[lbo-talk] Joseph Weydemeyer; Engels supplied the North cannon through Weydemeyer

[Michael Hoover]

>>> cbrown at michiganlegal.org 02/28/06 7:55 AM >>>
CB; Yes, in the division of labor between Engels and Marx, Engels was the
military science specialist. He wrote encyclopedia articles on military
history, weaponry. He was an artillery officer in an actual war in Germany.
And yes, Marx thought North would win because of superior industrial economy
( what's that economic determinism ?). Engels , the military expert, saw
South with better generals , etc.
CB:  Marx and Engels weren't the types to just write abstract articles on
burning questions.  There is definitely _at  least_ halfbaked evidence that
they communicated directly with _Lincoln_. They may have sent him stuff that
wasn't published. Afterall, it would be like a report from a couple of
Council of Economic Advisors before there was such a thing. How many
politicaleconomists were in the cabinets at that time ? Marx was writing
_Capital_ at this time , and likely had quite a bit of economic and other
material data on the U.S.  I can't remember where I read that they wrote
letters to Lincoln as it was about fifteen years ago. Then there was
Weydemeyer right there. He no doubt had ways of communicating with his
commanders. He was an artillary officer, and well educated. Somebody else
might have thought of the idea too , independently of Engels and Marx, but
it is more than "halfbaked" likely that they got their message through to
the Union leaders, including Lincoln.
<<<<<>>>>>

not sure how much any of this really matters, and i really don't mean to
come across as a jerk here, but i've read just about everything that marx
wrote about the u.s., i'm looking at collection of his stuff on the u.s. that
i just pulled from book shelf...

marx wrote 6 articles about the civil war for the _new york daily tribune_
prior to the newspaper ending its decade-long relationship with him (*see
comment below about this*), during this same time, marx wrote 35 articles
about the civil war for the vienna newspaper _die presse_ (2 of which engel
co-authored, the latter of which you posted excerpt from yesterday)...

km's daughter eleanor wrote after his death that her father thought lincoln
a fighter for freedom,  but that marx considered him to be rather bumbling
and bungling, only a child during the civil war, adult-age eleanor indicates that 
she became obssessed with the union winning and says that she would write 
letters to lincoln giving him advice, she was apparently led to believe that her
father posted the letter but, in fact, he kept them in a safe place and showed
them to her years later (i have to admit that i like idea of young eleanor marx
advising lincoln)...

i'll withdraw comment about 'half-baked' as it seems to have irritated you, 
however, i'll stick with point that i intended to make - there is no credible 
evidence for claim linking marx/engels & lincoln/union commanders...    mh

*marx's relationship with the tribune was difficult, newspaper paid by the piece 
and only when the piece ran under a writer's by-line, so km didn't get paid 
for unprinted articles, moreover, the paper sometimes published his articles 
either as unsigned editorials or as "from our foreign correspondent" for
which he recived smaller payment...

marx was only foreign journalist that trib maintained after southern states 
seceded in 1861, however, it published none of his submissions for the
remainder of that year, it printed 8 in early 1862, his final article warning 
against intervention of european powers in mexico during u.s. civil war...*