Marx in Neue Rheinische Zeitung November 1848

Impeachment of the Government

by Karl Marx

Neue Rheinische Zeitung No. 143 (special edition)
Translated by the Marx-Engels Institute
1994

The town of Brandenburg refuses to have anything to do with the Brandenburg
cabinet and has sent a letter of thanks to the National Assembly.

Statements issued throughout the country recognize only the government
of the National Assembly.

The cabinet has again committed high treason by defying the Habeas
Corpus Act [111] and proclaiming a state of siege without the assent of
the National Assembly and by expelling the National Assembly from the shooting-gallery at the point of the bayonet.

The seat of the National Assembly is the people and not this or
that heap of stones. If it is driven out of Berlin it will meet elsewhere,
in Breslau, Cologne, or any other place it thinks fit. It has declared
this in the resolution it passed on the 13th.

The Berliners scoff at the state of siege and are in no way intimidated
by it. Nobody is handing over his arms.

Armed men from various Parts of the country are hurrying to the
assistance of the National Assembly.

The Guard regiments have refused to obey orders. More and more
soldiers are fraternizing with the people.

Silesia and Thuringia are in revolt.

We, however, appeal to you, citizens -- send money to the democratic
Central Committee in Berlin. But pay no taxes to the counter-revolutionary
government. The National Assembly has declared that refusal to pay taxes
is justified in law. It has not yet passed a resolution on this out of
consideration for the civil servants. A starvation diet will make these
officials realize the power of the citizenry and will make good citizens
of them.

Starve the enemy and refuse to pay taxes! Nothing is sillier than
to supply a traitorous government with the means to fight the nation, and
the means of all means is money.

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