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Karl Marx and the American Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Gerald Runkle
Gerald Runkle
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Campus
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Extract

The four years between the bombardment of Fort Sumter and the surrender at Appomattox comprise a period of great effort and great achievement in the life of Karl Marx. He was forty-three years old in the spring of 1861, and his intellectual powers were at their height. He was, however, destitute financially and without influence politically. His old promise of a big book on socialist ideology had not been kept, and the despised Lassalle was the acknowledged leader of the German socialists. He was soon to experience great pain from physical afflictions, and to consider declaring bankruptcy. In February 1862, he told Engels, “A lousy life like this is not worth living.” But by the end of 1865 Marx had written drafts of the three volumes of Capital, found a publisher, and attained political leadership in the newly founded International Workingmen's Association. By the time the North claimed victory over the South, Marx could claim substantial success as a socialist theoretician and as a political leader. The ordeal of Karl Marx coincided with the ordeal of the American Federal Union.

Type
Karl Marx in Retrospect
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , January 1964 , pp. 117 - 141
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1964

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References

1 Quoted in Boris Nicolaievsky and Otto Maenchen-Helfen, Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1936), p. 252.

2 The correspondence between Marx and Engels on the American Civil War and the journalistic pieces have been collected in a volume edited by Richard Enmale and entitled The Civil War in the United States (New York: International Publishers, 1937).Google Scholar

3 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Civil War in the United States, p. 228. Marx to Engels, July 5, 1861.

4 Ibid., p. 242. Marx to Engels, May 6, 1862.

5 Cf. Marx, Karl and Engels, Frederick (Trachtenberg, Alexander, Editor), Letters to Americans, 1848–1895 (New York: International Publishers, 1953), pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

6 These conjectures do not conclusively solve the problem of Marx's sources. Nor do they explain how Engels could write so confidently about the military scene.

7 Marx, and Engels, ,2 The Civil War in the United States, p. 61. The Vienna Presse, 10 25, 1861Google Scholar (Dateline: October 20).

8 Ibid., p. 59.

9 Ibid., p. 67.

10 Ibid., p. 70.

11 Ibid., p. 7. New York Daily Tribune, October 11, 1861 (Dateline: September 18).

12 Ibid., p. 70. The Vienna Presse, October 25, 1861 (Dateline: October 20).

13 Ibid., p. 111. The Vienna Presse, December 8, 1861 (Dateline: December 4).

14 Ibid., pp. 78–9. The Vienna Presse, November 7, 1861.

15 Ibid., p. 228. Marx to Engels, July 5, 1861.

16 Ibid., pp. 229–32.

17 Ibid., p. 75. The Vienna Presse, November 7, 1861.

18 Ibid., p. 72.

19 Ibid., p. 80.

20 Ibid., p. 71. It was Winfield Scott who said, “Say to the seceded States, ‘Wayward sisters, depart in peace.’“ (Letter to Seward, March 3, 1861) Greeley's newspaper supported this policy for a time.

21 Ibid., p. 221. Marx to Engels, January 11, 1860.

22 Ibid., p. 50. New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1862 (Dateline: January 11).

23 Ibid., p. 200. The Vienna Presse, August 9. 1862.

24 Ibid., p. 165. The Vienna Presse, March 26, 1862.

25 Ibid., p. 166.

26 Ibid., pp. 191–3. The Vienna Presse, June 20, 1862.

27 Ibid., pp. 245–6. Marx to Engels, May 27, 1862.

28 See Ibid., pp. 110–3. The Vienna Presse, December 8, 1861 (Dateline: December 4).

29 Ibid., p. 275. Marx to Engels, May 1, 1865.

30 Ibid., p. 24. New York Daily Tribune, November 7, 1861 (Dateline: October 12).

31 Ibid., p. 23.

32 Ibid., p. 9. New York Daily Tribune, October 11, 1861 (Dateline: September 18).

33 See Ibid., p. 19. New York Daily Tribune, October 14, 1861 (Dateline: September 21). Cf. Marx, Karl, Capital (New York: International Publishers, 1929), pp. 271 ff.Google Scholar

34 Ibid., p. 43. New York Daily Tribune, December 25, 1861 (Dateline: December 7). See also articles in the Presse, pp. 83–91.

35 Ibid., p. 50. New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1862 (Dateline: January 11).

36 “In foreign affairs Palmerston's control over nine-tenths of the English press is just as absolute as Louis Bonaparte's over nine-tenths of the French press.” Ibid., pp. 113–4. The Vienna Presse, December 11, 1861 (Dateline: December 7).

