Memorial adopted by the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association at a special meeting on November 20, 1867; published in French in Le Courrier français, No. 163, November 24, 1867. Written by Karl Marx in English; attributed to him by MEW (vol. 16). Text from The General Council of the First International. Minutes, vol. II (1866-1868), Moscow, Progress Publishers, n.d. [1963-68], pp. 312-313, which prints the copy of Marx’s manuscript made by Jenny Marx. In the signatures the small capitals of that edition are given in italics. Traducción al español

At a special meeting of the General Council of the I. W. A. held at the office 16, Castle Street, East, W., on Wednesday evening the following memorial was adopted:

“Memorial of the General Council of the International Working Men’s Association.

“To the Right Hon. Gathorne-Hardy, her Majesty’s Secretary of State.

“The memorial of the undersigned, representing working men’s associations in all parts of Europe, showeth:

“That the execution of the Irish prisoners condemned to death at Manchester will greatly impair the moral influence of England upon the European Continent. The Execution of the four prisoners resting upon the same evidence and the same verdict which, by the free pardon of Maguire, have been officially declared, the one false, the other erroneous, will bear the stamp not of a judicial act, but of political revenge. But even if the verdict of the Manchester jury and the evidence it rests upon had not been tainted by the British Government itself, the latter would now have to choose between the blood-handed practices of old Europe and the magnanimous humanity of the young Transatlantic Republic.

“The commutation of the sentence for which we pray will be an act not only of justice, but of political wisdom.

“By order of the General Council of the I. W. Association,

“John Weston, Chairman; R. Shaw, Secretary for America; Eugène Dupont, Secretary for France; Karl Marx, Secretary for Germany; Hermann Jung, Secretary for Switzerland; P. Lafargue, Secretary for Spain; Zabicki, Secretary for Poland; Derkinderen, Secretary for Holland; Besson, Secretary for Belgium; G. Eccarius, General Secretary.”

20 November, 1867