, the American Ambassador in Paris” was published in 1871 in English in the American newspapers The Workingman's Advocate, August 5, 1871, The National Standard, No. 7, September 9, and in the Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, No. 20/12, September 30; in German in Der Volksstaat, No. 60, July 26, 1871; in French in La Liberté, No. 88, July 19, 1871; in Spanish in La Emancipation, No. 14, September 18, 1871.

Thiers' government banned the publication of the Address in France.

TO THE NEW YORK CENTRAL COMMITTEE

FOR THE UNITED STATES’ SECTIONS

OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING MEN’S ASSOCIATION

Citizens,— The General Council of the Association consider it their duty to communicate publicly to you evidence on the conduct, during the French Civil War, of Mr. Washburne, the American Ambassador.

I

The following statement is made by Mr. Robert Reid, a

Scotchman who has lived for seventeen years in Paris, and acted during the Civil War as a correspondent for the London Daily Telegraph and The New York Herald. Let us remark, in passing, that The Daily Telegraph, in the interests of the Versailles Government, falsified even the short telegraphic despatches transmitted to it by Mr. Reid.

Mr. Reid, now in England, is ready to confirm his statement by affidavit.

“The sounding of the general alarm, mingled with the roar of the cannon, continued all night. To sleep was impossible. Where, I thought, are the representatives of Europe and America? Can it be possible that in the midst of this effusion of innocent blood they should make no effort at conciliation? I could bear the thought no longer; and knowing that Mr. Washburne was in town, I resolved at once to go and see him. This was, I think, on the 17th of April; the exact date may, however, be ascertained from my letter to Lord Lyons, to whom I wrote on the same day. Crossing the Champs Elysées, on my way to Mr. Washburne’s residence, I met numerous ambulance-waggons filled with the wounded and dying. Shells were bursting around the Arc de Triomphe, and many innocent people were added to the long list of M. Thiers’s victims.

“Arriving at No. 95, Rue de Chaillot, I inquired at the Concierge’s for the United States’ Ambassador, and was directed to the second floor. The particular flight or flat you dwell in is, in Paris, an almost unerring indication of your wealth and position,— a sort of social barometer. We find here a marquis on the first front floor, and an humble mechanic on the fifth back floor,— the stairs that divide them represent the social gulf between them. As I climbed up the stairs, meeting no stout flunkeys in red breeches and silk stockings, I thought, ‘Ah! the Americans lay their money out to the best advantage,—we throw ours away.’

“Entering the secretary’s room, I inquired for Mr. Washburne.—Do you wish to see him personally? — I do.— My name having been sent in, I was ushered into his presence. He was lounging in an easy-chair, reading a newspaper. I expected he would rise; but he remained sitting with the paper still before him, an act of gross rudeness in a country where the people are generally so polite.

“I told Mr. Washburne that we were betraying the cause of humanity, if we did not endeavour to bring about a conciliation. Whether we succeeded or not, it was at all events our duty to try; and the moment seemed the more favourable, as the Prussians were just then pressing Versailles for a definitive settlement. The united influence of America and England would turn the balance in favour of peace.

“Mr. Washburne said, The men in Paris are rebels. Let them lay down their arms. ‘ I replied that the National Guards had a legal right to their arms; but that was not the question. When humanity is outraged, the civilized world has a right to interfere, and I ask you to co-operate with Lord Lyons to that effect.— Mr. Washburne: ‘These men at Versailles will listen to nothing.’—’If they refuse, the moral responsibility will rest with them.’—Mr. Washburne: ‘I don’t see that. I can’t do anything in the matter. You had better see Lord Lyons.’

“So ended our interview. I left Mr. Washburne sadly disappointed. I found a man rude and haughty, with none of those feelings of fraternity you might expect to find in the representative of a democratic republic. On two occasions I had had the honour of an interview with Lord Cowley, when he was our representative in France. His frank, courteous manner formed a striking contrast to the cold, pretentious, and would-be-aristocratic style of the American Ambassador.

“I also urged upon Lord Lyons that, in the defence of humanity, England was bound to make an earnest effort at reconciliation, feeling convinced that the British Government could- not look coldly on such atrocities as the massacres of the Clamart station and Moulin Saquet, not to speak of the horrors of Neuilly, without incurring the malediction of every lover of humanity. Lord Lyons answered me verbally through Mr. Edward Malet, his secretary, that he had forwarded my letter to the Government, and would willingly forward any other communication I might have to make on that subject. At one moment matters were most favourable for reconciliation, and had our Government thrown their weight in the balance, the world would have been spared the carnage of Paris. At all events, it is not the fault of Lord Lyons if the British Government failed in their duty.

