the virtuous Democrats in the Frankfort Assembly did just
the contrary. Not content with letting things take the course they
liked, these worthies went so far as to suppress by their opposition
all insurrectionary movements which were preparing. Thus, for
instance, did Herr Karl Vogt at Nuremberg. They allowed the
insurrections of Saxony, of Rhenish Prussia, of Westphalia to be
suppressed without any other help than a posthumous, sentimental
protest against the unfeeling violence of the Prussian Government.
They kept up an underhand diplomatic intercourse with the South German
insurrections but never gave them the support of their open
acknowledgment. They knew that the Lieutenant of the Empire sided with
the Governments, and yet they called upon _him_, who never stirred, to
oppose the intrigues of these Governments. The ministers of the
Empire, old Conservatives, ridiculed this impotent Assembly in every
sitting, and they suffered it. And when William Wolff,[9] a Silesian
deputy, and one of the editors of the _New Rhenish Gazette_, called
upon them to outlaw the Lieutenant of the Empire--who was, he justly
said, nothing but the first and greatest traitor to the Empire, he was
hooted down by the unanimous and virtuous indignation of those
Democratic Revolutionists! In short, they went on talking, protesting,
proclaiming, pronouncing, but never had the courage or the sense to
act; while the hostile troops of the Governments drew nearer and
nearer, and their own Executive, the Lieutenant of the Empire, was
busily plotting with the German princes their speedy destruction. Thus
even the last vestige of consideration was lost to this contemptible
Assembly; the insurgents who had risen to defend it ceased to care any
more for it, and when at last it came to a shameful end, as we shall
see, it died without anybody taking any notice of its unhonored exit.

LONDON, August, 1852.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] The "Wolff" here alluded to is Wilhelm Wolff, the beloved friend
of Marx and Engels, who--to distinguish him from the many other
"Wolffs" in the movement at this period--was known to his intimates as
"Lupus." It is to this Silesian peasant that Marx dedicated the first
volume of "Capital."

"Dedicated
To My Never-To-Be-Forgotten Friend
The Brave, True, Noble Fighter In The Van-Guard
Of The Proletariat,
WILHELM WOLFF.

Born at Tornau, June 21st, 1809. D