37 See Tribune article of December 25, 1861 and Presse article of December 31. Ibid., pp. 41 ff., 123 ff. The first had a December 7 dateline.

38 Ibid., p. 45. New York Daily Tribune, December 25, 1861 (Dateline: December 7).

39 Ibid., p. 130. The Vienna Presse, January 4, 1862 (Dateline: December 31, 1861).

40 Ibid., p. 128.

41 Ibid., p. 130.

42 See Ibid., pp. 134–9. The Vienna Presse, January 18, 1862 (Dateline: January 14).

43 Ibid., p. 40. New York Daily Tribune, December 19, 1861 (Dateline: November 30).

44 Ibid., p. 44. New York Daily Tribune, December 25, 1861 (Dateline: December 7).

45 Ibid., p. 121. The Vienna Presse, December 25, 1861.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid., p. 235. Marx to Engels, December 19, 1861.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid., p. 54. New York Daily Tribune, February 1, 1862 (Dateline: January 11).

50 Ibid., p. 49.

51 Ibid., p. 124. The Vienna Presse, December 31, 1861 (Dateline: December 25).

52 Ibid., p. 141. The Vienna Presse, February 2, 1862 (Dateline: January 28).

53 Quoted in Bernhard Stern, J., Editor, A Centenary of Marxism (New York: Science and Society, 1948), p. 10.Google Scholar

54 Marx published one article on this subject in the Tribune and four in the Presse.

55 Cf. Marx and Engels, The Civil War in the United States, pp. 96–7, 29 ff.

56 Ibid., p. 194. The Vienna Presse, June 20, 1862.

57 Ibid., p. 97. The Vienna Presse, November 26, 1861.

58 Ibid., p. 99. Seward, ambitious for the Presidency, became a reconciliator and compromiser. Regarding Frémont as a “dangerous rival,” he urged Lincoln to dismiss him.

59 Ibid., pp. 200–1. The Vienna Presse, August 9, 1862.

60 Cf. Ibid., pp. 183–5. The Vienna Presse, May 22, 1862 (Dateline: May 18).

61 Ibid., p. 211. The Vienna Presse, November 29, 1862.

62 Ibid., p. 258. Marx to Engels, October 29, 1862.

63 Ibid., p. 251. Engels to Marx, July 30, 1862.

64 Ibid., p. 252. Marx to Engels, August 7, 1862.

65 Ibid., p. 255. Marx to Engels, September 10, 1862.

66 Ibid., p. 259. Engels to Marx, November 5, 1862.

67 Ibid., p. 256. Marx to Engels, October 29, 1862.

68 Ibid., p. 253. Marx to Engels, August 7, 1862. The conflict was originally “brought to a head by the weight thrown into the scales by the extraordinary development of the Northwestern states. The population there, richly mixed with fresh German and English elements, and in addition self-working farmers for the most part, was naturally not so easily intimidated as the gentlemen of Wall Street and the Quakers of Boston.” Ibid., Marx to Engels, July 1, 1861.

69 Ibid., p. 257. Marx to Engels, October 29, 1862.

70 Ibid., p. 260. Marx to Engels, November 17, 1862.

71 Ibid., p. 272. Marx to Engels, September 7, 1864.

72 For example: “General Pope seems to me a man of energy, however.” Ibid., p. 253. Marx to Engels, August 7, 1862.

73 Ibid., p. 263. Marx to Engels, January 2, 1863.

74 Ibid., p. 266. Marx to Engels, March 24, 1863.

75 Ibid., p. 271. Engels to Marx, September 4, 1864.

76 Ibid., p. 285. “Address of the International Workingmen's Association to President Johnson”, May 13, 1865.

77 Ibid., p. 275. Marx to Engels, May 1, 1865.

78 Ibid., p. 276. Marx to Engels, June 24, 1865.

79 Ibid., p. 222. Marx to Engels, June 9, 1861.

80 Ibid., p. 226. Marx to Engels, July 1, 1861.

81 Ibid., p. 165. The Vienna Presse, March 26, 1862.

82 Ibid., p. 166.

83 Ibid.

84 Ibid., pp. 172–3. The Vienna Presse, March 27, 1862.

85 Ibid., p. 176.

86 Ibid., p. 180. The Vienna Presse, May 20, 1862 (Dateline: May 16).

87 Ibid., p. 185. The Vienna Presse, May 30, 1862.

88 Ibid., p. 190.

89 Ibid., p. 198. The Vienna Presse, August 9, 1862.

90 Ibid., p. 225. Engels to Marx, June 12, 1861.

91 Ibid., p. 236. Engels to Marx, March 5, 1862.

92 Ibid., p. 251. Engels to Marx, July 30, 1862.

93 Ibid., p. 254. Engels to Marx, September 9, 1862.

94 Ibid., pp. 254–5. Marx to Engels, September 10, 1862.

95 Ibid., p. 268. Marx to Engels, May 26, 1864.

96 Ibid., p. 268. Marx to Engels, June 7, 1864.

97 See Schwartzschild, Leopold, Karl Marx: the Red Prussian (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, The Universal Library, no date), pp. 269–70.Google Scholar

