Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln facts for kids
The Address of the International Working Men's Association to Abraham Lincoln was a special letter written by Karl Marx. He wrote it between November 22 and 29, 1864. The letter was sent to Abraham Lincoln, who was the President of the United States at the time. It was delivered by the U.S. Ambassador, Charles Francis Adams Sr..
This letter came from the International Workingmen's Association (IWA). This was a group of people from different countries who believed in ideas like socialism and communism, and also trade unions. In the letter, Marx congratulated Lincoln on winning his re-election in the 1864 United States presidential election. He also praised Lincoln and the Union for fighting against slavery in the United States.
Lincoln's reply was sent through Ambassador Adams Sr. He briefly thanked the IWA for supporting the Union. The response was mainly for Randal Cremer, who was a leader against slavery and a trade unionist. But Marx and his friends also received a copy. This letter was one of many thousands Lincoln got from people around the world.
The letter was first printed in German on December 30, 1864, in a newspaper called Der Socialdemokrat. It first appeared in English on January 7, 1865, in a British trade union newspaper called The Bee-Hive.
Contents
Why Karl Marx Wrote to Lincoln
Marx's Views on the American Civil War
Before and during the American Civil War, Karl Marx became very interested in the struggles of enslaved people in America. He wrote a lot about how slavery was connected to the war. Marx supported the Union side in the Civil War. He believed the Union could only win if they took stronger actions to end slavery.
Even though Marx supported the Union, there is no clear proof that his writings changed what people in Britain thought about the war. It also doesn't seem to have directly helped the Union's war efforts.
Marx and Lincoln had different ideas about businesses and how people should be paid for their work. However, they both disliked what they saw as unfair treatment of workers. They both thought that the value of a person's work was more important than the value of money or property.
In January 1860, Marx told his friend Friedrich Engels about two very important things happening in the world. One was the movement of enslaved people in America, which started after John Brown died. The other was the movement of serfs (farm workers who were tied to the land) in Russia. Marx compared slave owners in the Southern U.S. to rich European nobles. He believed that ending slavery would not destroy the economic system. Instead, it would make things much better for all workers, both white and Black.
Marx's Work as a Writer
In the mid-1800s, Marx was friends with Charles A. Dana. Dana was an American who believed in socialist ideas and was the managing editor of the New-York Tribune newspaper. Marx met Dana in Cologne, Germany, in 1848. In 1852, Dana hired Marx to write for the Tribune from Britain.
Over the next ten years, Marx wrote about 500 articles for the newspaper. Most of these were published with his name on them. However, most of these articles were short news summaries about events in Europe. Only a few of them contained his deeper economic ideas. Marx was not very well known in the United States when he wrote these articles. Only a small number of other newspapers at the time noticed or reprinted his Tribune articles. Some newspapers even thought "Karl Marx" was a fake name used by other writers.
Lincoln and the New-York Tribune
Like many members of the Republican Party at the time, Lincoln read the Tribune often. This means it's possible he read some of Marx's articles. Lincoln read the newspaper for its news about American politics. The Tribune supported the Republican and Whig ideas of ending slavery, growing industries, and protecting American businesses from foreign competition.
During Lincoln's time as president, Marx wrote articles for the Tribune urging Lincoln to take a stronger stand against slavery. In 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This order freed enslaved people in the Confederate states. This was what Marx and others who wanted to end slavery had hoped for.
Marx also wrote several articles for European newspapers during the Civil War. These articles explained what was truly at stake in the war. He also argued against the idea that slavery had nothing to do with the conflict. Marx believed that the war was also caused by rich Southern leaders who feared losing their power in the U.S. government.
What the Letter Said
The letter begins by congratulating "the American people" on Lincoln's re-election. It says that if fighting against the power of slave owners was the main goal of his first election, then the winning cry of his re-election was "Death to Slavery."
The letter strongly criticized a small group of "300,000 slaveholders" for harming the United States. It argued that the fight against slavery would help the working class in the country. It compared this to how the American Revolutionary War helped the middle class. The letter also stated that ending slavery would allow African Americans to achieve "the true freedom of labor."
The letter ends by saying that Lincoln would "lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world."
See Also
- Karl Marx
- Abraham Lincoln
- American Civil War
- Slavery in the United States
- International Workingmen's Association
