The Arkansas advocate., 1836-04-01

U5td1lGfl0iLS DCcldTn{fogt q 1ftat pebueHtes UJ
 fEe Deleeaies of the People of 1sras, IL
 General ConUeaiion ai tie tolpa of Wasa-
 ,ngton, on tlle 2d day cf .Mareh, 1886.
 WHEN government has ceased to pro- tect the lives, liberty, and property Of the people from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness II was instituted; and so far from being guarantee for their inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands Of evil nilers for their opnres- sion--when the Federal Republican Con- stitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has subsar- tial existence, and the whole nature oi thef government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from q restricted Fcderative Republic, composed of Sove- reion States, to a Consolidated Central hli- litary despotism, in which every interest Is siiiisreEafdded b;itt that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of ci- vii liberty, the ever ready minions of power and the usual instruments of tyfants--when long after the spirit of the Constitution has departed, moderation is at length so far lost by those in power, that even the semblance of freedom IS removed, and the forms them- selves of the Constitution discontinued, and so far from their petitions and remonstran- ces being regarded, the agents who bear them are thrown into dungeons, and merce- nary armies sent forth 10 force a new goy- ernment upon them at the point of the bayo- net-when, in consequence of such acts of malfeasance and abduction on the part of the Government, anarchy prevails, and civil society IS dissolved into its original ele ments-in such crisis, the first law oi fiSf- ture, the right of self preservation, the in- heront and inalienable right of the people to appeal to first principles, and take their political ailairs into their own hands in ex- treme cases, enjoins 1t as a right towards themselves, and sacred obligation to their posterity, to abolish such government and create another in it's stead, calculated to res cue them from impending dangers, and to secure their welfare and happiness.
 Nations, as we'll as individuals, are ame- nable for their acts to the public opinion of mankind. \ statement of part of our grievances Is therefore submitted to an im- portal world, in justification ofthe hazard ous but unavoidable step now taken, of se- vering our political connection with the Mexican people, and assuming an indepea- dent attitude among the Nations of the Earth.
 The Mexican Government, by it's colo nization laws, invited and induced the An glo-Ameriean population of Texas to colo nize its wilderness, under the pledged faith of a written Constitution, that they should continue to enjoy that constitutional liberty and republican government to which they had been habtuated in the land of their birth, the United States of America.
 In this expectation they have been cruelty disappointed, inasmuch as the Mexican na- ton has acquieseed in the late changes made n the Government by General Antonio E.e- peg Santana, who having overturned the Constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either to abandon our homes acquired by so many priyations, or submit to the most intolcrable of all tyran- ny, the combined despotism of the sword and the priesthood.
 It hath sacrificed our welfare to the State of Coahuila, by which our interests have been continually depressed through ea- lous and partial course of legislation, car ried on at far distant seat of government, by hostile majority in an unllndwn tongue, and this too notwithstanding we have pe- titioned i'll the humblest terms for the estab- lishment of seperate state government, and have, in accordance with the provisions of the national constitution, presented to the general congress a republican constitution, winch was, without just cause, contempt uously rejected.
 It iucarcerated in a dungeon, for a long time, one of our citizens, for no other cause but zealous endeavour to procure the ac- ceptance of our constitution and the estab- lishment of state government.
 Ii has failed and refused to secure, on d firm basis, inc right of trial by iury, thai palladium of civil liberty and only safe qua rantee for the life, liberty and property of the citizens.
 It has failed 10 establish any public sys- fem of education, although possessed of al- must bouiisllos resources, tue public ;it ;it naius1 aud although 1t Is an axiom in pol- scal science, that unless people are edu- cated and enlightened, it IS idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the ca pacity for seli-goyernmont.
 Ii has suffered the military commandants stationed among Us to exercise arbitrary acts of oppression and tyranny thus tramplng upon the most sacred rights of the citizen, and rendering military superior to the civil power.