Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Or, Germany in 1848Marx, Karl
History
Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Or, Germany in 1848
Marx, Karl
Germany -- History -- Revolution, 1848-1849
We left this august body at Frankfort, perplexed by the insolent
attacks of the Governments upon its dignity, by the impotency and
treacherous listlessness of the Central Power it had itself created,
by the risings of the petty trading class for its defence, and of the
working class for a more revolutionary ultimate end. Desolation and
despair reigned supreme among its members; events had at once assumed
such a definite and decisive shape that in a few days the illusions of
these learned legislators as to their real power and influence were
entirely broken down. The Conservatives, at the signal given by the
Governments, had already retired from a body which, henceforth, could
not exist any longer, except in defiance of the constituted
authorities. The Liberals gave the matter up in utter discomfiture;
they, too, threw up their commissions as representatives. Honorable
gentlemen decamped by hundreds. From eight or nine hundred members the
number had dwindled down so rapidly that now one hundred and fifty,
and a few days after one hundred, were declared a quorum. And even
these were difficult to muster, although the whole of the Democratic
party remained.
The course to be followed by the remnants of a parliament was plain
enough. They had only to take their stand openly and decidedly with
the insurrection, to give it, thereby, whatever strength legality
could confer upon it, while they themselves at once acquired an army
for their own defence. They had to summon the Central Power to stop
all hostilities at once; and if, as could be foreseen, this power
neither could nor would do so, to depose it at once and put another
more energetic Government in its place. If insurgent troops could not
be brought to Frankfort (which, in the beginning, when the State
Governments were little prepared and still hesitating, might have been
easily done), then the Assembly could have adjourned at once to the
very center of the insurgent district. All this done at once, and
resolutely, not later than the middle or end of May, might have opened
chances both for the insurrection and for the National Assembly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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