The Story of the Philippines
by Murat Halstead · English · Gutenberg #12409 · 1,093,952 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Story of the Philippines
Author: Murat Halstead
Release date: May 1, 2004 [eBook #12409]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES ***
The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions,
Including The Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico.
The Story of the Philippines.
Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions,
Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and
Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands
of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their
Early History
The Eldorado of the Orient
Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey,
General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila.
History and Romance, Tragedies and Traditions of our Pacific
Possessions.
Events of the War in the West with Spain, and the Conquest of Cuba
and Porto Rico.
By Murat Halstead,
_War Correspondent in America and Europe, Historian of the Philippine
Expedition_.
Splendidly and Picturesquely Illustrated with Half-Tone Engravings from
Photographs, Etchings from Special Drawings, and the Military Maps of
the Philippines, Prepared by the War Department of the United States.
_Our Possessions Publishing Co._
1898
The engravings in this volume were made from original photographs,
and are specially protected by copyright; and notice is hereby given,
that any person or persons guilty of reproducing or infringing upon
the copyright in any way will be dealt with according to law.
Inscribed
To the Soldiers and Sailors
of
The Army and Navy of the United States,
With Admiration for Their Achievements
In the War With Spain;
Gratitude for the Glory They Have Gained for the American Nation,
And Congratulations That All the People of All the
Country Rejoice in the Cloudless Splendor of Their Fame
That is the Common and Everlasting
Inheritance of Americans.
Author's Preface.
The purpose of the writer of the pages herewith presented has
been to offer, in popular form, the truth touching the Philippine
Islands. I made the journey from New York to Manila, to have the
benefit of personal observations in preparing a history for the
people. Detention at Honolulu shortened my stay in Manila, but
there was much in studies at the former place that was a help at the
latter. The original programme was for me to accompany General Merritt,
Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine Expedition, but illness prevented
its full realization, and when I arrived in Manila Bay the city had
already been "occupied and possessed" by the American army; and the
declaration of peace between the United States and Spain was made,
the terms fully agreed upon with the exception of the settlement of
the affairs of the Philippines. While thus prevented from witnessing
stirring military movements other than those attending the transfer
of our troops across the Pacific Ocean, an event in itself of
the profoundest significance, the reference of the determination
of the fate of the Philippine Islands to the Paris Conference,
and thereby to the public opinion of our country, in extraordinary
measure increased the general sensibility as to the situation of the
southern Oriental seas affecting ourselves, and enhanced the value
of the testimony taken on the spot of observers of experience, with
the training of journalism in distinguishing the relative pertinence
and potency of facts noted. Work for more than forty years, in the
discussion from day to day of current history, has qualified me for
the efficient exercise of my faculties in the labor undertaken. It
has been my undertaking to state that which appeared to me, so that
the reader may find pictures of the scenes that tell the Story that
concerns the country, that the public may with enlightenment solve
the naval, military, political, commercial and religious problems we
are called upon by the peremptory pressure of the conditions local,
and international, to solve immediately. This we have to do, facing the
highest obligations of citizenship in the great American Republic, and
conscious of the incomparably influential character of the principles
that shall prevail through the far-reaching sweep of the policies that
will be evolved. I have had such advantages in the assurance of the
authenticity of the information set forth in the chapters following,
that I may be permitted to name those it was my good fortune to consult
with instructive results; and in making the acknowledgments due. I
may be privileged to support the claim of diligence and success in
the investigations made, and that I am warranted in the issue of this
Story of the Philippines by the assiduous improvement of an uncommon
opportunity to fit myself to serve the country.
Indebtedness for kind consideration in this work is gratefully
acknowledged to Major-General Merritt, commanding the Philippine
Expedition; Major-General Otis, who succeeds to the duties of
military and civil administration in the conquered capital of the
islands; Admiral George Dewey, who improved, with statesmanship,
his unparalleled victory in the first week of the war with Spain,
and raised the immense questions before us; General F.V. Greene,
the historian of the Russo-Turkish war, called by the President to
Washington, and for whose contributions to the public intelligence
he receives the hearty approval and confidence of the people; Major
Bell, the vigilant and efficient head of the Bureau of Information
at the headquarters of the American occupation in the Philippines;
General Aguinaldo, the leader of the insurgents of his race in Luzon,
and His Grace the Archbishop of Manila, who gave me a message for the
United States, expressing his appreciation of the excellence of the
behavior of the American army in the enforcement of order, giving peace
of mind to the residents in the distracted city of all persuasions
and conditions, and of the service that was done civilization in the
prevention, by our arms, of threatened barbarities that had caused
sore apprehension; and, I may add, the Commissioner of the Organized
People of the Philippines, dispatched to Washington accompanying
General Greene; and of the citizens of Manila of high character,
and conductors of business enterprises with plants in the community
whose destiny is in the hands of strangers.
These gentlemen I may not name, for there are uncertainties that
demand of them and command me to respect the prudence of their
inconspicuity. This volume seems to me to be justified, and I have no
further claim to offer that it is meritorious than that it is faithful
to facts and true to the country in advocacy of the continued expansion
of the Republic, whose field is the world.
Steamship China, Pacific Ocean, September 20, 1898.
The Origin of this Story of the Philippines.
The letter following is the full expression by the author of this
volume of his purposes and principles in making the journey to the
East Indies.
_Going to the Philippines_.
Washington City, D.C., July 18.
With the authorization of the Military Authorities, I shall go to
the Philippine Islands with General Merritt, the Military Governor,
and propose to make the American people better acquainted with that
remarkable and most important and interesting country. The presence
of an American army in the Philippines is an event that will change
broad and mighty currents in the world's history. It has far more
significance than anything transpiring in the process of the conquest
of the West India possessions of Spain, for the only question there,
ever since the Continental colonies of the Spanish crown won their
independence, has been the extent of the sacrifices the Spaniards, in
their haughty and vindictive pride, would make in fighting for a lost
Empire and an impossible cause with an irresistible adversary. That
the time was approaching when, with the irretrievable steps of the
growth of a living Nation of free people, we would reach the point
where it should be our duty to accept the responsibility of the
dominant American power, and accomplish manifest Destiny by adding
Cuba and Porto Rico to our dominion, has for half a century been the
familiar understanding of American citizens. Spain, by her abhorrent
system, personified in Weyler, and illustrated in the murderous
blowing up of the Maine with a mine, has forced this duty upon us;
and though we made war unprepared, the good work is going on, and the
finish of the fight will be the relegation of Spain, whose colonial
governments have been, without exception, disgraceful and disastrous
to herself, and curses to the colonists, to her own peninsula. This
will be for her own good, as well as the redemption of mankind from
her unwholesome foreign influences, typified as they are in the
beautiful city of Havana, which has become the center of political
plagues and pestilential fevers, whose contagion has at frequent
intervals reached our own shores.
In the Philippine Islands the situation is for us absolutely novel. It
cannot be said to be out of the scope of reasonable American expansion
and is in the right line of enlarging the area of enlightenment and
stimulating the progress of civilization. The unexpected has happened,
but it is not illogical. It must have been written long ago on the
scroll of the boundless blue and the stars. The incident of war was
the "rush" order of the President of the United States to Admiral
Dewey to destroy the Spanish fleet at Manila, for the protection
of our commerce. The deed was done with a flash of lightning, and
lo! we hold the golden key of a splendid Asiatic archipelago of
a thousand beautiful and richly endowed islands in our grip. This
is the most brilliant and startling achievement in the annals of
navies. Never before had the sweep of sea power, ordered through
the wires that make the world's continents, oceans and islands one
huge whispering gallery, such striking exemplification. There was
glory and fame in it, and immeasurable material for the making of
history. We may paraphrase Dr. Johnson's celebrated advertisement
of the widow's brewery by saying: Admiral Dewey's victory was not
merely the capture of a harbor commanding a great city, one of the
superb places of the earth, and the security of a base of operations
to wait for reinforcements commensurate with the resources of the
United States of America--the victorious hero fixed his iron hand
upon a wonderful opportunity it was the privilege of our Government
to secure at large, according to the rights of a victorious Nation
for the people thereof--a chance for the youth of America, like that
of the youth of Great Britain, to realize upon the magnificence of
India; and this is as Dr. Johnson said of the vats and barrels of
the Thrale estate--"the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice." It is a new departure, but not a matter for the panic or
apprehension of conservatism, that the Stars and Stripes float as the
symbol of sovereignty over a group of islands in the waters of Asia,
that are equal to all the West Indies. If we are strangers there now we
shall not be so long. We have a front on the Pacific Ocean, of three
great States--Washington, equal to England; Oregon, whose grandeur
rolls in the sound of her famous name, and incomparable California,
whose title will be the synonym of golden good times forever. The
Philippines are southwest from our western front doors. They have
been the islands of our sunsets in the winter. Now they look to us
for the rosy dawn out of which will come the clear brightness of the
white light of mornings and the fullness of the ripening noons, all
the year around. With our bulk of the North American continent bulging
into both the great oceans, it was foreordained since the beginning
when God created the earth, that we, the possessors of this imperial
American zone, should be a great Asiatic Power. We have it now in
evidence, written in islands among the most gorgeous of those that
shine in the Southern seas--islands that are east from the Atlantic
and west from the Pacific shores of the One Great Republic--that
we may personify hereafter, sitting at the head of the table when
the empires of the earth consult themselves as to the courses of
empire. Our Course of Empire is both east and west.
The contact of American and Asiatic civilization in the Philippines,
with the American army there, superseding the Spaniards, will be
memorable as one of the matters of chief moment in the closing days
of the nineteenth century, and remembered to date from for a thousand
years. It is my purpose to write of this current history while it
is a fresh, sparkling stream, and attempt something more than the
recitation of the news of the day, as it is condensed and restrained
in telegrams; to give it according to the extent of my ability and the
advantages of my opportunity, the local coloring, the characteristic
scenery; the pen pictures of the people and their pursuits; sketches
of the men who are doers of deeds that make history; studies of the
ways and means of the islanders; essays to indicate the features of
the picturesque of the strange mixture of races; the revolutionary
evolutions of politics; the forces that pertain to the mingling of
the religions of the Occident and the Orient, in a chemistry untried
through the recorded ages. It is a tremendous canvas upon which I am
to labor, and I know full well how inadequate the production must be,
and beg that this index may not be remembered against me. It is meant
in all modesty, and I promise only that there will be put into the
task the expertness of experience and the endeavor of industry.
_Murat Halstead._
Contents.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
THE ORIGIN OF THIS STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES
CHAPTER I.
ADMIRAL DEWEY ON HIS FLAGSHIP.
A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in
White--He Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised the Spaniards--Every
Man Did His Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said
About War With Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious"
Fresh Meat from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him
CHAPTER II.
LIFE IN MANILA.
Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in
the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic
of Destiny--Manila as She Fell Into Our Hands--The Beds in the
Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the
Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted
Pantry Woman
CHAPTER III.
FROM LONG ISLAND TO LUZON.
Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through
the Golden Gate--He is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The
Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the
Scorpion--The Southern Cross
CHAPTER IV.
INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL AGUINALDO.
The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His
Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos
Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle
of Luzon
CHAPTER V.
THE PHILIPPINE MISSION.
Correspondence with Aguinaldo About It--Notes by Senor Felipe
Agoncillo--Relations Between Admiral Dewey and Senor Aguinaldo--Terms
of Peace Made by Spanish Governor-General with Insurgents, December,
1897--Law Suit Between Aguinaldo and Arlacho--Aguinaldo's Proclamation
of May 21, 1898
CHAPTER VI.
THE PROCLAMATIONS OF GENERAL AGUINALDO.
June 16th, 1898, Establishing Dictatorial Government--June 20th, 1898,
Instructions for Elections--June 23d, 1898, Establishing Revolutionary
Government--June 23d, 1898, Message to Foreign Powers--June 27th,
1898, Instructions Concerning Details--July 23d, 1898, Letter from
Senor Aguinaldo to General Anderson--August 1st, 1898, Resolution
of Revolutionary Chiefs Asking Recognition--August 6th, 1898, Message
to Foreign Powers Asking Recognition
CHAPTER VII.
INTERVIEW WITH ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA.
Insurgents' Deadly Hostility to Spanish Priests--The Position of
the Archbishop as He Defined It--His Expression of Gratitude to the
American Army--His Characterization of the Insurgents--A Work of
Philippine Art--The Sincerity of the Archbishop's Good Words
CHAPTER VIII.
WHY WE HOLD THE PHILIPPINES.
The Responsibility of Admiral Dewey--We Owe It to Ourselves to Hold
the Philippines--Prosperity Assured by Our Permanent Possession--The
Aguinaldo Question--Character Study of the Insurgent Leader--How
Affairs Would Adjust Themselves for Us--Congress Must Be Trusted to
Represent the People and Firmly Establish International Policy
CHAPTER IX.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AS THEY ARE.
Area and Population--Climate--Mineral Wealth--Agriculture--Commerce
and Transportation--Revenue and Expenses--Spanish Troops--Spanish
Navy--Spanish Civil Administration--Insurgent Troops--Insurgent Civil
Administration--United States Troops--United States Navy--United
States Civil Administration--The Future of the Islands
CHAPTER X.
OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MANILA.
The Pith of the Official Reports of the Capture of Manila, by
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Commanding the Philippine Expedition;
General Frank V. Greene, General Arthur McArthur, and General
Thomas Anderson, with the Articles of Capitulation, Showing How
8,000 Americans Carried an Intrenched City with a Garrison of 13,000
Spaniards, and Kept Out 14,000 Insurgents--The Difficulties of American
Generals with Philippine Troops
CHAPTER XI.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL MERRITT.
The Official Gazette Issued at Manila--Orders and Proclamation of
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Who, as Commander of the Philippine
Expedition, Became, Under the Circumstances of the Capture of Manila,
the Governor of That City
CHAPTER XII.
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN MANILA.
Why the Boys Had a Spell of Homesickness--Disadvantages of the
Tropics--Admiral Dewey and His Happy Men--How Our Soldiers Passed
the Time on the Ships--General Merritt's Headquarters--What Is Public
Property--The Manila Water Supply--England Our Friend--Major-General
Otis, General Meritt's Successor
CHAPTER XIII.
THE WHITE UNIFORMS OF OUR HEROES IN THE TROPICS.
The Mother Hubbard Street Fashion in Honolulu, and That of Riding
Astride--Spoiling Summer Clothes in Manila Mud--The White Raiment
of High Officers--Drawing the Line on Nightshirts--Ashamed of Big
Toes--Dewey and Merritt as Figures of Show--The Boys in White
CHAPTER XIV.
A MARTYR TO THE LIBERTY OF SPEECH.
Dr. Jose Rizal, the Most Distinguished Literary Man of the Philippines,
Writer of History, Poetry, Political Pamphlets, and Novels, Shot on the
Luneta of Manila--A Likeness of the Martyr--The Scene of His Execution,
from a Photograph--His Wife Married the Day Before His Death--Poem
Giving His Farewell Thoughts, Written in His Last Hours--The Works
That Cost Him His Life--The Vision of Friar Rodriguez
CHAPTER XV.
