Hanover, 30 April 1867 

Dear Friend, 

You must think very badly of me, and all the more so when I 
tell you that your letters did not merely give me great pleasure but 
were a real comfort to me since they reached me at a time of 
great affliction. The knowledge that a capable man, a la hauteur des 
principes,* has been won for our party, is some compensation to me 
for the worst. Your letters were furthermore full of such warm 
friendship for me personally, and you will appreciate that I who 
am engaged in a most bitter struggle with the (official) world can 
least afford to underestimate such things. 

Why then did I not answer you? Because I was the whole time 
at death’s door. I thus had to make use of every moment when I 
was capable of work to complete my book,” to which I have 
sacrificed my health, happiness, and family. I hope this explana- 
tion suffices. I laugh at the so-called ‘practical’ men and their 
wisdom. If one wanted to be an ox, one could, of course, turn 
one’s back on the sufferings of humanity and look after one’s own 
hide. But I should really have thought myself unpractical if I had 
pegged out without finally completing my book, at least in 
manuscript. 

The first volume of the book will be published by Otto Meissner in 
Hamburg in a few weeks. The title of the work is: ‘Capital. A 
Critique of Political Economy’. I travelled to Germany to bring over 
the manuscript, and I am spending a few days with a friend in 
Hanover‘ on my way back to London.*” 

Volume I comprises the ‘Process of Production of Capital’. As well 
as setting out the general theory, I examine in great detail the 
conditions of the English—agricultural and industrial— proletariat 
over the last 20 years, ditto the condition of Ireland, basing myself on 
official sources that have never previously been used. You will 
immediately realise that all this serves me solely as an argumentum 
ad hominem‘ 

a of high principles -> the first volume of Capital -« Ludwig Kugelmann - 
4 evidence against the adversary 

I hope that a year from now the whole work will have appeared. 
Volume II contains the continuation and conclusion of the theory, 
Volume III the history of political economy from the middle of the 17th 
century. 

As to the ‘International Working Men’s Association’, it has 
become a power to be reckoned with in England, France, 
Switzerland, and Belgium. You should form as many branches as 
possible in America. Contribution PER MEMBER 1 PENNY (about 1 silver 
groschen) per year. However, every branch gives what it can. 
Congress in Lausanne this year, 3 September. Every branch can 
send one representative. Do write to me about this matter, about 
how you are faring in America and about conditions in general. If 
you do not write, I shall take it as showing that you have not yet 
absolved me. 

With warmest greetings 

Your 
Karl Marx