“But, to return to Mr. Washburne. On Wednesday forenoon, the 24th of May, I was passing along the Boulevard des Capucines, when I heard my name called, and, turning round, saw Dr. Hossart standing beside Mr. Washburne, who was in an open carriage amidst a great number of Americans. After the usual salutations, I entered into a conversation with Dr. Hossart. Presently the conversation became general on the horrid scenes around; when Mr. Washburne, addressing me with the air of a man who knows the truth of what he is saying,— ‘All who belong to the Commune, and those that sympathize with them, will be shot.’ Alas! I knew that they were killing old and young for the crime of sympathy, but I did not expect to hear it semi-officially from Mr. Washburne; yet, while he was repeating, this sanguinary phrase, there was still time for him to save the Archbishop.”

II

“On the 24th of May, Mr. Washburne’s secretary came to offer to the Commune, then assembled at the Mairie of the 11th Arrondissement, on the part of the Prussians, an intervention between the Versaillese and the Federals on the following terms: —

“ ‘Suspension of hostilities.

“‘Re-election of the Commune on the one side, and of the National Assembly on the other.

“ ‘The Versailles troops to leave Paris, and to take up their quarters in and around the fortifications.

“ ‘The National Guard to continue to guard Paris.

“ ‘No punishment to be inflicted upon the men serving or having served in the Federal Army.’

“The Commune, in an extraordinary sitting, accepted the propositions, with the proviso that two months should be given to France in order to prepare for the general elections of a Constituent Assembly.

“A second interview with the Secretary of the American Embassy took place. At its morning sitting of the 25th May, the Commune resolved to send five citizens—amongst them Vermorel, Delescluze, and Arnold—as plenipotentiaries to Vincennes, where, according to the information given by Mr. Washburne’s secretary, a Prussian delegate would then be found. That deputation was, however, prevented from passing by the National Guards on duty at the gate of Vincennes. Consequent upon another and final interview with the same American Secretary, Citizen Arnold, to whom he had delivered a safe conduct, on the 26th May, went to St. Denis, where he was—not admitted by the Prussians.

“The result of this American intervention (which produced a belief in the renewed neutrality ol, and the intended intercession between the belligerents, by the Prussians) was, at the most criticial juncture, to paralyze the defence for two days. Despite the precautions taken to keep the negotiations secret, they became soon known to the National Guards, who then, full of confidence in Prussian neutrality, fled to the Prussian lines, there to surrender as prisoners. It is known how this confidence was abused by the Prussians, shooting by their sentries part of the fugitives, and handing over to the Versailles Government those who had surrendered.

“During the whole course of the civil war, Mr. Washburne, through his secretary, never tired of informing the Commune of his ardent sympathies, which only his diplomatic position prevented him from publicly manifesting, and of his decided reprobation of the Versailles Government.”

This statement, No. IL, is made by a member of the ParisCommune, who, like Mr. Reid, will, in case of need, confirm it by affidavit.

To fully appreciate Mr. Washburne’s conduct, the statements of Mr. Robert Reid and that of the member of the Paris Commune must be read as a whole, as part and counterpart of the same scheme. While Mr. Washburne declares to Mr. Reid that the Communals are “rebels” who deserve their fate, he declares to the Commune his sympathies with its cause and his contempt of the Versailles Government. On the same 24th of May, while, in presence of Dr. Hossart and many Americans, informing Mr. Reid that not only the Communals but even their mere sympathizers were irrevocably doomed to death, he informed, through his secretary, the Commune that not only its members were to be saved, but every man in the Federal army.

We now request you, dear Citizens, to lay these facts before the Working Class of the United States, and to call upon them to decide whether Mr. Washburne is a proper representative of the American Republic.

The General Council

of the International Working Men’s Association: —

M. J. Boon, Fred: Bradnick, G. H. Buttery, Caihill, William Hales, Kolb, F. Lessner, George Milner, Thos. Mottershead, Chas. Murray, P. MacDonnell, Pfänder, John Roach, Ruhl, Sadler, Cornell Stepney, Alfred Taylor, W. Townshend.

Corresponding Secretaries: —

Eugène Dupont, for France; Karl Marx, for Germany and Holland; F. Engels, for Belgium and Spain; H. Jung, for Switzerland; P. Giovacchini, for Italy; Zévy Maurice, for Hungary; Anton Zabicki, for Poland; James Cohen, for Denmark; /. G. Eccarius, for the United States.

Hermann Jung, Chairman. George Harris, Financial Sec. John Weston, Treasurer. John Hales, General Secretary.

Office—256, High Holborn, London, W.C.,

July 11th, 1871