EVENTS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
No Mystery About the Cause of the War--The Expected and the Inevitable
Has Happened--The Tragedy of the Maine--Vigilant Wisdom of President
McKinley--Dewey's Prompt Triumph--The Battles at Manila and Santiago
Compared--General Shafter Tells of the Battle of Santiago--Report of
Wainwright Board on Movements of Sampson's Fleet in the Destruction of
Cervera's Squadron--Stars and Stripes Raised Over Porto Rico--American
and Spanish Fleets at Manila Compared--Text of Peace Protocol
CHAPTER XVI.
THE PEACE JUBILEE.
The Lessons of War in the Joy Over Peace in the Celebrations
at Chicago and Philadelphia--Orations by Archbishop Ireland
and Judge Emory Speer--The President's Few Words of Thrilling
Significance--The Parade of the Loyal League, and the Clover Club
Banquet at Philadelphia--Address by the President--The Hero Hobson
Makes a Speech--Fighting Bob Evans' Startling Battle Picture--The
Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--The Proclamation of Thanksgiving
CHAPTER XVII.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The Abolishment of the 31st of December, 1844, in Manila--The Mystery
of the Meridian 180 Degrees West--What Is East and West?--Gaining and
Losing Days--The Tribes of Native Filipinos--They Had an Alphabet and
Songs of Their Own--The Massacre of Magellan--His Fate Like That of
Captain Cook--Stories of Long-Ago Wars--An Account by a Devoted Spanish
Writer of the Beneficent Rule of Spain in the Philippines--Aguinaldo
a Man Not of a Nation, But of a Tribe--Typhoons and Earthquakes--The
Degeneracy of the Government of the Philippines After It Was Taken
from Mexico--"New Spain"--The Perquisites of Captain-Generals--The
Splendor of Manila a Century Ago
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES.
Important Facts About the Lesser Islands of the Philippine
Archipelago--Location, Size and Population--Capitals and
Principal Cities--Rivers and Harbors--Surface and Soil--People
and Products--Leading Industries--Their Commerce and Business
Affairs--The Monsoons and Typhoons--The Terrors of the Tempests and
How to Avoid Them
CHAPTER XIX.
SPECIFICATIONS OF GRIEVANCES OF THE FILIPINOS.
An Official Copy of the Manifesto of the Junta Showing the Bad Faith
of Spain in the Making and Evasion of a Treaty--The Declaration
of the Renewal of the War of Rebellion--Complaints Against the
Priests Defined--The Most Important Document the Filipinos Have
Issued--Official Reports of Cases of Persecution of Men and Women in
Manila by the Spanish Authorities--Memoranda of the Proceedings in
Several Cases in the Court of Inquiry of the United States Officers
CHAPTER XX.
HAWAII AS ANNEXED.
The Star Spangled Banner Up Again in Hawaii, and to Stay--Dimensions
of the Islands--What the Missionaries Have Done--Religious Belief
by Nationality--Trade Statistics--Latest Census--Sugar Plantation
Laborers--Coinage of Silver--Schools--Coffee Growing
CHAPTER XXI.
EARLY HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
Captain James Cook's Great Discoveries and His Martyrdom--Character
and Traditions of the Hawaiian Islands--Charges Against the Famous
Navigator and Effort to Array the Christian World Against Him--The
True Story of His Life and Death--How Charges Against Cook Came
to Be Made--Testimony of Vancouver, King and Dixon, and Last
Words of Cook's Journal--Light Turned on History That Has Become
Obscure--Savagery of the Natives--Their Written Language Took
Up Their High Colored Traditions and Preserved Phantoms--Scenes in
Aboriginal Theatricals--Problem of Government in an Archipelago Where
Race Questions Are Predominant--Now Americans Should Remember Captain
Cook as an Illustrious Pioneer
CHAPTER XXII.
THE START FOR THE LAND OF CORN STALKS.
Spain Clings to the Ghost of Her Colonies--The Scene of War Interest
Shifts from Manila--The Typhoon Season--General Merritt on the Way
to Paris--German Target Practice by Permission of Dewey--Poultney
Bigalow with Canoe, Typewriter and Kodak--Hongkong as a Bigger and
Brighter Gibraltar
CHAPTER XXIII.
KODAK SNAPPED AT JAPAN.
Glimpses of China and Japan on the Way Home from the
Philippines--Hongkong a Greater Gibraltar--Coaling the China--Gangs
of Women Coaling the China--How the Japanese Make Gardens of the
Mountains--Transition from the Tropics to the Northern Seas--A
Breeze from Siberia--A Thousand Miles Nothing on the Pacific--Talk
of Swimming Ashore
CHAPTER XXIV.
OUR PICTURE GALLERY.
Annotations and Illustrations--Portraits of Heroes of the War in the
Army and Navy, and of the Highest Public Responsibilities--Admirals
and Generals, the President and Cabinet--Photographs of Scenes
and Incidents--The Characteristics of the Filipinos--Their Homes,
Dresses and Peculiarities in Sun Pictures--The Picturesque People of
Our New Possessions
CHAPTER XXV.
CUBA AND PORTO RICO.
Conditions In and Around Havana--Fortifications and Water Supply of the
Capital City--Other Sections of the Pearl of the Antilles--Porto Rico,
Our New Possession, Described--Size and Population--Natural Resources
and Products--Climatic Conditions--Towns and Cities--Railroad and
Other Improvements--Future Possibilities
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE LADRONES.
The Island of Guam a Coaling Station of the United States--Discovery,
Size and Products of the Islands
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE OFFICIAL TITLE TO OUR NEW POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIES.
Full Text of the Treaty of Peace with Spain Handed the President of
the United States as a Christmas Gift for the People, at the White
House, 1898--The Gathered Fruit of a Glorious and Wonderful Victory
CHAPTER XXVIII.
BATTLES WITH THE FILIPINOS BEFORE MANILA.
The Aguinaldo War Upon the Americans--The Course of Events
in the Philippines Since the Fall of Manila--Origin of the
Filipino War--Aguinaldo's Insolent and Aggressive Acts, Including
Treachery--His Agent's Vanity and Duplicity in Washington--Insurgents
Under Aguinaldo Attack American Forces--Battle of Manila,
February 4 and 5--Heroism of American Troops in Repelling the
Insurgents--Aguinaldo's Proclamations--Agoncillo's Flight to
Canada--The Ratification of the Treaty of Peace with Spain by the
American Senate Followed the Fighting--The Gallantry and Efficiency
of the American Volunteers--Another Glorious Chapter of Our War History
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE AGUINALDO WAR OF SKIRMISHES.
The Filipino Swarms, After Being Repulsed with Slaughter, Continue
Their Scattering Efforts to Be Assassins--They Plan a General
Massacre and the Burning of Manila--Defeated in Barbarous Schemes,
They Tell False Tales and Have Two Objects, One to Deceive the People
of the Philippines, the other to Influence Intervention--The Peril of
Fire--Six Thousand Regulars Sent to General Otis--Americans Capture
Iloilo, and Many Natives Want Peace--The People of the Isla of Negros
Ask that They May Go with Us--Dewey Wants Battleships and Gunboats,
Gets Them, and Is Made an Admiral--Arrival of Peace Commissioners,
with Their School Books, Just Ahead of the Regulars with Magazine
Rifles--The Germans at Manila Salute Admiral Dewey at Last
ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. Frontispiece ... Major-General Merritt, First Governor-General of
the Philippines.
2. The President and His Cabinet
3. President McKinley
4. Secretary of State Hay
5. Secretary of the Treasury Gage
6. Secretary of War Alger
7. Secretary of the Navy Long
8. Attorney General Griggs
9. Postmaster General Smith
10. Secretary of the Interior Bliss
11. Secretary of Agriculture Wilson
12. Admiral Dewey, the Hero of Manila
13. Map of the Philippine Islands
14. Photograph and Autograph of Aguinaldo, as Presented by Him to Mr.
Halstead, the Author
15. Archbishop of Manila. His Photograph and Autograph Presented to
Mr. Halstead, the Author
16. Ex-Consul General Fitzhugh Lee, Now Major-General Commanding
17. Captain Sigsbee, Commander of the Ill-fated Maine
18. Brigadier-General F.V. Greene
19. Government Building in Pampanga
20. Church at Cavite
21. Masacue--Town in Cavite
22. Natives Taking Refreshments
23. Official Map of the Isle of Luzon, Prepared by War Department
24. Official Map by the War Department of the Seat of War in the
Philippines
25. Murat Halstead, the Author, at Manila
26. Cathedral of Manila After Earthquake
27. Spanish Re-inforcements Crossing Bridge Over Pasig River
28. Oriental Hotel, Manila
29. The Sultan of Jolo in Mindanao
30. A Beheaded Spaniard--Sign of the Order of Katipunan
31. San Juan del Monte, Where Revolution Started
32. Brigadier-General E.S. Otis
33. Brigadier-General Thomas M. Anderson
34. Military Heroes of Santiago and Porto Rico
35. Major-General Miles
36. Major-General Shafter
37. Major-General Wheeler
38. Major-General Brooke
39. Brigadier-General Wood
40. Colonel Roosevelt
41. Naval Heroes of Santiago
42. Admiral Sampson
43. Admiral Schley
44. Captain Chadwick, of the New York
45. Captain Cooke, of the Brooklyn
46. Captain Clarke, of the Oregon
47. Captain Evans, of the Iowa
48. Captain Higginson, of the Massachusetts
49. Captain Philip, of the Texas
50. Commander Wainwright, of the Gloucester
51. Lieutenant R.P. Hobson
52. General Greene's Headquarters at Manila
53. Manila and Its Outskirts, Showing Malate
54. Principal Gate to the City
55. Loading Buffaloes with Produce in Luzon
56. Filipina Preparing for a Siesta
57. Philippine Author-Martyr, His Wife and His Execution
58. Dr. Rizal
59. Dr. Rizal's Execution
60. Dr. Rizal's Wife
61. The Seat of War in Cavite
62. Attack on Manila, Showing Position of Our Ships and Troops
63. Fortifications of Manila
64. United States Peace Commissioners
65. Senator Frye
66. Senator Gray
67. Ex-Secretary of State Day
68. Senator Davis
69. Whitelaw Reid
70. Flowers of the Philippines
71. Interior of the Fortifications of Manila
72. Fort Santiago at Manila, Where the American Flag Was Raised
73. Dining Room in General Merritt's Palace at Manila
74. An Execution Entertainment on the Luneta
75. Victims Reported Dead After the Execution
76. Aguinaldo and His Compatriots
77. Senor Aguinaldo
78. Senor Montsusgro
79. Senor Natividah
80. Senor Ninisgra
81. Senor Rins
82. Senor Belavinino
83. Senor Covinbing
84. Senor Mascordo
85. Senor Arbacho
86. Senor Pilar
87. Senor Viola
88. Senor Francisco
89. Senor Llansoo
90. Savage Native Hunters
91. Girl's Costume to Show One Shoulder
92. Public Buildings in Manila
93. Fort Weyler, Built by General Weyler When Governor of the
Philippines
94. The Destruction of Cervera's Spanish Squadron at Santiago
95. The Luneta--Favorite Outing Grounds of Manila, and a Place for
Executing Insurgents
96. Admiral Dewey's Fleet That Won the Battle of Manila Bay
97. The Flagship Olympia
98. The Baltimore
99. The Concord
100. The Raleigh
101. The Boston
102. The Petrel
103. The Monument of Magellinos in the Walled City
104. A Railroad Station North of Manila--Spaniards Airing Themselves
105. The Battle of Manila Bay--In the Heat of the Raging Fight
106. A Suburb of Manila, Showing a Buffalo Market Cart
107. The Cathedral at Manila
108. An Insurgent Outlook Near Manila
109. Display in Manila Photograph Gallery, Insurgent Leaders
110. Group of Filipinos Who Want Independence
111. The Principal Gate to the Walled City
112. A Public Square in Manila
113. A Bit of Scenery in Mindanao, Showing Tropical Vegetation
114. Parade of Spanish Troops on One of Their Three Annual Expeditions
to the Southern Islands
115. After an Execution--Prostrate Forms are Men Shot
116. Spaniards Ready to Execute Insurgent Prisoners
117. A Group of the Unconquerable Mohammedans
118. A Native House
119. Riding Buffaloes Through Groves of Date Palms
120. Natives Fishing from a Canal Boat
121. Great Bridge at Manila
122. Southern Islanders--Showing Cocoanut Palms and the Monkey Tree
123. A Review of Spanish Filipino Volunteers
124. A Spanish Festival in Manila
125. Spanish Troops Repelling an Insurgent Attack on a Convent
126. Business Corner in Manila
127. A Native in Regimentals
128. A Country Pair
129. Peasant Costumes
130. Woodman in Working Garb
131. Map of Hawaii
132. Official Map of the Hawaiian Islands
133. Map of Cuba
134. Map of Porto Rico
135. Outline Map of the Philippine Islands
136. A Spanish Dude--An Officer at Manila
137. The Harbor at Manila
138. General E.S. Otis and Staff on Porch of Malacanan Palace, Manila
139. Malacanan Palace and Pasig River, Manila
140. General Otis and Staff, Dining Room, Malacanan Palace, Manila
141. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
142. View from My Office Window in Palace, Sept. 8, 1898
143. Fountain, Manila, August, 1898
144. Door of Hospital De San Juan Di Dios, Intramuros, Manila,
Aug. 29, 1898
145. Sentry Box in Old Manila Wall, August, 1898
146. Dungeons in Old Manila Wall, Sept. 7, 1898
147. Door of Jesuit Church, Manila, Sept. 3, 1898
148. Court Yard of Palace, Manila, Sept, 3, 1898
149. View of Tower of Iglisia De Sta Grum, Manila, Sept. 9, 1898
150. Corner of Old Manila Wall, August, 1898
151. Interior in Palace, Manila, Sept. 4, 1898
152. View of Church of August 30, Manila
153. General Hughes' Temporary Office in Palace
154. Puerto De Gabel, Old Manila Wall, Aug. 29, 1898
155. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
156. Wash Lady in the River, Manila
157. Soldiers Washing Their Persons and Clothes, Manila
158. Man Rowing Small Boat, Manila
159. Ferry in Canal, Manila
160. Group of Native Women on Canal Bank, Manila
161. Government Launch, Manila
162. View of Canal in New Manila
163. View From My Ferry Crossing River Looking Toward New Town, Manila
164. View of Intramuros From the Water, Manila
165. Women Washing, Manila
166. Barge in Canal, New Town, Half Barge, Half House Boat, Manila
167. Canal Scene in Neuva, Manila
168. Stern of Lighter in Canal, Manila
169. Views in Manila, Philippine Islands
170. Native Woman, with Fruit and Child
171. Native Woman
173. Fruit Woman on Main Bridge
173. Small Boy, With Pup
174. Native Woman on Canal Bank
175. Buffalo, Wagon and Two Coolies
176. Beggar on Main Bridge
177. Views in Honolulu and Manila
178. Leaving Honolulu, Aboard U.S.S. Peru for Manila
179. A Soldier on Deck of Oakland Ferry
180. Three College Men, Corporal Morrow in Center
181. U.S.S. Philadelphia Entering Honolulu Harbor
182. In Camp at Manila
183. Leaving Honolulu, U.S.S. Peru, for Manila
184. U.S.S. Philadelphia, Honolulu Harbor
185. Bridge Over River Naig, Cavite, Connecting Santa Cruz Road with
Town of Naig
186. Highway in the Philippines
187. Native House in Suburb of Calamba, Philippines
188. Front and Back View of Native Woven Shirt
189. Malay Women of Jolo Pounding Rice
190. Ancient Cannon Taken from Insurgents
191. Arsenal Grounds in Cavite, Chapel in Front of Commandant's House
192. Bridge Crossing the River at Tambobeng, Manila Province
193. Cane Bridge Over Arm of Bay at Ilo-Ilo, Philippines
194. Sergeant Dan Hewitt, Hero of Caloocan
195. View on Pagsanjan River in the Province of La Laguna
196. Royal Street in Ilo-Ilo, Island of Panay, Philippines
197. Native Dwelling in the Suburbs of Manila
198. The Insurgent Leaders in the Philippines
199. Isabelo Artacho
200. Baldomero Aguinaldo
201. Severino de las Alas
202. Antonio Montenegro
203. Vito Belarmino
204. Pedro Paterno
205. Emilio Aguinaldo
206. Church of San Augustin, Manila
207. Schooner Anchored in Ilo-Ilo Harbor, Philippines
208. Major-General Thomas M. Anderson and Staff, in Command of 1st
Division, 8th Army Corps, at Manila
209. Major-General Thomas M. Anderson, Commander of 1st Division,
8th Army Corps, at Manila
CHAPTER I
Admiral Dewey on His Flagship.
