Texas Declaration of Independence, Original Manuscript, March 2, 1836

Page 4

Declaration of Independence - Page 4

been habituated in the land of their birth,
the United States of America. In
this expectation they have been cruelly dis-
appointed, inasmuch as the Mexican
nation has acquiesced in the late changes
made in the government by General
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who
having overturned the constitution of his
country, now offers us the cruel alterna-
tive, either to abandon our homes, acqui-
red by so many privations, or submit
to the most intolerable of all tyranny,
the combined despotism of the sword and
the priesthood.

It has sacrificed our
welfare to the state of Coahuila, by
which our interests have been continual-
ly depressed through a jealous and
partial course of legislation, carried
on at a far distant seat of government,
by a hostile majority, in an unknown
tongue, and this too, notwithstanding
we have petitioned in the humblest
terms for the establishment of a
separate state government, and
have, in accordance with the provisions
of the national constitution, presented