2. From the Minute Book of the General Council. Central Council Meetings (November-December 1864)
2. From the Minute Book of the General Council. Central Council Meetings (November-December 1864)[250]
November 8, 1864
Dr. Marx proposed, Mr. Jung seconded, that any person not being able to attend the meetings cannot be a member of this Council.(1)
Dr. Marx called attention to the reports in the Morning Star and Bee-Hive(2) of the last meeting and complained that in such reports one of the fundamental principles of the Association, viz., truth, had been violated; he also complained of the Address having been published without the sanction of the Committee.[251]
The Secretary(3) explained that he had nothing to do with the reports, at which he was very much surprised; he believed Mr. Hartwell had supplied the reports in question.
To obviate the recurrence of such erroneous reports Dr. Marx proposed, Mr. Fontana seconded:
That the Secretary purchase a manifold writer and for the future all reports for the press be sent through the Secretary.
Mr. Aldovrandi proposed and Mr. Carter seconded: That Dr. Marx be requested to correct the typographical errors in the Address and that 500 copies of the Address, Programme(4)
and Rules be printed. Carried unanimously.
November 15, 1864
Mr. Cremer then proposed, M. Le Lubez seconded: That 1,000 [copies of the] Address and Rules be printed. Carried unanimously. [...]
A long discussion then took place with regard to the terms on which organised bodies should be received into the Association, and ultimately on the motion of Dr. Marx, seconded by Mr. Blackmore, the question was adjourned to the next meeting.[3]
November 29, 1864
Dr. Marx then brought up the report of the Sub-Committee, also a draft of the address which had been drawn up for presentation to the people of America congratulating them on their having re-elected Abraham Lincoln as President. The address is äs follows and was unanimously agreed to(5): [...]
Mr. Wheeler proposed, Le Lubez seconded: That the names of all those who are present be appended to the address, also those who are absent and are willing to endorse the views set forth in the address.(6)
December 13, 1864
Mr. Fox then read the address which he proposed should be adopted by the British Section of the Association and then transmitted to the National Government of Poland.[252]
A long discussion took place consequent on certain statements contained in the address and which statements were opposed by Mr. Jung, Le Lubez, Dr. Marx and supported by Mr. Carter.
Mr. Fox replied defending the statement that the traditional foreign policy of France had been favourable to the restoration and independence of Poland.
Mr. Cremer thought it important that the truth of this statement should be ascertained and would propose that the further
[11] Resolution on this point proposed by Marx and adopted by the Central Council on November 22, 1864 see on p. 18 of this volume.— Ed.
consideration of the address be deferred till the next meeting/[1]
Mr. Morgan seconded the motion. Carried unanimously.
December 20, 1864
Mr. Cremer read a letter from Mr. Adams, the United States Minister, suggesting that the address to President Lincoln be sent to him, Mr. Adams, instead of being brought.
Dr. Marx proposed, Mr. Fontana seconded, that the Secretary send the address to Mr. Adams.
Mr. Worley proposed, Mr. Wheeler seconded, that Mr. Adams be again appealed to receive the deputation.
For amendment — 5, for resolution — 13. Mr. Fox then resumed his defence of the address to the Polish National Government and in an able address contended for the truth of the assertions therein contained, after some discussion it was agreed to adjourn the question till next meeting.
December 29, 1864
Mr. Fox stated in the absence of Dr. Marx he should defer any discussion on the address to the National Government of Poland.
a The report about this Central Council meeting, published in The Bee-Hive, No. 166, December 17, 1864, has:
"Mr. Fox then brought up the address from the British Section of the Association to the National Government of Poland, when a very long and animated discussion took place, in which the following members took part — Messrs. Le
Lubez, Holtorp, Cremer, Marx, Carter, Weston, Jung, the latter opposing a statement set forth in the address, viz., that the traditional foreign policy of France had been favourable to the restoration and independence of Poland. Karl Marx and Mr. Le Lubez also agreeing that while the foreign policy of France had appeared to favour such an object, in reality [itj had not, especially during the time of the first Napoleon, when the Poles had been used for his military ambition, and then cast aside. Mr. Fox defended the address and ably contended for the retention of the passage referring to the traditional foreign policy of France towards Poland, and it was ultimately agreed as the question was an important one that its further consideration be deferred till the next meeting."—Ed.
