10. F. Engels. To the Directorate of the Schiller Institute
Manchester, September 16, 1868
Mr. Davisson has informed me that at its meeting of September 7 the Directorate took the decision to invite Mr. Karl Vogt to give a lecture at the Institute.
Much as I regret it, this decision obliges me to resign my post as chairman as well as that of member of the Directorate.
I do not need to enter here into the objective grounds on which, had I been present, I would have voted against the decision. It is not these reasons which make my decision a duty.
My resignation stems only from reasons not connected with the Institute. During 1859 and 1860 my political friends and I levelled grave charges of a political nature against Mr. Vogt, presenting evidence to support them. (See the work Herr Vogt by Karl Marx, London, 1860.) Mr. Vogt has so far remained silent in the face of these accusations, which have subsequently been repeated by other quarters.
This entire affair, as well as the polemic about it at the time, is probably unknown to the other members of the Directorate, or forgotten by them. They are quite entitled to disregard Mr. Vogt's political character and regard him as the more or less agreeable populariser of the scientific discoveries of others. I cannot afford to do so. Were I to remain in the Directorate after the above decision, I would be denying my entire political past and my political friends. I would be giving a vote of confidence to a man who, I consider it proved, was in 1859 a paid agent of Bonapartism.
Only such a compelling necessity could induce me to resign from a post in which I considered it my duty to remain under difficulties now fortunately overcome.[29] I thank the members of the Directorate cordially for the confidence they have so lavishly bestowed on me, and leave them with the request to retain towards me the same friendly sentiments that I shall always cherish for them.
Yours faithfully,
F. E.
Organ bet bentféen SSolHpavtcL
No. 40. *ti$iit, Mn 3. ottob«. 1868.
Endnotes
[29] Engels refers to the difficulties experienced by the Schiller Institute in building new premises.