98 Marx and Engels, The Civil War in the United States, p. 270. Engels to Marx, September 4, 1864.

99 Ibid., p. 275. Engels to Marx, April 16, 1865.

100 The Tribune had one of the largest circulations of any newspaper in the world, and regarded Marx (who was engaged in 1851) as one of its “most highly-valued” contributors. He was paid two pounds for each published article. In 1857 the Tribune agreed to pay him for one dispatch a week whether used or not; additional articles were paid for only if used. This agreement was not lived up to, and Marx was soon cut to one pound per article. Very few articles were accepted in the last two years of the association, and it was finally terminated by the Tribune in April, 1861. Marx was just as unfortunate with the Presse. His first three months work netted him just six pounds. He wrote to Engels in March, 1862, “I am not so much concerned about the fact that they don't print the best articles (though I always write them in such a fashion that they could very well do so), but it is financially impossible for me when they print only one out of four or five and pay only for one, that depresses me far below the standard of the penny-a-liners.” Quoted in Mehring, Franz, Karl Marx (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1936), p. 301.Google Scholar Although both newspapers boasted of Marx's services, they were not, apparently, very ethical in their handling of his material.

101 Karl Marx, Capital, p. 309. Cf. the letter that Marx wrote to Lincoln: “While the workingmen, the true political power of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic, while before the Negro, mastered and sold without his concurrence they boasted it the highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and choose his own master, they were unable to attain the true freedom of labor, or to support their European brethren in their struggle for emancipation; but this barrier to progress has been swept off by the red sea of civil war.” Marx and Engels, The Civil War in the United States, pp. 280–1.

102 Marx wished to arm the Negroes, but he implied that this would be more important for purposes of morale than of concrete revolutionary action. “A single Negro regiment would have a remarkable effect on Southern nerves.” Marx and Engels, The Civil War in the United States, p. 253. Marx to Engels, August 7. 1862.

103 Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto.

104 Marx, and Engels, , The Civil War in the United States, pp. 189–90. The Vienna Presse, 05 30, 1862.Google Scholar

105 Ibid., p. 255. Marx to Engels, September 10, 1862.

106 Ibid., p. 258. Marx to Engels, October 29, 1862.

107 “The fanaticism of the New Orleans merchants for the Confederacy is simply explained by the fact that the fellows have had to take a quantity of Confederate scrip for hard cash. I know several instances of this here. This must not be forgotten. A good forced loan is a famous means of fettering the bourgeois to the revolution and diverting them from their class interests through their personal interests.” Ibid., p. 245. Engels to Marx, May 23, 1862.

108 Ibid., p. 271. Marx to Engels, September 7, 1864.

109 Ibid., p. 261. Marx to Engels, November 17, 1862.

110 Ibid.

111 Ibid., p. 157. The Vienna Presse, March 3, 1862.

112 Ibid., pp. 252–3. Marx to Engels, August 7, 1862.

113 Ibid., p. 200. The Vienna Presse, August 9, 1862.

114 Ibid., p. 100. The Vienna Presse, November 26, 1861. See also Ibid., p. 253.

115 Ibid., p. 275. Marx to Engels, May 1, 1865.

116 Ibid., p. 277. Marx to Engels, April 23, 1866.

117 Marx, Capital, p. 864 (Preface to First German Edition).

118 “It is a curious and significant fact that Lincoln and other Northern leaders heading an established government, exhibited much more revolutionary zeal and even ruthlessness than did the new and revolutionary government they were opposing.” Williams, T. Harry, Current, Richard N., and Freidel, Frank, A History of the United States (to 1876) (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959), p. 581.Google Scholar

119 Breckinridge carried eleven of the fifteen slave states, and only seven of these by a clear majority. In his only campaign speech he denied being a disunionist.

120 Before the war was over the ardor of the Northwest had cooled substantially, and the Northeast pressed forward to victory. Marx ignored this interesting phenomenon. He continued to praise the resoluteness of the Northwest in spite of the fact that Lincoln's party lost Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin to the Democrats in the 1862 elections.