" [London,] 3 May 1872 

Dear Eccarius, 

You seem to have lost your wits and as I regard this as a passing 
phase, at least for the present, perhaps you will allow me to 
address you for the time being as neither Sir, nor Herr nor 
Domine, and also to write to you in German instead of English. 

If you haven’t lost your memory along with your command of 
the German language—and if you have, the Minutes of the 
General Council can jog it—you will recollect that all the quarrels 
I have had with the English since the founding of the Internation- 
al up to the last conference* have been due simply and solely to 
the fact that I always took your side. Firstly, on the subject of The 
Commonwealth, against Odger, Cremer, Howell, etc.; secondly, 
against Fox, with whom I had been on very friendly terms *”; and 
lastly, against Hales during the period when you were General 
Secretary. 

If conflicts occurred later on, it would be important to establish 
who was responsible for them. I have only attacked you twice. 

Firstly, on account of the premature publication of the Confer- 
ence resolutions, in which, as you are well aware, you exceeded 
your brief.** 

Secondly, because of the last skirmish with America where you 
caused great mischief. (I am leaving out of account here the fact 
that your actions brought such abuse from the AMERICAN PAPERS, 
aided and abetted by Karl Heinzen et Co., down on my head; I 
am just as impervious to this abuse as I had previously been to 
praise, both public and private, from the same source.) 

You appear to imagine, however, that when you make blunders 
others must pay you compliments in return, instead of telling you 
the truth as one would to anyone else. I shall give you back 
Gregory’s stuff tomorrow evening.*” Today I have to go through 
the French and German proofs” simultaneously, so have no time 
to look through the American papers. 

a the London Conference of 1871 - > of the French and the second German edition 
of Volume I of Capital 

As for my ‘treatment’, I shall simply confine myself to proving 
that 1. you were absolutely in the wrong to write to New York in 
the way that you wrote, at such a decisive moment, even supposing 
that your Grievances were justified, and 2. that your complaint 
about the suppression of papers vis-a-vis the General Council is 
absolutely without foundation. Voila tout.* 

Finally, let me give you some good advice. You must not think 
that old personal and party friends are or will be less well disposed 
towards you just because they see it as their duty to oppose your 
Freaks. On the other hand, you should not imagine that the small 
clique of Englishmen who make use of you for certain purposes 
are your friends. I could prove the contrary if I wished. 

And so salut. Since it is my birthday the day after tomorrow I 
have absolutely no desire to celebrate it in the unpleasant 
conviction that I have lost one of my oldest friends and 
like-minded comrades. 

Salut fraternel, 
Karl Marx