The Greek declaration of independence-1822

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.