A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in White--He
Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised Spaniards--Every Man Did His
Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said About War
with Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious" Fresh Meat
from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him.
Steaming across Manila Bay from Cavite to the city on an energetic
ferry-boat, scanning the wrecks of the Spanish fleet still visible
where the fated ships went down, one of them bearing on a strip of
canvas the legible words "Remember the 'Maine,'" the talk being of
Dewey's great May-day, we were passing the famous flag-ship of the
squadron that was ordered to destroy another squadron, and did it,
incidentally gathering in hand the keys of an empire in the Indies
for America, because the American victor was an extraordinary man,
who saw the immensity of the opportunity and improved it to the utmost,
some one said: "There is the Admiral now, on the quarter-deck under the
awning--the man in white, sitting alone!" The American Consul at Manila
was aboard the ferry-boat, and said to the captain he would like to
speak to the Admiral. The course was changed a point, and then a pause,
when the Consul called, "Admiral!" And the man in white stepped to
the rail and responded pleasantly to the greeting--the Consul saying:
"Shall we not see you ashore now?"
"No," said the man in white, in a clear voice; "I shall not go ashore
unless I have to."
Some one said: "This would be a good chance to go. Come with us."
The man in white shook his head, and the ferryman ordered full speed,
the passengers all looking steadily at the white figure until it
became a speck, and the fresh arrivals were shown the objects of
the greatest interest, until the wrecks of the Oriental fleet of the
Spaniards were no longer visible, and there was only the white walls
to see of Cavite's arsenal and the houses of the navy-yard, and the
more stately structures of Manila loomed behind the lighthouse at
the mouth of the Pasig, when the eyes of the curious were drawn to
the mossback fort that decorates as an antiquity the most conspicuous
angle of the walls of "the walled city."
There was a shade of significance in the few words of the Admiral
that he would not go ashore until he must. He has from the first been
persistent in staying at Manila. There has been nothing that could
induce him to abandon in person the prize won May 1st. His order
from the President was to destroy the Spanish fleet. It was given
on the first day of the legal existence of the war, counting the day
gained, in crossing the Pacific Ocean from the United States to the
Philippines, when the 180th degree of longitude west from Greenwich
is reached and reckoned. It was thus the President held back when the
war was on; and the next day after Dewey got the order at Hongkong
he was on the way. The Spaniards at Manila could not have been more
astonished at Dewey's way of doing, if they had all been struck by
lightning under a clear sky. They had no occasion to be "surprised,"
having the cable in daily communication with Madrid, and, more than
that, a Manila paper of the last day of April contained an item of
real news--the biggest news item ever published in that town! It
was from a point on the western coast of the island of Luzon, and
the substance of it that four vessels that seemed to be men-of-war,
had been sighted going south, and supposed to be the American fleet.
What did the Spaniards suppose the American fleet they knew well
had left Hongkong was going south for? If Admiral Dewey had been a
commonplace man he would have paused and held a council of war nigh the
huge rock Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay. There is a channel
on either side of that island, and both were reputed to be guarded
by torpedoes. The Spaniards had an enormous stock of munitions of
war--modern German guns enough to have riddled the fleet of American
cruisers--and why did they not have torpedoes? They had the Mauser
rifle, which has wonderful range, and ten millions of smokeless powder
cartridges. Marksmen could sweep the decks of a ship with Mausers at
the distance of a mile, and with the smokeless cartridges it would have
been mere conjecture where the sharpshooters were located. There are
rows of armor-piercing steel projectiles from Germany still standing
around rusting in the Spanish batteries, and they never did any more
than they are doing. It is said--and there is every probability of
the truth of the story--that some of these bolts would not fit any
gun the Spaniards had mounted. The Admiral paid no attention to the
big rock and the alleged torpedoes, but steamed up the bay near the
city where the Spaniards were sleeping. He was hunting the fleet he
was ordered to remove, and found it very early in the morning. Still
the thunder of his guns seems to thrill and electrify the air over the
bay, and shake the city; and the echoes to ring around the world, there
is no question--not so much because the Americans won a naval victory
without a parallel, as that Dewey improved the occasion, showing that
he put brains into his business. They say--that is, some people seem to
want to say it and so do--that Dewey is a strange sort of man; as was
said of Wolfe and Nelson, who died when they won immortality. Dewey
lives and is covered with glory. It has been held that there were
not enough Americans hurt in the Manila fight to make the victory
truly great. But the same objection applies to the destruction of
Cervera's fleet when he ran away from Santiago. General Jackson's
battle at New Orleans showed a marvelously small loss to Americans;
but it was a good deal of a victory, and held good, though won after
peace with England had been agreed upon. The capture of Manila is
valid, too. Spain surrendered before the town did. If Dewey had been an
every-day kind of man, he would have left Manila when he had fulfilled
the letter of his orders, as he had no means of destroying the Spanish
army, and did not want to desolate a city, even if the Spaniards held
it. He remained and called for more ships and men, and got them.
"How is it?" "Why is it?" "How can it be?" are the questions Admiral
Dewey asks when told that the American people, without exception,
rejoice to celebrate him--that if one of the men known to have been
with him May 1st should be found out in any American theater he would
be taken on the stage by an irresistible call and a muscular committee
of enthusiasts, and the play could not go on without "a few words"
and the "Star Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "Yankee Doodle,"
"Dixey" and "My Country, 'tis of Thee"; that the hallelujah note
would be struck; that cars are chalked "for Deweyville"; that the
board fences have his name written, or painted, or whittled on them;
that there are Dewey cigars; that blacksmith-shops have the name
Dewey scratched on them, also barn doors; and that if there are two
dwelling-houses and a stable at a cross-roads it is Deweyville,
or Deweyburg or Deweytown; that there is a flood of boy babies
named Dewey, that the girls sing of him, and the ladies all admire
him and the widows love him, and the school children adore him. The
Admiral says: "I hear such things, and altogether they amaze me--the
newspapers, the telegrams, the letters become almost unreal, for I
do not comprehend what they say of my first day's work here. There
was not a man in the fleet who did not do his duty."
The Admiral is told that he need not think to stay away until the
people who have him on their minds and in their hearts are tired of
their enthusiasm; that he cannot go home undiscovered and without
demonstrations that will shake the earth and rend the skies; that
the boys will drag the horses from his carriage, and parade the
streets with him as a prisoner, and have it out with him, giving
him a good time, until it will be a hard time, and he might as well
submit to manifest destiny! His country wanted another hero, and he
was at the right place at the right time, and did the right thing
in the right way; and the fact answers all questions accounting for
everything. Still he has a notion of staying away until the storm is
over and he can get along without being a spectacle. Why, even the
ladies of Washington are wild about him. If he should appear at the
White House to call on the President, the scene would be like that
when Grant first met Abraham Lincoln.
One rough day on the bay I took passage in a small steam-launch
to visit the Olympia, where the Admiral's flag floated, to call on
him. There was plenty of steam, and it was pleasant to get out a good
way behind the breakwater, for the waves beyond were white with anger,
and the boat, when departing from partial shelter, had proceeded
but two or three hundred yards when it made a supreme effort in two
motions--the first, to roll over; the second, to stand on its head. I
was glad both struggles were unsuccessful, and pleased with the order:
"Slow her up." The disadvantages of too much harbor were evident. The
slow-ups were several, and well timed, and then came the rise and
fall of the frisky launch beside the warship, the throwing of a
rope, the pull with a hook, the stand off with an oar, the bounding
boat clearing from four to ten feet at a jump; the clutch, the quick
step, the deft avoidance of a crushed foot or sprained ankle, with a
possible broken leg in sight, the triumphant ascent, the safe landing,
the sudden sense that Desdemona was right in loving a man for the
dangers he had passed, the thought that there should be harbors less
fluctuating, a lively appreciation of the achievements of pilots in
boarding Atlantic liners. The broad decks of the Olympia, built by
the builders of the matchless Oregon, had a comforting solidity under
my feet. The Admiral was believed to be having a nap; but he was wide
awake, and invited the visitor to take a big chair, which, after having
accompanied the launch in the dance with the whitecaps, was peculiarly
luxurious. The Admiral didn't mind me, and had a moment's surprise
about an observer of long ago strolling so far from home and going
forth in a high sea to make a call. I confessed to being an ancient
Wanderer, but not an Ancient Mariner, and expressed disapprobation
of the deplorable roughness of the California Albatross, a brute of
a bird--a feathered ruffian that ought to be shot.
The Admiral would be picked out by close attention as the origin of
some millions of pictures; but he is unlike as well as like them. Even
the best photographs do not do justice to his fine eyes, large, dark
and luminous, or to the solid mass of his head with iron-brown hair
tinged with gray. He is a larger man than the portraits indicate;
and his figure, while that of a strong man in good health and form and
well nourished, is not stout and, though full, is firm; and his step
has elasticity in it. His clean-shaven cheek and chin are massive, and
drawn on fine lines full of character--no fatty obscuration, no decline
of power; a stern but sunny and cloudless face--a good one for a place
in history; no show of indulgence, no wrinkles; not the pallor of
marble, rather the glint of bronze--the unabated force good for other
chapters of history. It would be extremely interesting to report the
talk of the Admiral; but there were two things about him that reminded
me of James G. Blaine, something of the vivid personality of the loved
and lost leader; something in his eye and his manner, more in the
startling candor with which he spoke of things it would be premature
to give the world, and, above all, the absence of all alarm about
being reported--the unconscious consciousness that one must know this
was private and no caution needed. A verbatim report of the Admiral
would, however, harm no one, signify high-toned candor and a certain
breezy simplicity in the treatment of momentous matters. Evidently
here was a man not posing, a hero because his character was heroic, a
genuine personage--not artificial, proclamatory, a picker of phrases,
but a doer of deeds that explain themselves; a man with imagination,
not fantastic but realistic, who must have had a vision during the
night after the May-day battle of what might be the great hereafter;
beholding under the southern constellations the gigantic shadow of
America, crowned with stars, with the archipelagoes of Asia under
her feet and broad and mighty destinies at command.
It was the next day that he anchored precisely where his famous ship
was swinging when I sat beside him; and his words to the representative
of three centuries of Spanish misrule had in them an uncontemplated
flash from the flint and steel of fixed purpose and imperial
force. "Fire another gun at my ships and I will destroy your city."
We can hardly realize in America how flagrant Europeanism has been in
the Manila Bay; how the big German guns bought by Spain looked from
their embrasures; how a powerful German fleet persisted in asserting
antagonism to Americanism, and tested in many ways the American
Admiral's knowledge of his rights and his country's policy until
Admiral Dewey told, not the German Admiral, as has been reported,
but his flag lieutenant, "Can it be possible that your nation means
war with mine? If so, we can begin it in five minutes." The limit
had been reached, and the line was drawn; and Dewey's words will go
down in our records with those of Charles Francis Adams to Lord John
Russell about the ironclads built in England for the Confederacy:
"My Lord, I need not point out to your lordship that this is war."
Perhaps the German Admiral had exceeded the instructions of his
Imperial Government, and the peremptory words of the American Admiral
caused a better understanding, making for peace rather than for war.
Next to the Americans the English have taken a pride in Admiral Dewey,
and they are in the Asiatic atmosphere our fast friends. They do
not desire that we should give up the Philippines. On the contrary,
they want us to keep the islands, and the more we become interested
in those waters and along their shores, the better. They know that
the world has practically grown smaller and, therefore, the British
Empire more compact; and they find Russia their foe. They see that with
the Pacific Coast our base of operations looking westward, we have
first the Hawaiian Islands for producers and a coal station, naval
arsenal, dockyards for the renovation and repair and replenishment
of our fleets; and they see that we have reserved for ourselves
one of the Ladrones, so that we will have an independent route to
the Philippines. The Japanese have cultivated much feeling against
our possession of Hawaii, the animus being that they wanted it for
themselves; and likewise they are disturbed by our Pacific movement,
anticipating the improvement of the most western of the Alutian
Islands, an admirable station overlooking the North Pacific; all
comprehending with Hawaii, the Alutian Island found most available,
the Ladrone that we shall reserve and the Philippines, we shall have
a Pacific quadrilateral; and this is not according to the present
pleasure and the ambition for the coming days, of Japan. England
would have approved our holding all the islands belonging to the
Spanish, including the Canaries, and Majorca and Minorca and their
neighboring isles in the Mediterranean, and take a pride in us. She
has been of untold and inestimable service to us in the course of the
Spanish War, and her ways have been good for us at Manila, while the
Germans have been frankly against us, the Russians grimly reserved,
and the French disposed to be fretful because they have invested in
Spanish bonds upon which was raised the money to carry on the miserable
false pretense of war with the Cubans. One day while I was on the fine
transport Peru, in the harbor of Manila, the American Admiral's ship
saluted an English ship-of-war coming in that had saluted his flag,
and also displayed American colors in recognition that the harbor of
Manila was an American port. That was the significance of the flashes
and thundering of the Admiral's guns and the white cloud that gathered
about his ship that has done enough for celebrity through centuries.
