Marx-Engels Correspondence 1860
Source: MECW, Volume 41, p. 116;
First published: in F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Stuttgart -Berlin, 1922.
Dear Lassalle,
Since your last letter, all manner of things have happened. Engels’ father has died and Engels has spent a fortnight in Prussia by permission of the Prussian Government. I myself, however, have been overwhelmed with business, and even now can only write quite briefly.
1. My lawyer in Berlin has asked me to undertake not to mention his name. If, however, despite the mass of material I have sent him and despite various reminders, these six weeks of silence are prolonged, you will have to prod him, for the case becomes statute-barred on 22 April.
2. Vogt visited Plon-Plon in Paris. He was seen by acquaintances of mine, who spoke to him. Nevertheless, he had the effrontery to state, or cause it to be stated, in the German papers that he had not been to Paris.
3. Have not received the Humboldt.
4. I shall send you the Knight of the Noble Consciousness today.
5. My old friend J. Weydemeyer has given up his post as Deputy-Surveyor in the state of Wisconsin at the request of the American ‘Workers’ League’ (a public society with branches throughout the United States) which has moved its headquarters from New York to Chicago (Illinois). W. will assume the editorship there of a daily paper founded with the help of workers’ shares. Chicago is increasingly becoming the centre in the American North-West where German influence predominates. W. has asked me to enlist correspondents for the paper and this I have done over here, in Paris and in Switzerland. I invite you to undertake the German articles (if possible at least two a week). There is no question of payment. But as party work it is very important. W. is one of our best people. If, as I hope, you agree to this, you should start directly and send your articles to:
‘J. Weydemeyer, care of Chicago Arbeiterverein, BOX 1345, Chicago (Illinois), United States.'
6. While leafing through the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (necessary on Vogt’s account) I was glad to discover a short leader in which we broke a lance with the Vossische for Miss Ludmilla Assing.
7. Would it be possible for you to send me a brief sketch of what the worthy Zabel of the National-Zeitung has been up to, since reaction set in? The sketch could appear in my pamphlet as a letter signed by you. You would, moreover, find yourself in the company of highly honourable refugees who are writing about other people for this work. Some anonymously, others under their own names. Several do not belong to our faction of the party.
Your
K. M.