Mark and Lincoln: And Unfinished Revolution

into a distinct class with distinct interests and a distinct histori-
cal mission. All this has been fully expounded by Marx (Capital, 
Part VIII: “Th
  e So-Called Primitive Accumulation”). According 
to Marx, the cause of the present antagonism of the classes and 
of the social degradation of the working class is their expropria-
tion from all means of production, in which the land is of course 
included.
If Henry George declares land monopolization to be the sole 
cause of poverty and misery, he naturally fi nds the remedy in the 
resumption of the land by society at large. Now, the Socialists of 
the school of Marx, too, demand the resumption, by society, of the 
land, and not only of the land but of all other means of produc-
tion likewise. But even if we leave these out of the question, there 
is another diff erence. What is to be done with the land? Modern 
Socialists, as represented by Marx, demand that it should be held 
and worked in common and for common account, and the same 
with all other means of social production, mines, railways, factories, 
etc.; Henry George would confi ne himself to letting it out to indi-
viduals as at present, merely regulating its distribution and applying 
the rents for public, instead of, as at present, for private purposes. 
What the Socialists demand implies a total revolution of the whole 
system of social production; what Henry George demands leaves 
the present mode of social production untouched, and has, in fact, 
been anticipated by the extreme section of Ricardian bourgeois 
economists who, too, demanded the confi scation of the rent of land 
by the State.
It would of course be unfair to suppose that Henry George has 
said his last word once for all. But I am bound to take his theory 
as I fi nd it.
Th
  e second great section of the American movement is formed by 
the Knights of Labor. And that seems to be the section most typical 
of the present state of the movement, as it is undoubtedly by far the 
strongest. An immense association, spread over an immense extent 
of country in innumerable “assemblies,” representing all shades of 
individual and local opinion within the working class, the whole of 
them sheltered under a platform of corresponding indistinctness 
and held together much less by their impracticable constitution 
than by the instinctive feeling that the very fact of their clubbing 
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together for their common aspiration makes them a great power 
in the country: a truly American paradox, clothing the most mod-
ern tendencies in the most medieval mummeries and hiding the 
most democratic and even rebellious spirit behind an apparent, 
but really powerless, despotism—such is the picture the Knights 
of Labor off er to a European observer. But if we are not arrested 
by mere outside whimsicalities, we cannot help seeing in this vast 
agglomeration an immense amount of potential energy evolving 
slowly but surely into actual force. Th
  e Knights of Labor are the 
fi rst national organization created by the American working class as 
a whole; whatever be their origin and history, whatever their short-
comings and little absurdities, whatever their platform and their 
constitution, here they are, the work of practically the whole class 
of American wageworkers: the only national bond that holds them 
together, that makes their strength felt to themselves not less than 
to their enemies, and that fi lls them with the proud hope of future 
victories. For it would not be exact to say that the Knights of Labor 
are liable to development. Th
  ey are constantly in full process of 
development and revolution, a heaving, fermenting mass of plastic 
material seeking the shape and form appropriate to its inherent 
nature. Th
  at form will be attained as surely as historical evolution 
has, like natural evolution, its own immanent laws. Whether the 
Knights of Labor will then retain their present name or not makes 
no diff erence, but to an outsider it appears evident that here is the 
raw material out of which the future of the American working-
class movement, and along with it the future of American society at 
large, has to be shaped.
Th
  e third section consists of the Socialist Labor Party. Th
 is sec-
tion is a party but in name, for nowhere in America has it, up to 
now, been able actually to take its stand as a political party. It is, 
moreover, to a certain extent foreign to America, having until lately 
been made up almost exclusively by German immigrants, using 
their own language and for the most part little conversant with 
the common language of the country. But if it came from a for-
eign stock, it came, at the same time, armed with the experience 
earned during long years of class struggle in Europe, and with an 
insight into the general conditions of working-class emancipation 
far superior to that hitherto gained by American workingmen. Th
 is 
246 frederick 
engels

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is a fortunate circumstance for the American proletarians, who thus 
are enabled to appropriate, and to take advantage of, the intellectual 
and moral fruits of the forty years’ struggle of their European class-
mates, and thus to hasten on the time of their own victory. For, as I 
said before, there cannot be any doubt that the ultimate platform of 
the American working class must and will be essentially the same 
as that now adopted by the whole militant working class of Europe, 
the same as that of the German-American Socialist Labor Party. 
So far, this party is called upon to play a very important part in 
the movement. But in order to do so, they will have to doff  every 
remnant of their foreign garb. Th
  ey will have to become out-and-
out American. Th
  ey cannot expect the Americans to come to them; 
they, the minority and the immigrants, must go to the Americans, 
who are the vast majority and the natives. And to do that, they must 
above all things learn English.
Th
  e process of fusing together these various elements of the vast 
moving mass—elements not really discordant, but indeed mutu-
ally isolated by their various starting points—will take some time 
and will not come off  without a deal of friction, such as is visible at 
diff erent points even now. Th
  e Knights of Labor, for instance, are 
here and there, in the Eastern cities, locally at war with the organ-
ized Trades Unions. But then, this same friction exists within the 
Knights of Labor themselves, where there is anything but peace and 
harmony. Th
  ese are not symptoms of decay for capitalists to crow 
over. Th
  ey are merely signs that the innumerable hosts of work-
ers, for the fi rst time set in motion in a common direction, have 
as yet found out neither the adequate expression for their com-
mon interests, nor the form of organization best adapted to the 
struggle, nor the discipline required to insure victory. Th
  ey are as 
yet the fi rst  levies  en masse of the great revolutionary war, raised 
and equipped locally and independently, all converging to form one 
common army, but as yet without regular organization and com-
mon plan of campaign. Th
  e converging columns cross each other 
here and there; confusion, angry disputes, even threats of confl ict 
arise. But the community of ultimate purpose in the end overcomes 
all minor troubles; ere long, the straggling and squabbling battal-
ions will be formed in a long line of battle array, presenting to the 
enemy a well-ordered front, ominously silent under their glittering 
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