Admiral Dewey created the situation in the Philippines that the
President wisely chose by way of the Paris Conference to receive the
deliberate judgment of the Senate and people of the United States. Dewy
has been unceasingly deeply concerned about it. His naval victory
was but the beginning. He might have sailed away from Manila May 2d,
having fulfilled his orders; but he had the high and keen American
spirit in him, and clung. He needed a base of operations, a place upon
which to rest and obtain supplies. He had not the marines to spare
to garrison a fort save at Cavite, twelve miles from Manila; and he
needed chickens, eggs, fresh meat and vegetables; and it was important
that the Spanish Army should be occupied on shore. Hence, Aguinaldo,
who was in Singapore, and the concentration of insurgents that had
themselves to be restrained to make war on civilized lines. One of
the points of the most considerable interest touching the Filipinos is
that the smashing defeat of the fleet of Spain in Manila Bay heartened
them. They have become strong for themselves. The superiority of
the Americans over the Spaniards as fighting men is known throughout
the islands Spain oppressed; and the bonds of the tyrants have been
broken. It should not be out of mind that the first transports with
our troops did not reach Manila for six weeks, and that the army was
not in shape to take the offensive until after General Merritt's
arrival, late in July. All this time the American Admiral had to
hold on with the naval arm; and it was the obvious game of Spain,
if she meant to fight and could not cope with the Americans in the
West Indies, to send all her available ships and overwhelm us in
the East Indies. At the same time the German, French, Russian and
Japanese men-of-war represented the interest of the live nations of
the earth in the Philippines. As fast as possible Admiral Dewey was
re-enforced; but it was not until the two monitors, the Monterey and
Monadnock, arrived, the latter after the arrival of General Merritt,
that the Admiral felt that he was safely master of the harbor. He
had no heavily armored ships to assail the shore batteries within
their range, and might be crippled by the fire of the great Krupp
guns. It was vital that the health of the crews of his ships should
be maintained, and the fact that the men are and have been all summer
well and happy is not accidental. Admiral Dewey took the point of
danger, if there was one, into his personal keeping, by anchoring the
Olympia on the Manila side of the bay, while others were further out
and near Cavite; and throughout the fleet there was constant activity
and the utmost vigilance. There was incessant solicitude about what
the desperate Spaniards might contrive in the nature of aggressive
enterprise. It seemed incredible to Americans that nothing should
be attempted. How would a Spanish fleet have fared for three months
of war with us in an American harbor? There would have been a new
feature of destructiveness tried on the foe at least once a week.
The Spaniards ashore seemed to be drowsy; but the Americans were
wide awake, ready for anything, and could not be surprised; so
that we may commend as wisdom the Spanish discretion that let them
alone. The ship that was the nearest neighbor of Admiral Dewey for
months of his long vigil flew the flag of Belgium. She is a large,
rusty-looking vessel, without a sign of contraband of war, or of
a chance of important usefulness about her; but she performed a
valuable function. I asked half a dozen times what her occupation
was before any one gave a satisfactory answer. Admiral Dewey told
the story in few words. She was a cold-storage ship, with beef and
mutton from Australia, compartments fixed for about forty degrees
below zero. Each day the meat for the American fleet's consumption was
taken out. There was a lot of it on the deck of the Olympia thawing
when I was a visitor; and the beef was "delicious." I am at pains
to give Dewey's word. While the Spaniards ashore were eating tough,
lean buffalo--the beasts of burden in the streets, the Americans
afloat rejoiced in "delicious" beef and mutton from Australia. It
was explained that the use of cold-storage meat depended upon giving
it time to thaw, for if it should be cooked in an icy state it would
be black and unpalatable, losing wholly its flavor and greatly its
nourishing quality. Australia is not many thousand miles from the
Philippines--and one must count miles by the thousands out there. The
Belgians have a smart Consul at Manila who is a friend of mankind.
One of the incidents in the battle of Manila--all are fresh in
the public memory--is that Admiral Dewey did not make use of the
conning-tower--a steel, bomb proof, for the security of the officer
in command of the ship--the Captain, of course, and the commander of
the fleet, if he will.
This retreat did not prove, in the battle of Yalu and the combats
between the Chileans and Peruvians, a place of safety; but as a rule
there is a considerable percentage of protection in its use. Admiral
Dewey preferred to remain on the bridge--and there were four fragments
of Spanish shells that passed close to him, striking within a radius
of fifteen feet. The Admiral, when told there had been some remark
because he had not occupied the conning-house in the action, walked
with me to the tower, the entrance to which is so guarded that it
resembles a small cavern of steel--with a heavy cap or lid, under
which is a circular slit, through which observations are supposed to
be made. "Try it," the Admiral said, "and you find it is hard to get
a satisfactory view." He added, when I had attempted to look over
the surroundings: "We will go to the bridge;" and standing on it he
annotated the situation, saying: "Here you have the whole bay before
you, and can see everything." I remarked: "The newspaper men are
very proud of the correspondent of the Herald who was with you on the
bridge;" and the Admiral said: "Yes; Stickney was right here with us."
There were many reasons for the officer commanding the American
fleet that day to watch closely the developments. The Spaniards had,
for their own purposes, even falsified the official charts of the
bay. Where our vessels maneuvered and the flagship drew twenty-two
feet of water and had nine feet under the keel, the chart called for
fifteen feet only!
It is not a secret that the President wanted Admiral Dewey, if
it was not in his opinion inconsistent with his sense of duty,
to go to Washington. Naturally the President would have a profound
respect for the Admiral's opinion as to the perplexing problem of the
Philippines. The Admiral did not think he should leave his post. He
could cover the points of chief interest in writing, and preferred
very much to do so, and stay right where he was "until this thing is
settled." The opinion of the Admiral as to what the United States
should do with, or must do about, the political relations of the
Philippines with ourselves and others, have not been given formal
expression; but it is safe to say they are not in conflict with his
feeling that the American fleet at Manila should be augmented with
gunboats, cruisers and two or three battle-ships. It was, in the
opinion of the illustrious Admiral, when the Peace Commission met in
Paris, the time and place to make a demonstration of the sea power
of the United States.
The personal appearance of Admiral Dewey is not presented with
attractive accuracy in the very familiar portrait of him that has
been wonderfully multiplied and replenished. The expression of the
Admiral is not truly given in the prints and photos. The photographer
is responsible for a faulty selection. The impression prevails that the
hero is "a little fellow." There is much said to the effect that he
is jaunty and has excess of amiability in his smile. He weighs about
180 pounds, and is of erect bearing, standing not less than five feet
ten inches and a quarter. His hair is not as white as the pictures
say. The artist who touched up the negative must have thought gray
hair so becoming that he anticipated the feast of coming years. The
figure of the Admiral is strong, well carried, firm, and his bearing
that of gravity and determination, but no pose for the sake of show,
no pomp and circumstance, just the Academy training showing in his
attitude--the abiding, unconscious grace that is imparted in the
schools of Annapolis and West Point--now rivaled by other schools in
"setting up." The Admiral is of solidity and dignity, of good stature
and proportions; has nothing of affectation in manners or insincerity
in speech; is a hearty, stirring, serious man, whose intensity is
softened by steady purposes and calm forces, and moderated by the
play of a sense of humor, that is not drollery or levity, but has a
pleasing greeting for a clever word, and yields return with a flash
in it and an edge on it.
CHAPTER II
Life in Manila.
Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in
the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic
of Destiny--Manila as She Fell into Our Hands--The Beds in the
Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the
Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted
Pantry Woman.
The same marvelous riches that distinguish Cuba are the inheritance
of Luzon. The native people are more promising in the long run than
if they were in larger percentage of the blood of Spain, for they
have something of that indomitable industry that must finally work
out an immense redemption for the eastern and southern Asiatics. When,
I wonder, did the American people get the impression so extensive and
obstinate that the Japanese and Chinese were idlers? We may add as
having a place in this category the Hindoos, who toil forever, and,
under British government, have increased by scores of millions. The
southern Asiatics are, however, less emancipated from various
indurated superstitions than those of the East; and the Polynesians,
spread over the southern seas, are a softer people than those of the
continent. However, idleness is not the leading feature of life of the
Filipinos, and when they are mixed, especially crossed with Chinese,
they are indefatigable. On the Philippine Islands there is far less
servility than on the other side of the sea of China, and the people
are the more respectable and hopeful for the flavor of manliness that
compensates for a moderate but visible admixture of savagery. We of
North America may be proud of it that the atmosphere of our continent,
when it was wild, was a stimulant of freedom and independence. The red
Indians of our forests were, with all their faults, never made for
slaves. The natives of the West Indies, the fierce Caribs excepted,
were enslaved by the Spaniards, and perished under the lash. Our
continental tribes--the Seminoles and the Comanches, the Sioux and
Mohawks, the Black Feet and the Miamis--from the St. Lawrence to
Red River and the oceans, fought all comers--Spaniards, French and
English--only the French having the talent of polite persuasion and
the gift of kindness that won the mighty hunters, but never subjugated
them. We may well encourage the idea that the quality of air of the
wilderness has entered the soil. When, in Manila, I have seen the men
bearing burdens on the streets spring out of the way of those riding
in carriages, and lashed by drivers with a viciousness that no dumb
animal should suffer, I have felt my blood warm to think that the men
of common hard labor in my country would resent a blow as quickly as
the man on horseback--that even the poor black--emancipated the other
day from the subjugation of slavery by a masterful and potential race,
stands up in conscious manhood, and that the teachings of the day are
that consistently with the progress of the country--as one respects
himself, he must be respected--and that the air and the earth have the
inspiration and the stimulus of freedom. The Chinese and Japanese are
famous as servants--so constant, handy, obedient, docile, so fitted to
minister to luxury, to wait upon those favored by fortune and spurred
to execute the schemes for elevation and dominance, and find employment
in the enterprise that comprehends human advancement. It must be
admitted that the Filipinos are not admirable in menial service. Many
of them are untamed, and now, that the Americans have given object
lessons of smiting the Spaniards, the people of the islands that
Magellinos, the Portuguese, found for Spain, must be allowed a measure
of self-government, or they will assert a broader freedom, and do it
with sanguinary methods. As Americans have heretofore found personal
liberty consistent with public order--that Republicanism was more
stable than imperialism in peaceable administration, and not less
formidable in war, it seems to be Divinely appointed that our paths
of Empire may, with advantage to ourselves, and the world at large,
be made more comprehensive than our fathers blazed them out. But
one need not hesitate to go forward in this cause, for we have only
gone farther than the fathers dreamed, because, among their labors of
beneficence, was that of building wiser than they knew, and there is
no more reason now why we should stop when we strike the salt water
of the seas, and consent to it that where we find the white line of
surf that borders a continent we shall say to the imperial popular
Republic, thus far and no farther shalt thou go, and here shall thy
proud march be stayed--than there was that George Washington, as the
representative of the English-speaking people, should have assumed that
England and Virginia had no business beyond the Allegheny Mountains,
and, above all, no right to territory on the west of the Allegheny
and Kanawha, and north of the Ohio river, a territory then remote,
inhabited by barbarians and wanted by the French, who claimed the
whole continent, except the strip along the Atlantic possessed by the
English colonies. Washington was a believer in the acquisition of the
Ohio country. He was a man who had faith in land--in ever more land. It
is the same policy to go west now that it was then. Washington crossed
the Allegheny and held the ground. Jefferson crossed the Mississippi,
and sent Louis and Clark to the Pacific; and crossing the great western
ocean now is but the logic of going beyond the great western rivers,
prairies and mountains then. We walk in the ways of the fathers when
we go conquering and to conquer along the Eastward shores of Asia.
One of the expanding and teeming questions before the world now,
and the authority and ability to determine it, is in the hands of
the Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States, is whether
Manila shall become an American city, with all the broad and sweeping
significance attaching thereto. Manila was not dressed for company
when I saw her, for she had just emerged from a siege in which
the people had suffered much inconvenience and privation. The water
supply was cut off, and the streets were not cleaned. The hotels were
disorganized and the restaurants in confusion. The trees that once cast
a grateful shade along the boulevards, that extended into the country,
rudely denuded of their boughs, had the appearance of the skeletons
of strange monsters. The insurgent army was still in the neighborhood
in a state of uneasiness, feeling wronged, deprived, as they were,
of an opportunity to get even with the Spaniards, by picking out
and slaying some of the more virulent offenders. There was an immense
monastery, where hundreds of priests were said to be sheltered, and the
insurgents desired to take them into their own hands and make examples
of them. The Spaniards about the streets were becoming complacent. They
had heard of peace, on the basis of Spain giving up every thing,
but the Philippines, and there were expectations that the troops
withdrawn from Cuba might be sent from Havana to Manila, and then,
as soon as the Americans were gone, the islanders could be brought to
submission by vastly superior forces. There were more rations issued to
Spanish than to American soldiers, until the division of the Philippine
Expedition with Major-General Otis arrived, but the Americans were
exclusively responsible for the preservation of the peace between the
implacable belligerents, and the sanitary work required could not at
once be accomplished, but presently it was visible that something was
done every day in the right direction. There was much gambling with
dice, whose rattling could be heard far and near on the sidewalks,
but this flagrant form of vice was summarily suppressed, we may say
with strict truth, at the point of the bayonet. The most representative
concentration of the ingredients of chaos was at the Hotel Oriental,
that overlooked a small park with a dry fountain and a branch of the
river flowing under a stone bridge, with a pretty stiff current,
presently to become a crowded canal. It is of three lofty stories
and an attic, a great deal of the space occupied with halls, high,
wide and long. The front entrance is broad, and a tiled floor runs
straight through the house. Two stairways, one on either side, lead to
the second story, the first steps of stone. In the distance beyond,
a court could be seen, a passable conservatory--but bottles on a
table with a counter in front declared that this was a barroom, as
it was. The next thing further was a place where washing was done,
then came empty rooms that might be shops; after this a narrow and
untidy street, and then a livery stable--a sort of monopolistic cab
stand, where a few ponies and carriages were to be found--but no one
understood or did anything as long as possible, except to say that
all the rigs were engaged now and always. However, a little violent
English language, mixed with Spanish, would arouse emotion and excite
commotion eventuating in a pony in harness, and a gig or carriage,
and a desperate driver, expert with a villainous whip used without
occasion or remorse.
