For this reason the Mexican people have protested against the illegality of the last elections, and wishing to employ successively all the recourses which the laws of the republic offer, in due form they requested the annulment of the elections before the Chamber of Deputies, notwithstanding the fact that in that body a legitimate origin was not recognized, and it being known beforehand that the members of the same were not representatives of the people and only respected the will of General Diaz, to whom exclusively they owed their investiture. In such a state of affairs the people, who are the only sovereign, also protested in an energetic manner against the elections, in imposing manifestations consummated in different parts of the republic, and if these did not spread through all the national territory, it was due to the terrible pressure exercised by the government, which always smothers in blood any democratic demonstration, such as passed in Puebla, Vera Cruz, Tlaxcala, Mexico and other parts. But this situation so violent and illegal could not last long. I have understood very well that if the people have appointed me as their candidate for President it is not because there may have been an opportunity of discovering in me the faculties of a statesman or a governor, but only the virility of a patriot resolved to sacrifice himself if necessary in the cause of liberty, and to help the public free itself from the odious tyranny which oppresses the nation. From the time when I threw myself into the democratic struggle I knew very well that General Diaz had no respect for the freewill of the nation and the noble Mexican people, and upon attending the primaries I knew also very well the attacks that awaited them; but notwithstanding these facts, the public gave to the cause of liberty a numerous contingent of martyrs when these were necessary, and with admirable stoicism met at the polls to receive all sorts of annoyances. But such conduct was indispensable to demonstrate to the world at large that the Mexican people are ready for democracy, that they are thirsty for liberty, and that their present governors do not meet their aspirations. Besides, the attitude of the people before and during the elections, as well as after them, demonstrates clearly that they opposed with energy the government of General Diaz, and that if their electoral rights had been respected I might have been elected as President of the republic. Taking this into consideration and echoing the public sentiment, I declare illegal the past elections, and as the republic for that reason is without legitimate governors, I assume provisionally the Presidency of the republic, while the people appoint according to law their governors. To attain this object it is necessary to hurl from power the audacious usurpers, who for all the titles of legality boast a scandalous and immoral fraud.