IN M ANCHESTER
[London,] 7 September 1864
D
ear  
Frederick ,
During the past few days my thoughts have been damnably 
preoccupied with Lassalle’s misfortune. After all, whatever else he 
may have been, he was one of the vieille soucheb and the foe of our 
foes. And then the thing came so unexpectedly that it’s hard to 
believe so noisy, 
stirring , 
pushing  a person is now dead as a 
door-nail and compelled to hold his tongue altogether . A s regards 
the cause of his death, you are perfectly right.c It is one of the 
many indiscretions he committed in the course of his life. W
ith  all  
that , I am sorry that our relationship should have been clouded in 
recent years, though the fault lay with him. On the other hand, I 
am very glad that I resisted every incitement from whatever 
quarter and never attacked him during his ‘year of triumph’.636
Heaven knows, our ranks are being steadily depleted, and there 
are no reinforcements in sight. I’m convinced, by the by, that this 
catastrophe would never have happened had L. not consorted with 
military  adventurers  and révolutionnaires en gants jaunesd in Switzera if it can be done - b old stock - c See this volume, p. 558.- d kid-glove revolutionaries

561
land. But he was fatalement drawn again and again to this Coblenz 
of European revolution.637
The ‘Bavarian envoy’s daughter’3 is none other than the 
daughter of Dönniges of Berlin, a fellow university demagogue638 
of Rutenberg and co.’s, originally one of that little weed Ranke’s 
jeunesh 
gents—or rather, since they were no 
gentlemen , jeunes 
gensc—whom he got to edit beastly old German imperial annals,6 
etc. What that capering little troll Ranke regarded as wit—playful 
anecdotalism and the attribution of all great events to mean and 
petty origins—was strictly forbidden these 
young  
men  
from  the  
country . They were supposed to stick to what was ‘objective’ and 
leave wit to their masterl Our friend Dönniges was regarded as 
something of a rebel, since he contested Ranke’s monopoly of wit, 
in deed if not word, and showed ad oculose in various ways that he, 
no less than Ranke, was a born ‘valet’ of ‘history’.639
Well, I wonder what will become of the organisation built up by 
L.640 Herwegh, that platonic friend of ‘labour’ and practical friend 
of the ‘Muses’, isn’t the right man. In general, none of its lesser 
leaders are anything but rubbish . According to what Liebknecht 
writes, the Schulze-Delitzsch Association in Berlin641 can now boast 
no more than 40 members . H ow things stand over there is clear 
from the fact that our Wilhelm Liebkn. is a  consequential  political  
personage . Should L.’s death lead fellows like Schulze, etc., to make 
insolent remarks about the deceased, we can only hope that L.’s 
official supporters conduct themselves in such a way as to enable 
us to enter the lists i f  necessary . I must now find out who has his 
correspondence. I shall at once obtain an injunction —for already 
the mob of memoir vultures such as Ludmilla,1 etc., are circling 
round these literary remains—prohibiting the publication of a 
single line of mine or yours. If necessary, this can be legally 
enforced in Prussia.
So far as America is concerned, I consider the present moment, 
entre nous,s to be extremely critical. If Grant suffers a major 
defeat, or Sherman wins a major victory, so all  right . Just now, at 
election time, a chronic series of small checks  would be dangerous. 
I fully agree with you that, to date, Lincoln’s re-election is pretty 
well assured, still 100 to l.h But election time in a country which is
a Helene 
von 
Dönniges 
(see 
this 
volume, 
p. 558) * b young - c young 
men - d Jah rb ü ch e r des D eutschen R eichs un ter dem  Sächsischen  H au se. Herausgegeben 
von Leopold Ranke, Bd. 1-3, Berlin, 1837-1840. - e patently - ' Ludmilla Assing - 
8 between ourselves - h See this volume, pp. 559-60.

562
the archetype of democratic humbug is full of hazards that may 
quite unexpectedly defy the logic of events (an expression which 
Magnus Urquhartus considers no less idiotic than 
the  justice  o f  a  
locomotive ’ ) .  An armistice would seem to be quite essential to the 
South, if it is to be saved from complete prostration. It was the 
first to raise this cry , not only in its northern organs, but actually 
in those of Richmond, although, now that the said cry has evoked 
an echo in New York, the Richmond Examiner is scornfully tossing it 
back to the Yankees.312 It is altogether symptomatic that Mr Davis 
should have decided to treat Negro soldiers as ‘prisoners of 
war’—the last official order of his war secretary.“
Lincoln has at his disposal considerable means for achieving 
election. (Needless to say, the peace proposals made by him are 
mere  
humbug . )  The election of an opposition candidate would 
probably lead to a genuine revolution. Nevertheless, there is no 
mistaking the fact that during the next 8 weeks, in the course of 
which the matter will be decided pro tern, much will depend on 
military eventualities. This is undoubtedly the most critical 
moment since the beginning of the war. Once this has been shifted , 
old  Lincoln  can  blunder  o n  to his heart’s content. The old man, by the 
by, cannot possibly ‘create’ generals. He’d be better able to select 
ministers. Yet the Confederate  papers  attack their ministers just as the 
Yankees do those in Washington. Should Lincoln succeed this 
time—as is highly probable—it will be on a far more radical platform  
and in completely 
changed  circumstances . Then the old man will, 
lawyer-fashion, find that more radical methods are compatible with 
his conscience.
I hope to see you tomorrow! Regards to Madame Liz.b
Herewith a photograph of Laura. I am hourly awaiting that of 
Jenny, but it has not, alas, arrived yet. Salut old  boy .
Your
K. M.