The cool place was at the front door, on the sidewalk, seated on a
hard chair, for there was always a breeze. The Spanish guests knew
where the wind blew, and gathered there discussing many questions
that must have deeply interested them. But they had something to eat,
no authority or ability to affect any sort of change, and unfailing
tobacco, the burning of which was an occupation. The ground floor of
the hotel, except the barroom, the washroom, the hall, the conservatory
and the hollow square, had been devoted to shop keeping, but the shop
keepers were gone, perhaps for days and perhaps forever! Stone is
not used to any great extent in house interiors, except within a few
feet of the surface of the earth. Of course, there is no elevator in
a Spanish hotel. That which is wanted is room for the circulation of
air. Above the first flight of stairs the steps have a deep dark red
tinge, and are square and long, so that each extends solidly across
the liberal space allotted to the stairway. The blocks might be some
stone of delightful color, but they are hewn logs, solid and smooth,
of a superb mahogany or some tree of harder wood and deeper luxuriance
of coloring. The bedrooms are immensely high, and in every way ample,
looking on great spaces devoted to wooing the air from the park and the
river. The windows are enormous. Not satisfied with the giant sliding
doors that open on the street, revealing windows--unencumbered with
sash or glass, there are sliding doors under the window sills, that
roll back right and left and offer the chance to introduce a current
of air directly on the lower limbs. One of the lessons of the tropics
is the value of the outer air, and architecture that gives it a chance
in the house. It is a precious education. The artificial light within
must be produced by candles, and each stupendous apartment is furnished
with one tallowy and otherwise neglected candle stick, and you can
get, with exertion, a candle four inches long. There is a wardrobe,
a wash stand, with pitcher and basin, and a commode, fans, chairs,
and round white marble table, all the pieces placed in solitude, so
as to convey the notion of lonesomeness. The great feature is the
bed. The bedstead is about the usual thing, save that there is no
provision for a possible or impossible spring mattress, or anything
of that nature. The bed space is covered with bamboo, platted. It is
hard as iron, and I can testify of considerable strength, for I rested
my two hundred pounds, and rising a few pounds, on this surface, with
no protection for it or myself for several nights, and there were no
fractures. There is spread on this surface a Manila mat, which is a
shade tougher and less tractable than our old style oilcloth. Upon
this is spread a single sheet, that is tucked in around the edges
of the mat, and there are no bed clothes, absolutely none. There
is a mosquito bar with only a few holes in it, but it is suspended
and cannot under any circumstances be used as a blanket. There is a
pillow, hard and round, and easy as a log for your cheek to rest upon,
and it is beautifully covered with red silk. There is a small roll,
say a foot long and four inches in diameter, softer than the pillow,
to a slight extent, and covered with finer and redder silk, that is
meant for the neck alone. The comparatively big red log is to extend
across the bed for the elevation it gives the head, and the little and
redder log, softer so that you may indent it with your thumb, saves the
neck from being broken on this relic of the Spanish inquisition. But
there is a comforter--not such a blessed caressing domestic comforter
as the Yankees have, light as a feather, but responsive to a tender
touch. This Philippine comforter is another red roll that must be a
quilt firmly rolled and swathed in more red silk; and it is to prop
yourself withal when the contact with the sheet and the mat on the
bamboo floor of the bedstead, a combination iniquitous as the naked
floor--becomes wearisome. It rests the legs to pull on your back, and
tuck under your knees. In the total absence of bed covering, beyond
a thin night shirt, the three red rolls are not to be despised. The
object of the bed is to keep cool, and if you do find the exertion
of getting onto--not into--the bed produces a perspiration, and the
mosquito bar threatens suffocation, reliance may be had that if you
can compose yourself on top of the sheet (which feels like a hard wood
floor, when the rug gives way on the icy surface and you fall) and
if you use the three rolls of hard substance, covered with red silk,
discreetly and considerately, in finding a position, and if you permit
the windows--no glass--fifteen feet by twelve, broadcast, as it were,
to catch the breath of the river and the park; if you can contrive
with infinite quiet, patience and pains to go to sleep for a few
hours, you will be cool enough; and when awakened shivering there is
no blanket near, and if you must have cover, why get under the sheet,
next the Manila mat, and there you are! Then put your troublesome and
probably aching legs over the bigger red roll, and take your repose! Of
course, when in the tropics you cannot expect to bury yourself in
bedclothing, or to sleep in fur bags like an arctic explorer. The
hall in front of your door is twelve feet wide and eighty long, lined
with decorative chairs and sofas, and in the center of the hotel is
a spacious dining room. The Spaniard doesn't want breakfast. He wants
coffee and fruit--maybe a small banana--something sweet, and a crumb
of bread. The necessity of the hour is a few cigarettes. His refined
system does not require food until later. At 12 o'clock he lunches,
and eats an abundance of hot stuff--fish, flesh and fowl--fiery
stews and other condolences for the stomach. This gives strength to
consider the wrongs of Spain and the way, when restored to Madrid,
the imbeciles, who allowed the United States to capture the last
sad fragments of the colonies, sacred to Spanish honor, shall be
crushed by the patriots who were out of the country when it was
ruined. It will take a long time for the Spaniards to settle among
factions the accounts of vengeance. One of the deeper troubles of the
Spaniards is that they take upon themselves the administration of the
prerogatives of him who said "Vengeance is mine." The American end of
the dining room contains several young men who speak pigeon Spanish,
and Captains Strong and Coudert are rapidly becoming experts, having
studied the language in school, and also on the long voyage out. There
are also a group of resident Englishmen and a pilgrim from Norway,
but at several tables are Americans who know no Spanish and are mad
at the Spaniards on that provocation among other things.
There is, however, a connecting link and last resort in the person
of a young man--a cross between a Jap and Filipino. He is slender
and pale, but not tall. His hair is roached, so that it stands up
in confusion, and he is wearied all the time about the deplorable
"help."' It is believed he knows better than is done--always a source
of unhappiness. His name is Francisco; his reputation is widespread. He
is the man who "speaks English"--and is the only one--and it is not
doubted that he knows at least a hundred words of our noble tongue. He
says, "What do you want?" "Good morning, gentlemen"; "What can I do for
you?" "Do you want dinner?" "No, there is no ice till 6 o'clock." He
puts the Americans in mind of better days. Behind this linguist is
a little woman, whose age might be twenty or sixty, for her face is
so unutterably sad and immovable in expression that there is not a
line in it that tells you anything but that there is to this little
woman a bitterly sad, mean, beastly world. She must be grieving over
mankind. It is her duty to see that no spoon is lost, and not an orange
or banana wasted, and her mournful eyes are fixed with the intensity
of despair upon the incompetent waiters, who, when hard pressed by wild
shouts from American officers, frantic for lack of proper nourishment,
fall into a panic and dance and squeal at each other; and then the
woman of fixed sorrow, her left shoulder thin and copper-colored,
thrust from her low-necked dress, her right shoulder protected, is in
the midst of the pack, with a gliding bound and the ferocity of a cat,
the sadness of her face taking on a tinge of long-suffering rage. She
whirls the fools here and there as they are wanted. Having disentangled
the snarl, she returns to the door from which her eyes command both
the pantry and the dining-room to renew her solemn round of mournful
vigilance. The Americans are outside her jurisdiction. She has no more
idea what they are than Christopher Columbus, when he was discovering
America, knew where he was going. When Francisco does not know what
the language (English) hurled at him means he has a far-away look,
and may be listening to the angels sing, for he is plaintive and
inexpressive. He looks so sorry that Americans cannot speak their
own language as he speaks English! But there are phrases delivered by
Americans that he understands, such as, "Blankety, blank, blank--you
all come here." Francisco does not go there, but with humble step
elsewhere, affecting to find a pressing case for his intervention,
but when he can no longer avoid your eye catching him he smiles a
sweet but most superior smile, such as becomes one who speaks English
and is the responsible man about the house.
There never was one who did more on a capital of one hundred words. His
labors have been lightened slightly, for the Americans have picked up a
few Spanish words, such as, "Ha mucher, mucher--don't you know? Hielo,
hielo!" Hielo is ice, and after the "mucher" is duly digested the
average waiter comes, by and by, with a lump as big as a hen's egg
and is amazed by the shouts continuing "hielo, hielo!" pronounced
much like another and wicked word.
"Oh, blanketination mucher mucher hielo!" The Filipinos cannot
contemplate lightly the consumption of slabs of ice. The last words
I heard in the dining-room of the Hotel Oriental were from a soldier
with two stars on each shoulder: "Francisco, oh, Francisco," and the
little woman with left shoulder exposed turned her despairing face
to the wall, her sorrow too deep for words or for weeping.
CHAPTER III
From Long Island To Luzon.
Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through
the Golden Gate--He Is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The
Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the
Scorpion--The Southern Cross.
Spain, crowded between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, was the
world's "West" for many centuries, indeed until Columbus found a
further West, but he did not go far enough to find the East Indies. The
United States is now at work in both the East and West Indies.
Our Manila expeditions steamed into the sunsets, the boys pointing
out to each other the southern cross. The first stage of a journey,
to go half round the world on a visit to our new possession, was by
the annex boat from Brooklyn, and a rush on the Pennsylvania train,
that glimmers with gold and has exhausted art on wheels, to Washington,
to get the political latitude and longitude by observation of the two
domes, that of the Capitol, and the library, and the tremendous needle
of snow that is the monument to Washington, and last, but not least,
the superb old White House.
The next step was across the mountains on the Baltimore and Ohio,
the short cut between the East and the West, traversed so often by
George Washington to get good land for the extension of our national
foundations. The space between Cincinnati and Chicago is cleared on the
"Big Four" with a bound through the shadow of the earth, between two
rare days in June, and the next midnight, the roaring train flew high
over the Missouri River at Omaha, and by daylight far on the way to
Ogden. The country was rich in corn and grass, and when one beholds the
fat cattle, lamentations for the lost buffalo cease. It is a delight
to see young orchards and farmhouses, and cribs and sheds fortified
against tornadoes by groves, laid out with irritating precision to
confront the whirling storms from west and south. The broad bad lands
in which the tempests are raised devour the heart of the continent.
I made note of the 888-mile post beyond Omaha, but the 1,000-mile
telegraph pole and tree glided away while I was catching the lights
and shadows on a fearfully tumbled landscape. The alkali has poisoned
enormous tracts, and the tufts of sagebrush have a huge and sinister
monotony. Looking out early in the morning there was in our track
a "gaunt grey wolf" with sharp ears, unabashed by the roar of the
train. His species find occasional scraps along the track and do
not fear the trains. Then I saw something glisten in the herbage,
and it was a rattlesnake, if it were not a whisky bottle.
The gigantic lumps of tawny earth, with castellated crags of stone,
ghostly ruins one would say of cities that perished thousands of years
before the bricks were made for Babylon. Profound beds for vanished
torrents yawned into a scrap of green valley, and the glitter of a
thread of water. A town blossomed from a coal mine, and there was
an array of driven wells with force pumps to quench the thirst of
seething and raging locomotives. A turn in the line and a beautiful
cloud formation like billows of white roses, massive, delicately
outlined fantastic spires like marble mountains, carved--ah! the
cloud comes out clear as if it were a wall of pearl, and there are
the everlasting mighty hills with their brows of exquisite snow!
These are lofty reservoirs from which the long days glowing with
sunshine send down streams of water at whose touch the deserts
bloom. The eye is refreshed as we make a closer acquaintance of
the mountains. Where water flows and trees "wag their high tops"
there is hope of homes. There are canyons that cause one to smile
at remembrances of what were considered the dizzy gorges of the
Alleghenies. There is a glow as of molten lead in one corner of a misty
valley far away. It is Salt Lake, the Dead Sea of America. Beyond
this at an immense elevation is a lake with the tinge of the indigo
sky of the tropics. If one could stir a portion of the Caribbean Sea
into Lake Geneva, the correct tint could be obtained. Thirty miles
of snow sheds announce progress in the journey to the Pacific. There
is still heat and dust, but beside the road are villages; and there
are even fountains.
Each stream is a treasure, and its banks are rich with
verdure. There are sleek cows on bright grass. The mountains
are no longer forbidding. They take on robes of loveliness. The
valleys broaden and on the easy slopes there are orchards where the
oranges glisten. There are clusters of grapes. We have come upon that
magic land, California. There is golden music in the name. This is a
conquest. The war in which it was won was not one of philanthropy. We
gathered an empire.
General Merritt never minded the weather, whether the wind blew or
not, and instead of holding his ship for several hours after the
appointed time, wanted to know five minutes after 10 o'clock whether
the time for starting was not 10 o'clock and by whom the boat was
detained. At ten minutes after 10 the gangplank was swung free, with
a desperate man on it who scrambled on with the help of long legs and
a short rope. As the ship swung from the dock and got a move on there
were thousands of men and women exalted with emotion, and there were
crowded steamers and tugs toppling with swarming enthusiasts resounding
with brass bands and fluttering with streaming flags. The ladies were
especially frantic. Spurts of white smoke jetted from forts and there
were ringing salutes. Steam whistles pitched a tune beyond the fixed
stars. The national airs with thrilling trumpet tones pierced the
din, and a multitude of voices joined with the bands giving words and
tone to the magnetic storm. How many miles the Newport was pursued I
cannot conjecture. There were tall ladies standing on the high decks
of tugs that were half buried in the foam of the bay, but as long
as they could hold a "Star Spangled Banner" in one hand, and a few
handkerchiefs in another, their skirts streaming in grace and defiance
before the rising gale, they sang hosannas, and there were attitudes
both of triumph and despair as the fair followers, dashed with spray,
gave up the chase, passionately kissing their hands god-speed and
good-by. This was going to the Indies through the Golden Gate!
A breakage of dishes, that sounded as though the ship were going
to pieces, belied the prophesy that beyond the bar there was to
be no moaning; and the Pacific would not be pacified. However,
the reputation of the ocean was good enough to go to sleep on,
but the berths squirmed in sympathy with the twisting and plunging
ship. It was not a "sound of revelry by night," to which the wakeful
listened through the dismal hours, and in the morning there was a
high sea--grand rollers crowned with frothy lace, long black slopes
rising and smiting like waves of liquid iron.
The Pacific was an average North Atlantic, and it was explained by the
tale that the peaceful part of this ocean is away down South where the
earth is most rotund, and the trade winds blow on so serenely that they
lull the navigators into dreams of peace that induce a state of making
haste slowly and a willingness to forget and be forgotten, whether--
Of those who husbanded the golden grain
Or those who flung it to the winds like rain,
The gulls are not our snowy birds of the Atlantic. We are lonesome
out here, and the Albatross sweeps beside us, hooded like a cobra,
an evil creature trying to hoodoo us, with owlish eyes set in a frame
like ghastly spectacle glasses.
General Merritt's blue eyes shone like diamonds through the stormy
experiences while the young staff officers curled up as the scientists
did on the floor, and smiled a sort of sickly smile! The highest
compliment that can be paid them is that the group of officers
and gentlemen surrounding the commander of the expedition to the
Philippines, express his own character.
It was funny to find that the private soldiers were better served
with food than the General and his staff. There was reform, so as
to even up the matter of rations, but the General was not anxious
and solicitous for better food. His idea of the correct supper after
a hard day's service is a goodly sized sliced onion with salt, meat
broiled on two sticks, hard tack, a tin cup of coffee, for luxuries a
baked potato, a pipe of tobacco, a nip of whisky, a roll in a blanket
and a sleep until the next day's duties are announced by the bugle.
As the gentlemen of the staff got their sea legs, and flavored
the narration of their experiences with humor, I found myself in a
cloudy state and mentioned a small matter to the brigadier surgeon,
who whipped out a thermometer and took my temperature, and that man of
science gave me no peace night or day, and drove me from the ship into
Paradise--that is to say I was ordered to stay at Honolulu. Through
a window of the Queen's hospital I saw lumps of tawny gold that were
pomegranates shaking in the breeze, another tree glowed with dates,
and a broad, vividly green hedge was rich with scarlet colors. I was
duly examined by physicians, who were thorough as German specialists. I
had, in the course of a few hours, a nap, a dish of broth, a glass
of milk, a glass of ice water and an egg nog. That broth flowed like
balm to the right spot. It was chicken broth. When I guzzled the egg
nog I would have bet ten to one on beating that fever in a week, and
the next morning about 4:30, when there was competitive crowing by a
hundred roosters, I was glad of the concert, for it gave assurance of
a supply of chickens to keep up the broth and the eggs that disguised
the whiskey.