Endnotes
[250] ~r,° All the materials from the Minute Book of the General Council included in the Appendices to this volume were published in English for the first time in The General Council of the First International. 1864-1866 and 1866-1868, Moscow, 1962 and 1964. p, 353
[251] Marx is referring to the publication of the "Inaugural Address of the Working Men's International Association" in Newspaper, No. 160, The Bee-Hive November 5, 1864, with misprints in the text (see Note 1).
[3] Garottes—robbers who strangled their victims. In the early 1860s such attacks often occurred in London and were a subject of special debate in Parliament.
[252] The National Government of Poland was set u p in May 1863, during the national liberation insurrection of January 1863-May 1864. Moderate and radical elements predominated in it alternately. This government headed the struggle of the Polish insurgents until mid-October 1863, when it handed over leadership to a military dictator. It had its representatives abroad from among Polish refugees who continued to regard themselves as such even after the defeat of the insurrection. On the discussion of Fox's address in the International, see Note 192.
[11] The Provisional Rules of the Association were drawn up by Marx simultaneously with the Inaugural Address, approved by the Sub-Committee on October 27 and unanimously adopted by the Provisional Committee on November 1, 1864. They were published in English together with the Inaugural Address in the pamphlet Address and Provisional Rules of the Working Men's International Association... in London in November 1864 and also in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 161, November 12, 1864 and The Miner and Workman's Advocate, No. 93, December 10, 1864. The French translation of the Provisional Rules made by the Proudhonists at the end of 1864 contained a few inaccuracies and distortions later used in the struggle against the General Council (see present edition, Vol. 21, K. Marx, "General Council to the Federal Council of the Romance Switzerland", "Confidential Communication"). This translation was reproduced in a number of publications in France, Belgium and Switzerland. The new and improved French translation was made by Charles Longuet, checked by Marx and published together with the Inaugural Address in the pamphlet Manifeste de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs suivi du Règlement provisoire, Brussels, 1866. The German translation appeared in Der Social-Demokrat, No. 10, January 18, 1865 and in Der Vorbote, Nos. 4 and 5, April and May
[1] On September 28, 1864 an international meeting was held at St. Martin's Hall,. Long Acre, London. It was organised by the London trade-union leaders and a group of Paris Proudhonist workers jointly with the representatives of German, Italian and other foreign workers then living in London and a number of prominent European democratic émigrés. The meeting resolved to found an International Working Men's Association (later known as the First International) and elected a Provisional Committee which shortly afterwards constituted itself as the leading body of the Association. This body, known as the General Council of the International, was mainly called the Central Council until the end of 1866. Karl Marx was elected to this Committee and later to the Sub-Committee appointed at its first meeting on October 5 to draw up the Association's programme documents. The Sub-Committee, or Standing Committee, subsequently functioned as an executive body and included the President of the Central (General) Council (until autumn 1867, when this post was abolished), the General Secretary and the corresponding secretaries for different countries. Marx did not attend its first meetings, when the Sub-Committee drew up a document consisting of an introductory declaration of principles, written by the Owenite John Weston and edited by the French petty-bourgeois democrat Victor Le Lubez, and the Rules of the Italian workers' societies, drawn up by Mazzini and translated into English by the Italian Luigi Wolff. This document, edited by Le Lubez, was discussed at the Sub-Committee meeting on October 15 about which Marx was informed too late for him to attend, and at the Provisional Committee meeting on October 18, when Marx first familiarised himself with this material. His critical assessment of it is to be found in his letter to Engels of