Marx to Friedrich Adolph Sorge  
in Hoboken

[London] 29 May 1872

Dear Friend, |

In great haste,![t]

In the General Council’s sitting yesterday, at which almost all the members of the Commune were present, Hales read out the letter from Praitsching.[°*]!

Thereupon I communicated, partly from your letter, partly from the “World” you sent me, the aventures des Contre Council?[*] and emphasised how these facts have confirmed the necessity of the Resolutions?[] adopted on my motion. Eccarius was thunderstruck.[@]

Then came a useful incident,[°] which I at once exploited.

Eccarius had received a letter from St. Louis, in which a German section that has formed there enquired as to which of the two federal councils it should adhere to. I said, naturally, to the Council that goes with us, the old one. Hales and Eccarius (incidentally mortal enemies) spoke against that. I replied, and the resolution was adopted at the very well-attended sitting against only 3 votes (Hales, Eccarius and Delahaye, whom the other Commune members hold in no regard). 13?!

Le Moussu will inform you of this officially tomorrow, and you would then do well (naturally as something self-evident, not as something commissioned by London) to publish that the General Council, on the occasion of that German section, has decided that your Council is the only one which is en règle[] with it and therefore recognised.

Tout à vous[”]  
Karl Marx

[t] In great haste.  
[*] Adventures of the counter-council (see present volume, pp. 475/476)  
[] Karl Marx: “Resolutions of the General Council on the Split in the Federation of the United States”  
[@] was thunderstruck  
[°] incident  
[] in agreement  
[”] Yours entirely