Two days later I gave up the egg nog because it was too good for
me. I knew I did not deserve anything so nice, and suspected it was a
beneficence associated with a cloud on my brow. I had the approval of
the hospital physician as to egg nog, and he cut off a lot of dainties
sent by the Honolulu ladies, who must have imagined that I was one
of the heroes of the war. Their mission is to make heroes happy. I
was detained under the royal palms, and other palms that were planted
by the missionaries, four weeks, and got away on the ship Peru with
Major-General Otis, and when we had gone on for a fortnight, as far
as from the Baltic to Lake Erie, we saw some rocks that once were
Spanish property.
As we left Honolulu the air was already a-glitter with Star Spangled
Banners. There are three great points to be remembered as to the
annexation of Hawaii:
1. There is not to be a continuance of the slavery of Asiatics in
the new possession.
2. "Manhood suffrage" is not to be extended to Asiatics, often actually
as under strictly conventional constitutional construction.
3. The archipelago is to be a United States territory, but not a
State of the United States. Ex-President Harrison says in his most
interesting book: "This Country of Ours," which should be one of our
national school books:
"Out of the habit of dealing with the public domain has come the common
thought that all territory that we acquire must, when sufficiently
populous, be erected into States. But why may we not take account
of the quality of the people as well as of their numbers, if future
acquisitions should make it proper to do so? A territorial form
of government is not so inadequate that it might not serve for an
indefinite time."
It is to be remarked of the Hawaiian Islands that they did not possess
the original riches of timber that distinguished the West Indies,
especially Cuba, where Columbus found four varieties of oranges. One
of the features of Hawaiian forestry is the Royal Palm, but it was
not indigenous to the islands. The oldest of the stately royalists
is not of forty years' growth, and yet they add surprising grace to
many scenes, and each year will increase their height and enhance
their beauty.
Hawaiians will be saved from extinction by miscegenation. There will
be no harm done these feeble people by the shelter of the flag of the
great republic. The old superstitions prevail among them to an extent
greater than is generally understood. I had the privilege of visiting
an American home, the background of which was a rugged mountain
that looked like a gigantic picture setting forth the features of
a volcanic world. Far up the steep is a cave in which the bones of
many of the old savages were deposited in the days of civil war and
inhuman sacrifices. The entrance was long ago--in the days the Hawaii
people describe as "Before the Missionaries." The hole going to the
holy cavern was closed, but there is still pious watching over the
place of bones, and if there are climbers of the mountain not to be
trusted with the solemn secrets of ancient times, they are stalked
by furtive watchmen of the consecrated bones, and no doubt the ever
alert sentinels would resist violation of the sepulchre in the rocks;
and the natives are careful to scatter their special knowledge that
the spot is haunted by supernatural shapes and powers. The Americans
living in the midst of these mysteries are rather proud of the ghosts
they never see, but have to put up with the haunting guard still
ministering to the gods that dwelt in the shrines where the shadows
of extinct volcanoes fall, long before the masterful missionaries
planted their first steps in the high places.
After twenty-two days' steaming from San Francisco--Queen's Hospital
time not counted--we were directly south of China's Yellow Sea,
and within a few hours of sighting the isle of Luzon.
Only at Honolulu, all the way from San Francisco, was there a sail or a
smoke not of a vessel of the Philippine expedition. All the long days
and nights the eye swept the horizon for companionship, finding only
that of our associates in adventure, and very little of them. Even the
birds seem to shrink from the heart of the watery world spread between
America and Asia; and the monsters of the deep are absent. One day,
about a thousand miles from California, a story spread of a porpoise
at play, but the lonely creature passed astern like a bubble. Bryant
sang of the water fowl that flew from zone to zone, guided in certain
flight on the long way over which our steps are led aright, but the
Pacific zones are too broad for even winged wanderers. The fish that
swarm on our coast do not seem to find home life or sporting places
in this enormous sea. Only the flying fish disturb the silky scene and
flutter with silver wings over the sparkling laces that glisten where
the winds blow gently, and woo the billows to cast aside the terrors
of other climes and match the sky of blue and gold in beauty; but,
unlike the stars, the waves do not differ in glory, and the spread
of their splendor, when they seem to roll over a conquered universe,
appeals to the imagination with the solemn suggestion not that order
rules but that old chaos settles in solemn peace. The days terminate
on this abyss in marvelous glories. The glowing spectacle is not
in the west alone, but the gorgeous conflagration of the palaces we
build in dreams spreads all around the sky. The scene one evening in
the vicinity of the sun departing in Asia to light up the morning
of the everlasting to-morrow touching America with magical riches,
was that of Niagara Falls ten thousand times magnified and turned
to molten gold, that burned with inconceivable luster, while the
south and north and east were illuminated with strange fires and
soft lights, fading and merged at last in the daffodil sky. Then
the west became as a forest of amazing growth, and the ship entered
its dusky recesses like a hunter for game such as the world never
saw--and we looked upon the slow-fading purple islands that are the
northern fringes of the greater one of the Philippines, and studied
the rather faint and obscure Southern Cross and the stately sheen of
the superb constellation of the Scorpion. It is a pity to have to say
that the Cross of the South is a disappointment--has to be explained
and made impressive by a diagram. It is more like a kite than a
cross; has a superfluous star at one corner, and no support at all
of the idea of being like a cross unless it is worked up and picked
into the fancy. The North Star shines on the other side of the ship,
and the Great Dipper dips its pointers after midnight, into the mass
of darkness that is the sea when the sun and moon are gone.
The voyage from Honolulu to the farther Pacific was not so long that we
forgot the American send-off we got in that Yankee city. The national
airs sounded forth gloriously and grand. Flags and hankerchiefs
fluttered from dense masses of spectators, and our colors were radiant
above the roofs. There was, as usual, a mist on the mountains, and
over Pearl Harbor glowed the arch of the most vivid rainbow ever
seen, and Honolulu is almost every day dipped in rainbows. This
was a wonder of splendor. The water changed from a sparkling green
to a darkly luminous blue. From the moment the lofty lines of the
coast--our mountains now--faded, till the birds came out of the west,
the Pacific Ocean justified its name. The magnificent monotony of its
stupendous placidity was not broken except by a few hours of ruffled
rollers that tell of agitations that, if gigantic, are remote.
The two thousand and one hundred miles from California to Honolulu
seemed at first to cover a vast space of the journey from our Pacific
coast to the Philippines, but appeared to diminish in importance
as we proceeded and were taught by the persistent trade winds that
blew our way, as if forever to waft us over the awful ocean whose
perpetual beauty and placidity were to allure us to an amazing abyss,
from which it was but imaginative to presume that we, in the hands of
infinite forces, should ever be of the travelers that return. Similar
fancies beset, as all the boys remember--the crews of the caravels
that carried Columbus and his fortunes. There were the splendors of
tropical skies to beguile us; the sea as serene as the sky to enchant
us! What mighty magic was this that put a spell upon an American army,
seeking beyond the old outlines of our history and dreams, to guide
us on unfamiliar paths? What was this awakening in the soft mornings,
to the thrilling notes of the bugle? The clouds were not as those
we knew in other climes and years. We saw no penciling of smoke on
the edges of the crystal fields touched up with dainty ripples too
exquisite to be waves--that which is a delight for a moment and passes
but to come again, in forms too delicate to stay for a second, save
in those pictures that in the universe fill the mind with memories
that arc like starlight. The glancing tribes of flying fish became
events. We followed the twentieth parallel of longitude north of the
equator, right on, straight as an arrow's flight is the long run of the
ship--her vapor and the bubbles that break from the waters vanishing,
so that we were as trackless when we had passed one breadth after
another of the globe, as the lonesome canoes of the Indians on the
Great Lakes.
CHAPTER IV
Interview with General Aguinaldo.
The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His
Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos
Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle
of Luzon.
Practically all persons in the more civilized--and that is to say the
easily accessible--portions of the Philippine Islands, with perhaps
the exception of those leading insurgents who would like to enjoy the
opportunities the Spaniards have had for the gratification of greed
and the indulgence of a policy of revenge, would be glad to see the
Americans remain in Manila, and also in as large a territory as they
could command.
Spaniards of intelligence are aware that they have little that is
desirable to anticipate in case the country is restored to them along
with their Mausers and other firearms, great and small, according to
the terms of capitulation. They get their guns whether we go and leave
them or we stay and they go. It is obvious that the insurgents have
become to the Spaniards a source of anxiety attended with terrors. The
fact that they allowed themselves to be besieged in Manila by an
equal number of Filipinos is conclusive that their reign is over, and
they are not passionately in favor of their own restoration. Their
era of cruel and corrupt government is at an end, even if we shall
permit them to make the experiment. Their assumed anxiety to stay,
is false pretense. They will be hurt if they do not go home.
The exasperation of the Filipinos toward the church is a phenomenon,
and they usually state it with uncandid qualifications of the
inadequate definition of the opinions and policy made by General
Aguinaldo. Representations of my representative character as an
American journalist, that gave me an importance I do not claim or
assume to have, caused the appearance at my rooms, in Manila, of
insurgents of high standing and comprehensive information, and of
large fortunes in some cases. I was deeply impressed by their violent
radicalism regarding the priests. At first they made no distinction,
but said flatly the priests were the mischiefmakers, the true tyrants,
and next to the half-breed Filipinos crossed with Chinese--who are
phenomenal accumulators of pecuniary resources--the money-makers,
who profited wrongfully by the earnings of others.
And so "the priests must go," they said, and have no choice except
that of deportation or execution. In few words, if they did not go
away they would be killed. When close and urgent inquiry was made, the
native priests were not included in the application of this rule. The
Spanish priests were particularly singled out for vengeance, and with
them such others as had been "false to the people" and treacherous
in their relations to political affairs.
The number to be exiled or executed was stated at 3,000. The priests
are panicky about this feeling of the natives, as is in evidence in
their solicitude to get away. They at least have no hope of security if
the Spaniards should regain the mastery of the islands. Two hundred and
fifty of them in vain sought to get passage to Hongkong in one boat. I
was informed on authority that was unquestionable that the eviction
or extermination of the Spanish priests was one of the inevitable
results of Filipine independence--the first thing to be done.
It was with three objects in view that I had an interview with General
Aguinaldo: (1) To ascertain exactly as possible his feeling and policy
toward the United States and its assertion of military authority;
(2) to inquire about his position touching the priests, (3) and to
urge him to be at pains to be represented not only at Washington, but
at Paris. As regards the latter point, it was clear that the people
of the Philippines, whatever they might be, ought to be represented
before the Paris conference. No matter what their case was, it should
be personally presented, even if the representatives were witnesses
against rather than for themselves. In the interest of fair play
and the general truth the Philippine population should put in an
appearance at the seat of the government of the United States for the
information of the President, and at the scene of the conference to
testify; and I was sure it would appear in all cases that they were
at least better capable of governing themselves than the Spaniards
to govern them. There could be no form of government quite so bad
as that of the fatal colonial system of Spain, as illustrated in the
Philippines and in the Americas.
General Aguinaldo was neither remote nor inaccessible. His headquarters
were in an Indian village, just across the bay, named Bacoor, and
in less than an hour a swift steam launch carried Major Bell, of the
bureau of information, a gallant and most industrious and energetic
officer, and myself, to water so shallow that we had to call canoes to
land in front of a church that before the days of Dewey was riddled
by the fire of Spanish warships because occupied by insurgents. The
walls and roof showed many perforations. The houses of the village
were of bamboo, and there were many stands along the hot and dusty
street on which fruit was displayed for sale.
The General's house was about as solid a structure as earthquakes
permit, its roof of red tile instead of the usual straw. His rooms
were in the second story, reached by a broad stairway, at the top
of which was a landing of liberal dimensions and an ante-room. The
General was announced at home and engaged in writing a letter to
General Merritt--then his rather regular literary exercise. There
were a dozen insurgent soldiers at the door, and as many more at the
foot and head of the stairs, with several officers, all in military
costume, the privates carrying Spanish Mausers and the officers wearing
swords. We were admitted to an inner room, with a window opening on
the street, and told the General would see us directly. Meanwhile
well-dressed ladies of his family passed through the audience room
from the General's office to the living rooms, giving a pleasant
picture of domesticity.
The door from the study opened and a very slender and short young
man entered with a preoccupied look that quickly became curious. An
attendant said in a low voice, "General Aguinaldo." He was unexpectedly
small--could weigh but little over 100 pounds--dressed in pure white,
and his modesty of bearing would have become a maiden. The first
feeling was a sort of faint compassion that one with such small
physical resources should have to bear the weighty responsibilities
resting upon him. Major Bell had often met him, and introduced
me. The General was gratified that I had called, and waited for the
declaration of my business. He had been informed of my occupation;
the fact that I had recently been in Washington and expected soon
to be there again; was from Ohio, the President's state, a friend of
his, and had written a book on Cuba, a task which gave me, as I had
visited the Island of Cuba during the war, an acquaintance with the
Spanish system of governing colonies.
The interpreter was a man shorter than the General, but not quite so
slight. His hair was intensely black and he wore glasses. He is an
accomplished linguist, speaks English with facility and is acknowledged
by the priests to be the equal of any of them in reading and speaking
Latin. It is to be remarked that while Aguinaldo is not a man of
high education he has as associates in his labors for Philippine
independence a considerable number of scholarly men. It is related
that in a recent discussion between a priest and an insurgent, the
latter stated as a ground of rebellion that the Spaniards did nothing
for the education of the people, and was asked, "Where did you get
your education?" He had been taught by the Jesuits.
My first point in talking with Aguinaldo was that the people of
the Philippines ought to be strongly represented in Paris, and of
the reasons briefly presented, the foremost was that they sought
independence, and should be heard before the commission by which
their fate would be declared for the present, so far as it could
be, by a tribunal whose work was subject to revision. The general's
information was that the Paris conference would be opened September
15, an error of a fortnight, and his impression was that the terms
regarding the Philippines would be speedily settled, so that there
could not be time to send to Paris, but there had been a determination
reached to have a man in Washington.
It is to be taken into account that this interview was before anything
had been made known as to the mission which General Merritt undertook,
and that in a few days he set forth to perform, and that the terms
of the protocol had not been entirely published in Manila. I told
the general it was not possible that the Philippine problem could
speedily be solved, and made known to him that the transport China,
which holds the record of quick passage on the Pacific, was to sail
for San Francisco in three days, and he would do well to have his men
for Washington and Paris go on her if permission could be obtained,
as there was no doubt it could, and I mentioned the time required to
reach Washington and Paris--that one could be on a trans-Atlantic
steamer in New York six hours after leaving Washington, that the
Philippine commissioners going to Paris should make it a point to
see the President on the way, and the whole matter one of urgency,
but it was certainly not too late to act.
