Lincoln and Marx

My sister sent me today a letter to the editor of her local newspaper. The writer voices the opinion that President Abraham Lincoln has been made into a "...practically deified savior of the Union and emancipator of the slaves." He cites the Emancipation Proclamation and Lincoln’s first inaugural address as proof. He adds : "Few know of his correspondence with Karl Marx, father of communism, nor that many leaders in his cabinet and military were avowed Marxists." The truth is that Karl Marx wrote to congratulate President Lincoln on his re-election in 1864. A full copy of Marx' letter to Lincoln, without any editing, follows in the next blog. Also there you will find the answer sent to Marx...not by President Lincoln but by Charles Adams, his secretary. There is no other correspondence betweeen Marx and Lincoln. So, in a sense, the letter to the editor writer is comparing the Marx-Lincoln exchange to, say, a letter from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to President Obama congratulating him on his re-election and an answer from Obama's secretary. Does that make President Obama Chinese Communist? I think not. Just to remind ourselves, dear readers, of Lincoln's views on slavery and American democracy, here is an excerpt of one of his 1863 writings : "Our republican robe is soiled, and trailed in the dust. Let us repurify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not the blood, of the Revolution. Let us turn slavery from its claims of “moral right,” back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of “necessity.” Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it; and there let it rest in peace. Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. Let north and south—let all Americans—let all lovers of liberty everywhere—join in the great and good work. If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union; but we shall have so saved it, as to make, and to keep it, forever worthy of the saving. We shall have so saved it, that the succeeding millions of free happy people, the world over, shall rise up, and call us blessed, to the latest generations."