Abstract
In 1864, Karl Marx wrote a letter on behalf of the International Working Men's Association congratulating President Lincoln on his reelection. The conclusion of the letter gives a sense of Marx's view of Lincoln and his role in world history: "The workingmen of Europe feel sure that as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come, that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of the social world" (Saul K. Padover, ed., Karl Marx on America and the Civil War (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), p. 237). It is improbable, of course, that Lincoln, had he lived, would have been at the forefront of any socialist revolution, but he did direct Ambassador Charles Francis Adams to direct an unusually gracious reply to Marx and the Association.
Journal Title
Iowa Journal of Communication
Volume
25
Issue
3
First Page
107
Last Page
109
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Aune, James
(1993)
"for Karl Marx,"
Iowa Journal of Communication: Vol. 25:
No.
3, Article 34.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ijc/vol25/iss3/34
Copyright
©1993 Iowa Communication Association