The General said it had been thought a representative of the islands
and of the cause of the people should go to Washington, but the man
was in Hongkong. He could, however, be telegraphed, so that he could
catch the China at Nagasaka, Japan, where she would have to stop two
days to take coal. The Washington commissioner might go to Paris, but
instructions could not reach him before he left Hongkong, as it would
not be desirable to telegraph them. Upon this I stated if it suited
his convenience and he would send instructions by me, I was going on
the China, and would charge myself with the special confidential care
of his dispatches and deliver them to the commissioner at the coaling
station, when he should join the ship; and if it was the desire of
the General to have it done I would telegraph the President that
Philippine commissioners were on the way. These suggestions were
received as if they were agreeable, and esteemed of value.
The conversation turned at this point to the main question of the
future government of the Philippines, and I inquired what would
be satisfactory to the General, and got, of course, the answer,
"Philippine independence." But I said after the United States had sent
a fleet and destroyed the Spanish fleet and an army in full possession
of Manila she was a power that could not be ignored; and what would be
thought of her assuming the prerogative of Protector? She could not
escape responsibility. His views as to the exact line of demarkation
or distinction between the rights of the United States and those of
the people of the islands should be perfectly clear, for otherwise
there would be confusion and possibly contention in greater matters
than now caused friction.
I endeavored to indicate the idea that there might be an adjustment on
the line that the people of the Philippines could manage their local
matters in their own way, leaving to the United States imperial
affairs, the things international and all that affected them,
the Filipinos looking to the administration of localities. I had
asked questions and stated propositions as if it were the universal
consent that General Aguinaldo was the dictator for his people and
had the executive word to say; but when it came to drawing the fine
lines of his relations with the United States as the embodiment of a
revolutionary movement, he became shy and referred to those who had
to be consulted.
His words were equivalent to saying his counselors must, in all matters
of moment, be introduced. It came to the same thing at last as to his
commissioner or commissioners to Washington or Paris, one or both, and
he also asserted the purpose of having the congress elected assemble at
a railroad town--Moroles, about fifty miles north of Manila--a movement
it is understood that is under the guidance of others than the General,
the bottom fact being that if there should be a Philippine Republic
Aguinaldo's place, in the judgment of many who are for it, would be
not that of chief magistrate, but the head of the army. There are
others and many of them of the opinion that he is not a qualified
soldier. The congress assembled at Moroles, and has made slow progress.
It may as well be remembered, however, that the distinctions of civil
and military power have been always hard to observe, in Central and
South American states, whose early Spanish education has been outgrown
gradually, and with halting and bloody steps. General Aguinaldo, then
engaged in evolving a letter to General Merritt, has since issued
proclamations that yield no share to the United States in the native
government of the islands. But there are two things definitely known,
as if decreed in official papers, and probably more so; that the
Filipinos of influential intelligence would be satisfied with the
direction of local affairs and gladly accept the protectorate of the
United States on the terms which the people of the United States may
desire and dictate.
The greater matter is that whenever it is the fixed policy of
the United States to accept the full responsibility of ruling the
Philippines, neither Aguinaldo nor any other man of the islands
would have the ability to molest the steady, peaceable, beneficent
development of the potentiality of our system of justice to the people,
and the preservation by and through the popular will of the union
of liberty under the law, and order maintained peaceably or forcibly
according to needs.
In continuation of his explanation that he had to refer matters
to others called his counselors, disclaiming the presumption in my
questions of his personal responsibility for the conduct of the native
insurrection, General Aguinaldo said with the greatest deliberation
and the softest emphasis of any of his sayings, that the insurgents
were already suspicious of him as one who was too close a friend
of the Americans, and yielded too much to them, and that there was
danger this feeling might grow and make way with his ability to do
all that he would like in the way of keeping the peace. There were,
he said, inquiries to the effect: What had the insurgents got for
what they had done in the capture of Manila? Were they not treated
by the Americans with indifference?
Major Bell interposed to say that the Americans were in the Philippines
not as politicians, but as soldiers, and had the duty of preserving
order by military occupation, and it was not possible there could
be maintained a double military authority--two generals of equal
powers in one city under martial law. There must be one master and
no discussion. The United States could take no secondary attitude
or position--would treat the insurgents with great consideration,
but they of necessity were exclusively responsible for the carrying
out of the provisions of the capitulation.
This was exactly to the point, and the interpreter cut his rendering
of it, using but few words, and they did not cheer up the General
and those about him. Evidently they want to know when and where
they realize. It had been noticeable that the greater importance
Aguinaldo attaches to what he is saying the lower his voice and the
more certainly he speaks in a half whisper with parted lips, show-in
teeth and tongue; and he has a surprising faculty of talking with
the tip of his tongue, extended a very little beyond his lips. There
was something so reserved as to be furtive about his mouth, but his
eyes were keen, straight and steady, showing decision, but guarding
what he regarded the niceties of statement. However, his meaning that
there were insurgents who were finding fault with him was not so much
indicative of a rugged issue as a confession of impending inabilities.
He had nothing to say in response to Major Bell's explicit remark
about the one-man and one-country military power, but the action of
the insurgents in removing their headquarters--or their capital, as
they call it--to a point forty miles from Manila, proves that they
have come to an understanding that the soldiers of the United States
are not in the Philippines for their health entirely, or purely in
the interest of universal benevolence. The Filipinos must know, too,
that they could never themselves have captured Manila. It is not
inapt to say that the real center of the rebellion against Spain is,
as it has been for years, at Hongkong.
I reserved what seemed the most interesting question of the interview
with the Philippine leader to the last. It was whether a condition
of pacification was the expulsion of the Catholic priests as a
class. This was presented with reference to the threats that had
been made in my hearing that the priests must go or die, for they
were the breeders of all trouble. Must all of them be removed in
some way or another? If not, where would the line be drawn? The
lips of the General were parted and his voice quite low and gentle,
the tongue to a remarkable degree doing the talking, as he replied,
plainly picking words cautiously and measuring them. The able and
acute interpreter dealt them out rapidly, and his rendering gave
token that the Filipinos have already had lessons in diplomacy--even
in the Spanish style of polite prevarication--or, if that may be a
shade too strong, let us say elusive reservation--the use of language
that is more shady than silence, the framing of phrases that may
be interpreted so as not to close but to continue discussion and
leave wide fields for controversy. The General did not refer to his
counselors, or the congress that is in the background and advertised
as if it were a new force.
The words of the interpreter for him were:
"The General says the priests to whom objection is made, and with whom
we have a mortal quarrel, are not our own priests, but the Spaniards'
and those of the orders. We respect the Catholic church. We respect
our own priests, and, if they are friends of our country, will protect
them. Our war is not upon the Catholic church, but upon the friars,
who have been the most cruel enemies. We cannot have them here. They
must go away. Let them go to Spain. We are willing that they may go
to their own country. We do not want them. There is no peace until
they go."
I said my information was that the objectionable Orders expressly
proscribed by the insurgents were the Dominicans, Augustines,
Franciscans and Recollects, but that the Jesuits were not
included. This was fully recited to the General, and with his eyes
closing and his mouth whispering close to the interpreter's cheek he
gave his answer, and it was quickly rendered:
"The Jesuits, too, must go. They also are our enemies. We do not want
them. They betray. They can go to Spain. They may be wanted there,
not here; but not here, not here."
The question whether the friars must make choice between departure and
death was not met directly, but with repetitions--that they might be at
home in Spain, but could not be a part of the independent Philippines;
and, significantly, they should be willing to go when wanted, and
would be. Two Catholic priests--Americans, not Spaniards--were at this
moment waiting in the ante room, to ask permission for the priests
Aguinaldo has in prison to go back to Spain, and the General could
not give an answer until he had consulted his council. Probably he
would not dare to part with the priests, and an order from him would
be disregarded. They have many chances of martyrdom, and some of them
have already suffered mutilation.
Something had been said about my cabling the President as to the
Filipinos' determination to send a representative to Paris, and I had
tendered my good offices in bearing instructions to a commissioner from
Hongkong to meet the China at Nagasaki, the Japanese railway station,
where the American transports coal for their long voyage across the
Pacific. But that matter had been left in the air. General Aguinaldo
had said he would be obliged if I would telegraph the President,
and I thought if the decision was that there was to be a Philippine
representative hurried to Paris, it was something the President would
be glad to know. I was aware there might be a difficulty in getting
permission for a special messenger to go on the China to Japan to
meet the commissioners going from Hongkong, and I would be willing
to make the connection, as I had offered the suggestion. But it was
necessary to be absolutely certain of General Aguinaldo's decision
before I could cable the President; therefore, as I was, of course,
in an official sense wholly irresponsible, I could communicate with
him without an abrasion of military or other etiquette. It was the
more needful, as it would be a personal proceeding, that I should be
sure of the facts. Therefore I asked the General, whose time I had
occupied more than an hour, whether he authorized me to telegraph
the President that a commission was going to Paris, and desired me
to render any aid in conveying information.
The General was troubled about the word "authorized," and instead of
saying so concluded that I must have a deep and possibly dark design
and so he could not give me the trouble to cable. The assurance that
it would not be troublesome did not remove the disquiet. I could not
be troubled, either, as a bearer of dispatches. The General could
not authorize a telegram without consulting. In truth, the General
had not made up his mind to be represented in Paris, holding that it
would be sufficient to have an envoy extraordinary in Washington.
Others, without full consideration, in my opinion, concur in
this view. I can imagine several situations at Paris in which a
representative Filipino would be of service to the United States,
simply by standing for the existence of a state of facts in the
disputed islands. I dropped the matter of being a mediator, having
planted the Paris idea in the mind of the Philippine leader, who is of
the persuasion that he is the dictator of his countrymen, for the sake
of his country, until he wishes to be evasive, and then he must consult
others who share the burdens of authority, and told him when taking
my leave I would like to possess a photograph with his autograph and
the Philippine flag. In a few minutes the articles were in my hands,
and passing out, there were the American priests in the ante-room,
the next callers to enter the General's apartment. Their business was
to urge him to permit the Catholic priests held as prisoners by the
insurgents--more than 100, perhaps nearly 200 in number--to go home.
When the news came that General Merritt had been ordered to Paris, and
would pass through the Red sea en route, taking the China to Hongkong
to catch a peninsular and oriental steamer, I telegraphed the fact to
General Aguinaldo over our military wires and his special wire, and
his commissioner, duly advised, became, with General Merritt's aid,
at Hongkong a passenger on the China.
He is well known to the world as Senor Filipe Agoncillo, who visited
Washington City, saw the President and proceeded to Paris.
CHAPTER V
The Philippine Mission.
Correspondence With Aguinaldo About It--Notes by Senor Felipe
Agoncillo--Relations Between Admiral Dewey and Senor Aguinaldo--Terms
of Peace Made by Spanish Governor-General with Insurgents, December,
1897--Law Suit Between Aguinaldo and Artacho--Aguinaldo's Proclamation
of May 24, 1898.
When General Merritt decided to hold the China for a day to take
him to Hongkong on the way to Paris, I telegraphed Aguinaldo of the
movements of the ship, arid received this dispatch from the General:
"War Department, United States Volunteer Signal Corps, sent from
Bakoor August 29, 1898.--To Mr. Murat Halstead, Hotel Oriente, Manila:
Thankful for your announcing China's departure. We are to send a person
by her if possible, whom I recommend to you. Being much obliged for
the favor.
"_A. G. Escamilla_," "Private Secretary to General Aguinaldo."
On the same day the General sent the following personal letter:
"Dear Sir: The bearer, Dr. G. Apacible, is the person whom was
announced to you in the telegram.
"I am desirous of sending him to Hongkong, if possible, by the China,
recommending him at the same time to your care and good will. Thanking
you for the favor, I'm respectfully yours,
_Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy_.
"Mr. Murat Halstead, Manila.
"Bakoor, 29th August, 1898."
General Aguinaldo proceeded vigorously to make use of his knowledge
that the China would go to Hongkong for General Merritt and sent his
secretary and others to me at the Hotel Oriente, but they arrived
after I had left the house. They came to the China and General Merritt
had not arrived and did not appear until within a few minutes of
the start. Then the deputation from the insurgent chieftain had an
interview with him, asking that two of their number should go to
Hongkong on the China to express fully the views of the insurgent
government to to the commissioner, Don Felipe Agoncillo, chosen to
represent the Filipinos at Washington and Paris and to ask that he be
allowed to go to the United States on the China. When the committee saw
General Merritt he was taking leave of Admiral Dewey, and the General,
who had not heard of this movement until that moment--the question
being entirely new--invited the opinion of the Admiral, who said there
was "certainly no objection," and on the contrary, it would be very
well to permit the passage of the deputation to Hongkong and of the
commissioner appointed from that city to Washington. General Merritt
at once in half a dozen words gave the order, and the journey began.
General Greene, who reads and translates Spanish with facility
and whose Spanish speech is plain, treated with marked courtesy
the Filipino committee to Hongkong and thence the commissioner
and his secretary from Hongkong to San Francisco, on the way to
Washington and Paris. General Greene, while according distinction
to the representatives of the insurgents, stated to them that his
attentions were personal and he could not warrant them official
recognition at Washington or anything more than such politeness as
gentlemen receive from each other. The commissioner was Don Felipe
Agoncillo, and his secretary, Sixto Lopez.
Saturday, September 24, the Salt Lake newspapers contained stories to
the effect that the Germans had entered into an alliance offensive and
defensive with the Aguinaldo government and would furnish equipments
for an army of 150,000 men. We were on the Union Pacific Railroad at
the time, and I called the attention of Don Felipe Agoncillo to this
remarkable intelligence and asked him what he thought of it. He said
emphatically that it was "Nothing," "No true," "Nothing at all,"
and he laughed at the comic idea. There was also in the Salt Lake
newspapers a statement that the Aguinaldo 'government' had sent
to President McKinley a letter strongly expressing good-will and
gratitude. There did not seem to be much news in this for Don Felipe,
but it gave him much pleasure, and he, not perhaps diplomatically
but enthusiastically, pronounced it good.
_What Agoncillo Approved_.
The dispatch marked with his approbation by the Philippine commissioner
was the following from Washington, under date of September 23:
"The President doubtless would be glad to hear any views these
Filipinos might care to set forth, being fresh from the islands and
thoroughly acquainted with the wishes of the insurgents. But it would
be plainly impolitic and inconsistent for the President, at this
date and pending the conclusion of the peace conference at Paris,
to allow it to be understood, by according a formal reception to the
delegates, that he had thereby recognized the Philippine government
as an independent nationality. His attitude toward the Filipinos
would be similar to that assumed by him toward the Cubans. As the
Filipinos have repeatedly, by public declaration, sought to convey
the impression that the United States representatives in Manila have
at some time during the progress of the war recognized Aguinaldo as
an independent ally, and entered into formal co-operation with him,
it may be stated that the government at Washington is unaware that
any such thing has happened. Admiral Dewey, who was in command of all
the United States forces during the most critical period, expressly
cabled the Secretary of the Navy that he had entered into no formal
agreement with Aguinaldo. If General Otis followed his instructions,
and of that there can be no doubt, he also refrained from entering
into any entangling agreements. As for Consul-General Wildman, any
undertaking he may have assumed with Aguinaldo must have been upon
his own personal and individual responsibility, and would be without
formal standing, inasmuch as he has not the express authorization
from the State Department absolutely requisite to negotiations in such
cases. Therefore, as the case now stands, the peace commissioners are
free to deal with the Philippine problem at Paris absolutely without
restraint beyond that which might be supposed to rise from a sense
of moral obligation to avoid committing the Filipinos again into the
hands of their late rulers."
