“ Have we something lesser than other nations, that we remain deprived of these rights, or are we of a nature lower or less civilised, that we should view ourselves as unworthy to enjoy them and instead be condemned to an eternal slavery, subjected, like automata or beasts of burden, to the absurd caprices of a cruel tyrant who, like a brigand, has come without justification from distant lands to subjugate us? ”

“ The war we are waging against the Turks, far from being founded in demagoguery, seditiousness or the selfish interests of any one part of the Greek nation, is a national and holy war, the object of which is to reconquer our rights to individual liberty, property and honor, rights enjoyed by all the civilized neighbouring peoples of Europe and which from us alone the cruel and unprecedented tyranny of the Ottomans has tried to violently remove and within our very chests crush. ”

“ Uniting all our isolated strength, we have formed ourselves into a single armed body, firmly resolved to attain our end, to govern ourselves by wise laws, or to be altogether annihilated, believing it to be unworthy of us, as descendants of the glorious peoples of Greece, to live in a state of slavery fitted more for unreasoning ani­mals than for rational beings. ”

“ We, the descendants of the wise and noble nation of the Greeks, contemporaries of the enlightened and civil­ised peoples of Europe, and beholding the advantages which they enjoy under the protection of the impenetrable aegis of the law, find it no longer possible to suffer to the point of numbness and self-contempt the cruel yoke of the Ottoman state, which has weighed upon us for more than four centuries and which, instead of reason, knows no other law than its own will, commanding and persecuting all things despotically and capriciously. ”

“ It should not, therefore, appear astonishing that we were not able from the very first to proclaim our independence and take rank among the civilized peoples of the earth, marching forward side by side with them. ”

“ For the construction and constitution thereof, the various regions and islands have dispatched their plenipotentiary delegates, who in the national convention, having capably and duly considered and studied the common needs of the nation, have organised a provisional administration, by which all of Greece is to be henceforth governed. This government, supported by the basis of justice and good laws and organised according to the common will of the Greeks must be recognised by all peoples inhabiting Greece as the only legal and national administration. ”

“ Ten months have elapsed since we began this national war and almighty God has surely aided us, as despite being inadequately prepared for so great an enterprise, our arms have everywhere been victorious, overcoming the power­ful obstacles which we have encountered and still encounter everywhere. ”