Richard Ellis, president of the convention, appointed a committee of five to write the declaration, but the declaration was largely the work George C. Childress. Among others, the declaration mentions the following reasons for the separation:

• The Mexican Constitution of 1824 establishing a federal republic had been usurped and changed into a centralist military dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna with aid from the Catholic Church.
• The Mexican government had invited settlers to Texas, but then reneged on the political guarantees.
• Slavery was illegal under Mexican law.
• Texas was in union with the Mexican state of Coahuila, with the capital in distant Saltillo, and thus the affairs of Texas were decided far removed from the province and in Spanish.
• Certain political rights, such as the right to jury trial and religious freedoms, had been denied.
• No system of public education had been established.
• All citizens of Mexico had to be members of the Roman Catholic Church