11. It Sounds Nutty But it’s True: Abraham Lincoln Corresponded With Karl Marx
In a nutty historic twist, Abraham Lincoln’s Marxist views probably came directly from Karl Marx himself. The author of The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital had been a prolific contributor to the New York Daily Tribune. It was the most influential Republican newspaper of the 1850s, when the GOP was founded. In 1848, the Tribune’s publisher had invited Marx to become a correspondent. Over the decade that followed, Marx, sometimes with the help of his colleague Friedrich Engels, wrote over 500 articles for the Republican newspaper.
Marx detested labor exploitation, and became a huge Lincoln fan. He cheered Honest Abe on as he wrecked slavery, the era’s most exploitative labor system. In 1864, Marx wrote a letter on behalf of the International Working Men’s Association, to congratulate Lincoln on his reelection and wish him success in the US Civil War. The president instructed the American ambassador in Britain, where Marx lived, to thank him and let him know that the United States: “derive new encouragements to persevere from the testimony of the workingmen of Europe that the national attitude is favored with their enlightened approval and earnest sympathies“.