On November 11, 1864 Herr v. Schweitzer informed me by letter of the foundation of the Social-Demokrat, organ of the General Association of German Workers and stated at the time, among other things: On November 19, 1864 Herr v. Schweitzer wrote to me: Herr v. Schweitzer went on to ask whether, At the beginning of January 1865, after the confiscation of one of the first issues of the Social-Demokrat, I congratulated Herr v. Schweitzer on this event, adding that he must publicly break with the Ministry. On the news of Proudhon's death he requested an article on Proudhon. I met his wish by return of post, but took this opportunity of characterising now in his own newspaper "even the semblance of compromise with the powers that be" as a contravention of "simple moral sense", and Proudhon's flirtation with Louis Bonaparte after the coup d' tat as "baseness". At the same time Engels sent him a translation of an Old Danish peasant ballad in order, in a marginal note, to impress on the readers of the Social-Demokrat the necessity of struggle against the rural squirearchy. But during the same month of January, I again had to protest against Herr v. Schweitzer's "tactics". He replied on February 4: In the meantime, in No. 21 of the Social-Demokrat, the Paris correspondent had corrected his earlier allegation' and deprived our statement of its immediate pretext. We therefore accepted Herr v. Schweitzer's refusal to print it. But at the same time I wrote to him r that "we would express our opinion in detail elsewhere about the relationship of the workers to the Prussian Government". Finally I made one last attempt to demonstrate to him the wretchedness of his "tactics", however honestly they might be meant, with a practical example, the coalition question. He replied on February 15: Karl Marx London, March 15, 1865
The International Workingmen's Association, Statement regarding the causes of the breach with the Social-Demokrat