WEITLING AND MARX 119climax came on July 4, when Kriege took down the slogan at the
masthead of the Volkstribun which read "Up with the workers.
Down with capital," apologized for the name "communist," and
rejoiced that Tammany Hall had embraced the cause of the Social
Reformers with whom he now was identified completely.^22
Having won the initial round at Brussels, Marx and Engels de
cided to follow their victory with a purge of all elements in the
communist agitation who deviated from the doctrine announced
by the Pontiff Maxim's. Engels proceeded to Paris to break
whatever influence Weitling still had among the German workers
there. He painted him as a reactionary and, what was worse, inti
mated that he was not the author of the books which he had pub
lished. Weitling heatedly denied the charge as a malicious libel,
and Engels produced no evidence to prove his case. Instead, he
appealed to Ewerbeck to join the Brussels group, tried to get "the
little tailor clique" expelled, and reported with satisfaction that
the carpenters of Paris would not accept Weitling's leadership and
frequently were at odds with the tailors.^23
In 1848, in a letter to Marx, Engels ridiculed the small follow
ing which their rival still had among London journeymen, a group
which he described as "asses." Two years later Marx attacked
Weitling's sentimental methods in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
In 1853 the same tactics still were being followed, but to the list
of the unfaithful the Marxists now had added such names as
August Willich and Fritz Anneke, who also had dared to differ
with them and were editing German liberal papers in the United
States. Along with Weitling, they were denounced for "trying
to sow dissension in our ranks."^24 Weitling occasionally fired
back at Marx in his Die Republik der Arbeiter, and Marx and
Engels continued to watch for "the poison of this king of the
tailors, and dictator of the colony, Communia."^25 When Weyde-
(^22) See also John R. Commons et al. (eds.), A Documentary History of Ameri
can Industrial Society (Cleveland, 1910), VII, 91-93, 225-31.
(^23) Bebel and Bernstein (eds.), Briefwechsel, Engels und Marx, I, 23-29, 40,88.
(^24) Ibid., I, 398, 422; and Rep. d. Arb., January 7, 1854.
(^25) Bebel and Bernstein (eds.), Briefwechsel, Engels und Marx, I, 145, 171,
384.