November 4, 1864 (see present edition, Vol. 42). Circumstances did not allow Marx to prevent the Provisional Committee's approval of the declaration of principles and the Rules, but he convinced the Committee members that the document needed polishing and insisted on referring it back to the Sub-Committee for final editing. On October 20 the Sub-Committee met at Marx's house; at that meeting th^7 managed to edit only the first point of the Rules. By the next meeting of the Sub-Committee on October 27 Marx had completely revised the submitted document. He wrote a new document — the Inaugural Address of the 17* he altered the Preamble to the Rules, discarding the loosely-phrased declaration of principles, reduced the 40 points of the Rules to 10, and formulated them in a way which expressed the proletarian nature of the organisation then being founded, and eliminated all Mazzinian organisational principles (petty regulation typical of secret societies, etc.). The Sub-Committee approved the Address and the Rules as drawn up by Marx, stipulating, however, that two declarative phrases on "rights and duties" and "truth, justice, and morality" be inserted in the Preamble to the Rules. On November 1, 1864 both documents were unanimously approved by the Provisional Committee. On the proposal of a Committee member, Whitlock, Marx supplemented the Inaugural Address with a note on carbon and nitrogen as most important elements of food. The Inaugural Address was first published by The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 160, November 5, 1864 without the sanction of the Central Council and as an offprint to be sent to various newspapers. Marx strongly disapproved of this publication which contained a number of misprints (see this volume, p. 353). In November 1864 the Address and the Rules were published in London as a pamphlet Address and Provisional Rules of the Working Men's International Association, Established September 28, 1864, at a Public Meeting Held at St. Martin's Hall, Long Acre, London. On the decision of the Central Council of May 9, 1866 the English version of the Inaugural Address, the Provisional Rules and some other documents were again published as a pamphlet in London in August that year. The Address was also published in The Miner & Workman's Advocate, No. 93, December 10, 1864. The German authorised translation entitled "Manifest an die arbeitende Klasse Europa's" was published in Der Social-Demokrat, Nos. 2 and 3, December 21 and 30, 1864. During 1865, 1866 and later, various translations of the Inaugural Address appeared: into French in Paris, Geneva and Brussels; into Italian in Genoa and Naples; into German in Leipzig, Geneva, Berlin and Vienna in 1866 and 1868; into Hungarian in Pest in 1868; into Russian in Geneva in 1871; into Spanish and Portuguese in Madrid and Lisbon in 1873. Various German translations continued to be published in Germany and Switzerland (Zurich) in the early 1870s as well. The Inaugural Address has survived in two manuscript copies written by Mrs. Marx and Jenny Marx (Marx's daughter), and copies of pamphlets with Marx's corrections. In this volume the document is published according to the English pamphlet of 1864. The most important differences between the English version and the German authorised translation are given in footnotes. At the end of the pamphlet there was a list of the Central Council members: "Names and Nationalities of the Central Provisional Council. "English: Longmaid, Worley, Leno, Whitlock, Fox, Blackmore, Hartwell, Pidgeon, Lucraft, Weston, Dell, Shearman, Nieass, Shaw, Lake, Buckley, Odger, Howell, Osborne, Carter, Gray, Wheeler, Stainsby, Morgan, Grossmith, Cremer, Dick. "French: Dénouai, Le Lubez, Jourdain, Morrissot, Leroux, Bordage, Bocquet, Talandier, Dupont. "Italian: L. Wolff, Fontana, Setacci, Aldovrandi, Lama, Solustri. "Swiss: Nusperli, Jung. "German: Eccarius, Wolff, Otto, Lessner, Pfänder, Lochner, Marx, Kaub, Bolleter. "Polish: Holtorp, Rybczinski. George Odger, President of the Central Council. George W. Wheeler, Honorary Treasurer. Karl Marx, Honorary Corresponding Secretary for Germany. G. P. Fontana, Honorary Corresponding Secretary for Italy. /. E. Holtorp, Honorary Corresponding Secretary for Poland. Hermann F. Jung, Honorary Corresponding Secretary for Switzerland. V. Le Lubez, Honorary Corresponding Secretary for France. William R. Cremer, Honorary General Secretary.»