Engels

I

Florida

I
The Spirit of Earth speaks:

Three hundred years have rolled by since the hour
When the proud white folk came from far away
Across the seas, where their great cities tower.
The islands soon became the strong men’s prey;
I lifted up my clenched fist from the ocean
To see how far their arrogant feet might stray.
Woods clothed the land and flowers grew in profusion;
Through the deep valleys wandered by the score
My faithful tribesmen of the brown-skinned nation.
The Eternal Father mild saw fit to pour
Abundant blessings down. The White Men came;
Their ship, its course erratic, neared the shore.
The land seemed fair to them. They made their claim,
And seized it, like the islands, in their greed,
Sowing among my people serfdom’s shame.
The borders marked by furrows they denied,
And with their quadrants measured out my Hand,
Drawing strange lines across from side to side.
Ere long had passed, they swarmed across the land;
Only one finger did they fear to try.
Who ventured there was doomed to meet his end.
Upon this one remaining finger, I
Have placed a ring my brown-skinned folk compose.
They stand with spears poised, ready to let fly.
And if their shields in compact, serried rows
Fail me, if White Man’s arrogance breaks the ring,
This Hand, with White and Brown, I then propose
To plunge into the waters weltering.

II
The Seminole speaks:

Peace to my brethren I shall not proclaim;
War be my first word, battle be my last.
And when your eyes blaze up in sudden flame,
As forest fire is fanned by hurricane’s blast,
Then shall I say that you were truly right
To call me Word’s Sun, that Night flees fast.
E'en as your hunter’s lust flamed at the plight
Of innocent creatures that you forced to flee
From arrow following arrow in swift flight,
So would the White Men hunt you ruthlessly.
But let your speeding arrows make it clear
That they're the quarry, and the hunters-we.
They envy us our red skins; and in fear
That their revolting white may be discerned,
They swathe themselves in many-coloured gear.
Our country they have named the floral strand,
For flowers here in great profusion grow.
But blue, or white, or yellow, through the land
Into red raiment soon they all must go,
Bespattered with the White Man’s own red blood.
Flamingo bird shall not more crimson glow.
As slaves, we proved to be of little good.
They brought the cowardly Blacks across the sea:
They'll learn the strength and courage of our brood!
Come then, White Man, if your desire it be,
And you shall get the homage that’s your due.
From every bed of reeds, from every tree,
Seminole arrows wait to ambush you!

III
The White Man speaks:

Well, then! And so for the last time I will
Offer my brow to cruel Destiny
And freely turn to face the murderous steel!
O vengeful Fate, you are well known to me!
Always you've turned my joy in life to gall.
You think I ever knew Love’s ecstasy?
Mocking, she broke my heart, whom I did fall
In love with. Thenceforth, seeking consolation,
I fought for Freedom. Kings themselves have all
Trembled before our League. In trepidation,
Princes have seen how German youth can stand
As one. In seven years of expiation
I've fully paid my debt in iron bonds.
In a swift ship they bring me o'er the sea
To Liberty — but on an alien strand.
The coastline beckons! But at a cliff’s foot, see! —
The ship is wrecked. The folk on board all spring
Into the foaming waves. A plank bears me
Safely to shore, though bruised and shivering.
For the first time, my luck goes favourably.
In sand-choked seas the rest lie weltering.
But can I not escape my destiny?
The savages surround me, bind my limbs.
They seek to gain revenge by killing me.
For me, new Freedom, so I hoped, begins.
But Freedom fighters seek my murder here.
So must I expiate my brothers’ sins.
But what comes floating to the beach down there?
A crucifix In my Redeemer’s eye
Such tenderness! I miss His Word so dear.
As I lie here upon the hot sands dying,
He comes to me with bounteous clemency.
While I complain, God, with Hell’s fury vying,
Has now Himself become a corpse for me!

Letter of Engels to Friedrich Graeber, 01.20.1839. Text extracted of http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1839/letters/39_01_20.htm

II

"Justice", "humanity", "freedom", "equality", "fraternity", "independence" -- so far we have found nothing in the pan-Slavist manifesto but these more or less ehtical categories, whcih sound very fine, it is true, but prove absolutely nothing in historical and political questions. "Justice", "humanity", "freedom", etc., may demand this or that a thousand times over; but if the thing is impossible it does not take place and in spite of everything remaains an "empty figment of a dream". The pan-Slavists' illusions ought to have understood that all pious wishes and beautiful dreams are of no avail against the iron reality, adn that their policy at any time was no more the "policy of revolution" than was that of the French Republic. Nevertheless, today, in January 1849, they still come to us with the same old phrases, in the content of whcih Western Europe has been disillusioned by the bloodiest counter-revolution!

Just a word about "universal fraternal union of peoples" and the drawing of "boundaries established by the sovereign will of the peoples themselves on the basis of their national characteristics". The United States and Mexico are two republics, in both of which the people is sovereign.

How did it happen that over Texas a war broke out between these two republics, whcih, according to the moral theory, ought to have been "fraternally united" and "federated", and that, owing to "geographical, commercial and strategical necessities", the "sovereign will" of the American people, supported by the bravery of the American volunteers, shifted theboundaries drawn by nature some hundreds of miles further south? And will Bakunin accuse the Americans of a "war of conquest", which, although it deals with a severe blow to his theory based on "justice and humanity", was nevertheless waged wholly and solely in the interest of civilization? Or is it perhaps unfortunate that splendid California has been taken away from the lazy Mexicans, who could not do anything with it? That the energetic yankees by rapid exploitation of the California gold mines will increase the means of circulation, in a few years will concentrate a dense population and extensive trade at the most suitable places on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, create large cities, open up communications by steamship, contruct a railway from New York to San Francisco, for the first time really open the Pacific Ocean to civilization, and for the third time in history give the world trade a new direction? The "independence" of a few Spanish Californians and Texans may suffer because of it, in some places "justice" and other moral principles may be violated; but what does that amtter to such facts of world-historic significance?

Reply of Engels in the New Renana Gazette, n. 222, of 02.15.1848 - periodical established by him and Karl Marx - to Apelo to the Slavs, of Bakunin, where this claims for the friendship between the peoples and the respect to the borders of the States.

Integral text can be accessed in http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Archive/1848-NRZ/nrz60.html

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LET'S MIX THE WORLD