domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a p~ople are ec~u~a~ed and enlightened, it is idle to expect the conl111uancc of civil liberty, or the capacity for self uovernmcnt. It has suffered the military commandants, ~lalioned amonu us, to. exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny, thu~ trampling upon the most sacred riuhls of the citizen, and rendcrinu Lhe military superior lo the civil po~,·er. 0 . 11 has dissolved, by force of arms, the stale congress of ~oalnula and Texas, and obliged our representatives to fly for their lives from the seal of government, thus depriving us of the fundamental political right of representation. IL has demanded the surrender of a number of our citizens, and ordered military detachments to seize and carry them into the interior for trial, in contempt of the civil authorities, and in defiance of the laws and the constitution. It has made piratical attacks upon our commerce, by commissioning foreign desperadoes, and authorizing them to seize our vessels, and convey the properly of our citizens to far distant ports for confiscation. IL denies us the right of worshipping the Almighty according to Lhc dictates of our own conscience, by the support of a national religion, calculated to promote the temporal interest of its human functionaries, rather than the glory of the true and living Go_d. It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defence-the righlful property of freemen-and formidable only to tyrannical governments. It has invaded our country both by sea and by land, with the intent to lay waste our territory, and drive us from our homes; and has now a large mercenary army advancing, to carry on against us a war of ex termination. It has, through its emissaries, incited the merciless savage, with the tomahawk and scalping knife, to massacre the inhabitants of our defenceless frontiers. It has been, during the whole time of our connection with it, the contemptible sport and victim of successive military revolutions, and hath continually exhibited every characteristic of a weak, corrupt, and tyrannical government. These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of Texas, until they reached that point al which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. We then took up arms in defence of the national constitution. We appc:Jed lo our ~lexican brethren for assistance: our appeal has been made in rain; though months hare elapsed, no sympathetic response has yet br.en heard from the interior. \Ve are, therefore, forced to the melancholy conclusion,
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