Senor Agoncillo, the commissioner of the Philippine insurgents at
Paris, made, in conversations on the steamer China, when crossing
the Pacific Ocean from "Nagasaka to San Francisco, this statement in
vindication of Aguinaldo, and it is the most complete, authoritative
and careful that exists of the relations between Admiral Dewey and
the insurgent leader:
_Brief Notes By Senor Agoncillo_.
"On the same day that Admiral Dewey arrived at Hongkong Senor
Aguinaldo was in Singapore, whither he had gone from Hongkong, and
Mr. Pratt, United States Consul-General, under instructions from the
said Admiral, held a conference with him, in which it was agreed that
Senor Aguinaldo and other revolutionary chiefs in co-operation with the
American squadron should return to take up arms against the Spanish
government of the Philippines, the sole and most laudable desire of
the Washington government being to concede to the Philippine people
absolute independence as soon as the victory against the Spanish arms
should be obtained.
"By virtue of this argument Senor Aguinaldo proceeded by the first
steamer to Hongkong for the express purpose of embarking on the Olympia
and going to Manila; but this intention of his was not realized,
because the American squadron left Hongkong the day previous to
his arrival, Admiral Dewey having received from his government an
order to proceed immediately to Manila. This is what Mr. Wildman,
United States Consul-General in Hongkong, said to Senor Aguinaldo
in the interview which took place between them. A few days after the
Spanish squadron had been totally destroyed in the Bay of Manila by
the American squadron, the latter obtaining a most glorious triumph,
which deserved the fullest congratulations and praise of the Philippine
public, the McCullough arrived at Hongkong and her commander said
to Senor Aguinaldo that Admiral Dewey needed him (le necesitaba)
in Manila and that he brought an order to take him on board said
transport, as well as other revolutionary chiefs whose number should
be determined by Senor Aguinaldo, and, in fact, he and seventeen
chiefs went to Cavite on the McCullough.
"Senor Aguinaldo began his campaign against the Spaniards the very
day that he received the 1,902 Mauser guns and 200,000 cartridges,
which came from Hongkong. The first victory which he obtained
from the Spaniards was the surrender or capitulation of the Spanish
General, Senor Pena, who was the Military Governor of Cavite, had his
headquarters in the town of San Francisco de Malabon, and his force
was composed of 1,500 soldiers, including volunteers.
"The revolutionary army in six days' operations succeeded in getting
possession of the Spanish detachments stationed in the villages of
Bakoor, Imus, Benakayan, Naveleta, Santa Cruz de Malabon, Rosario
and Cavite Viejo.
"On June 9 last the whole province of Cavite was under the control
of the provisional revolutionary government, including many Spanish
prisoners and friars, 7,000 guns, great quantities of ammunition and
some cannon.
"At the same time that the province of Cavite was being conquered
other revolutionary chiefs were carrying on campaigns in the Batangas,
Laguna, Tayabas, Nueva Eziza, Bulcau, Batangas, Pampanga and Morong,
which were under control of the revolutionary army by June 12, and
such progress was made by the Philippine revolution in the few days
of campaign against the Spaniards that by August 3 last it held under
conquest fifteen important provinces of the island of Luzon; these
provinces are being governed by laws emanating from the provisional
revolutionary government and in all of them perfect order and complete
tranquility reign.
"It is to be noted that the Spanish government has sent to Senor
Aguinaldo various emissaries, who invited him to make common cause with
Spain against the United States, promising him that the government of
the Spanish nation would concede to him anything he might ask for the
Philippine people. But Senor Aguinaldo has invariably replied to those
emissaries, that it was too late and that he could not consider any
proposition from the Spanish government, however beneficial it might
be to the Philippines, because he had already pledged his word of honor
in favor of certain representatives of the government at Washington.
"In view of this positive resolution of Senor Aguinaldo there began
forthwith the intrigues of the Spanish enemy directed against the
life of Senor Aguinaldo.
_Peace Convention of December, 1896._
"Senor Aguinaldo, in his own name and in that of the other chiefs
and subordinates, obligated himself to lay down their arms, which,
according to an inventory, were to be turned over to the Spanish
government, thus terminating the revolution. His Excellency the
Governor and Captain-General, Don Fernando Primo de Rivera, as the
representative of His Majesty's government in the Philippines,
obligated himself on his side (1) to grant a general amnesty to
all those under charges or sentenced for the crime of rebellion
and sedition and other crimes of that category; (2) to introduce
into the Philippines all reforms necessary for correcting in an
effective and absolute manner the evils which for so many years
had oppressed the country, in political and administrative affairs;
and (3) an indemnity of $800,000, payable at the following dates:
A letter of credit of the Spanish Filipine Bank for $400,000 against
the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank in Hongkong was to be delivered to
Senor Aguinaldo on the same day that he should leave Biak-va-Bato,
where he had established his headquarters, and should embark on the
steamer furnished by the Spanish government (this letter of credit
was in point of fact delivered); $200,000 was to be paid to the said
Senor Aguinaldo as soon as the revolutionary general, Senor Ricarte,
should receive his telegram ordering him to give up his arms, with an
inventory thereof, to the commissioner designated by his excellency
the Governor and Captain-General, Don Fernando Primo de Rivera; and
the remaining $200,000 should be due and payable when the peace should
be a fact, and it should be understood that peace was a fact when
the Te Deum should be sung by order of his excellency the Governor
and Captain-General of the Philippines.
"Senor Aguinaldo complied in every respect, so far as he was concerned,
with the peace agreement. But the Spanish government did not observe
a similar conduct, and this has been deplored and still is deeply
deplored by the Philippine people. The general amnesty which was
promised has remained completely a dead letter. Many Filipinos are
still to be found in Fernando Po and in various military prisons in
Spain suffering the grievous consequences of the punishment inflicted
upon them unjustly and the inclemencies of the climate to which they
are not accustomed. Some of these unfortunates, who succeeded in
getting out of those prisons and that exile, are living in beggary
in Spain, without the government furnishing them the necessary means
to enable them to return to the Philippines.
"In vain has the Philippine public waited for the reforms also
promised. After the celebration of the compact of June and the
disposition of the arms of the revolutionists the Governor-General
again began to inflict on the defenseless natives of the country
arbitrary arrest and execution without judicial proceedings solely
on the ground that they were merely suspected of being secessionists;
proceedings which indisputably do not conform to the law and Christian
sentiments.
"In the matter of reforms the religious orders again began to obtain
from the Spanish government their former and absolute power. Thus
Spain pays so dearly for her fatal errors in her own destiny!
"In exchange for the loftiness of mind with which Senor Aguinaldo has
rigidly carried out the terms of the peace agreement, General Primo de
Rivera had the cynicism to state in the congress of his nation that
he had promised no reform to Senor Aguinaldo and his army, but that
he had only given them a piece of bread in order that they might be
able to maintain themselves abroad. This was reechoed in the foreign
press, and Senor Aguinaldo was accused in the Spanish press of having
allowed himself to be bought with a handful of gold, selling out his
country at the same time. There were published, moreover, in those
Spanish periodicals caricatures of Senor Aguinaldo which profoundly
wounded his honor and his patriotism.
"Senor Aguinaldo and the other revolutionists who reside in Hongkong
agreed not to take out one cent of the $400,000 deposited in the
chartered bank and the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, the only amount
which Senor Aguinaldo received from the Spanish government on account
of the stipulated indemnity, but to use it for arms in order to
carry on another revolution in the Philippines, in case the Spanish
government should fail to carry out the peace agreement, at least
in so far as it refers to general amnesty and reforms. All the above
named revolutionists, Senor Aguinaldo setting the example, resolved to
deny themselves every kind of comfort during their stay in Hongkong,
living in the most modest style, for the purpose of preventing a
reduction by one single cent of the above named sum of $400,000,
which they set aside exclusively for the benefit of their country.
_Law Suit between Don J. Artacho and Don E. Aguinaldo._
"Senor Artacho, induced by the father solicitor of the Dominicans
and the Consul-General of Spain, filed in the courts of that colony
a summons against Don E. Aguinaldo, asking for a division of the
above-mentioned $400,000 between those revolutionary chiefs who resided
in Hongkong. Artacho and three others, who joined the revolution in
its last days and rendered little service to it, were the only ones who
desired a division of this money; whereas forty-seven revolutionaries,
many of whom were most distinguished chiefs, were opposed to it,
supporting the resolution which Senor Aguinaldo had previously taken
in regard to it. Senor Aguinaldo, in order to avoid all scandal, did
everything possible to avoid appearing in court answering the summons
of Artacho, who, realizing that his conduct had made himself hated by
all Filipinos, agreed in a friendly arrangement to withdraw his suit,
receiving in exchange $5,000; in this way were frustrated the intrigues
of the solicitor of the Dominican order and of the Spanish Consul,
who endeavored at any cost to destroy the $400,000 by dividing it up.
"Artacho is now on trial before a judicial court on charges preferred
by various revolutionists for offenses which can be proved; he has
no influence in the revolutionary party."
_Proclamation of General Aguinaldo_.
_May 24th_, 1898.
Filipinos:
The Great Nation North America, cradle of true liberty and friendly on
that account to the liberty of our people, oppressed and subjugated
by the tyranny and despotism of those who have governed us, has
come to manifest even here a protection which is decisive, as well
as disinterested, towards us considering us endowed with sufficient
civilization to govern by ourselves this our unhappy land. To maintain
this so lofty idea, which we deserve from the now very powerful
Nation North America, it is our duty to detest all those acts which
belie such an idea, as pillage, robbery and every class of injury to
persons as well as to things. With a view to avoiding international
conflicts during the period of our campaign, I order as follows:
Article I. The lives and property of all foreigners, including Chinese
and all Spaniards who either directly or indirectly have joined in
taking arms against us are to be respected.
Article II. The lives and property of those who lay down their arms
are also to be respected.
Article III. Also are to be respected all sanitary establishments and
ambulances, and likewise the persons and things which may be found
either in one or the other, including the assistants in this service,
unless they show hostility.
Article IV. Those who disobey what is prescribed in the preceding
articles will be tried by summary court and put to death, if such
disobedience shall cause assassination, fire, robbery and violation.
Given at Cavite, the 24th of May, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo._
It is to be remarked of this semi-official statement that Admiral
Dewey did not make any promises he could not fulfill to Aguinaldo;
did not assume to speak for the President or the army of the United
States, but gave guns and ammunition to the insurgents, who aided
him in maintaining a foothold on the shore. The insurgents did not
win Dewey's victory, but aided to improve it. Without the aid of the
American army Manila might have been destroyed, but could not have
been captured intact. General Merritt settled the question of the
status of the insurgent army with respect to the capture of Manila in
a summary and sound way when he said there could be but one military
authority in a military government, and as the commanding general of
the Philippine expedition of the United States, he was that authority.
CHAPTER VI
The Proclamations of General Aguinaldo.
June 16th, 1898, Establishing Dictatorial Government--June 20th, 1898,
Instructions for Elections--June 23d, 1898, Establishing Revolutionary
Government--June 23d, 1898, Message to Foreign Powers--June 27th,
1898, Instructions Concerning Details--July 23d, 3898, Letter From
Senor Aguinaldo to General Anderson--August 1st, 1898, Resolutions
of Revolutionary Chiefs Asking for Recognition--August 6th, 1898,
Message to Foreign Powers Asking Recognition.
One of the most critical questions in the situation of the Philippines
is the precise position of the leader of the insurgents, General
Aguinaldo. His utterances in his official character of leader of
the natives who for years have been in rebellion against Spain, have
been but fragmentary, as they have come before the people. We give
for the public information the consecutive series of proclamations.
No. 1.
To the Philippine Public:
Circumstances have providentially placed me in a position for which I
can not fail to recognize that I am not properly qualified, but since
I can not violate the laws of Providence nor decline the obligations
which honor and patriotism impose upon me, I now salute you, Oh,
My Beloved People!
I have proclaimed in the face of the whole world that the aspiration
of my whole life, the final object of all my efforts and strength is
nothing else but your independence, for I am firmly convinced that
that constitutes your constant desire and that independence signifies
for us redemption from slavery and tyranny, regaining our liberty
and entrance into the concert of civilized nations.
I understand on the other hand that the first duty of every government
is to interpret faithfully popular aspirations. With this motive,
although the abnormal circumstances of the war have compelled me
to institute this Dictatorial Government which assumes full powers,
both civil and military, my constant desire is to surround myself with
the most distinguished persons of each Province, those who by their
conduct, deserve the confidence of their province to the end that the
true necessities of each being known by them, measures may be adopted
to meet these necessities and apply the remedies in accordance with
the desires of all.
I understand moreover the urgent necessity of establishing in each
town a solid and robust organization, the strongest bulwark of public
security and the sole means of securing that union and discipline
which are indispensable for the establishment of the Republic, that
is Government of the people for the people, and warding off the
international conflicts which may arise.
Following out the foregoing considerations I decree as follows:
Article I. The inhabitants of every town where the forces of the
Spanish government still remain, will decide upon the most efficacious
measures to combat and destroy them, according to the resources and
means at their disposal, according to prisoners of war the treatment
most conformable to humanitarian sentiments and to the customs observed
by civilized nations.
Article II. As soon as the town is freed from Spanish domination,
the inhabitants most distinguished for high character, social position
and honorable conduct both in the center of the community and in the
suburbs, will come together in a large meeting in which they will
proceed to elect by a majority of votes, the chief of the town and
a head man for each suburb, considering as suburbs not only those
hitherto known as such, but also the center of the community.
All those inhabitants who fulfill the conditions above named, will
have the right to take part in this meeting and to be elected,
provided always that they are friendly to Philippine independence
and are twenty years of age.
Article III. In this meeting shall also be elected by a majority of
votes, three Delegates; one of police and internal order, another of
justice and civil registry and another of taxes and property.
The delegate of police and internal order will assist the Chief in
the organization of the armed force, which for its own security each
town must maintain, according to the measure of its resources and in
the preservation of order, government and hygiene of its population.
The delegate of justice and civil registry will aid the Chief in
the formation of courts and in keeping books of registry of births,
deaths and marriage contracts, and of the census.
The delegate of taxes and property will aid the chief in the collection
of taxes, the administration of public funds, the opening of books
of registry of cattle and real property, and in all work relating to
encouragement of every class of industry.
Article IV. The Chief, as President, with the head men and the above
mentioned delegates, will constitute the popular assemblies who will
supervise the exact fulfillment of the laws in force and the particular
interests of each town.
The head man of the center of the community will be the Vice President
of the assembly, and the delegate of justice its secretary.
The head men will be delegates of the Chief within their respective
boundaries.
Article V. The Chiefs of each town after consulting the opinion of
their respective assemblies, will meet and elect by majority of votes
the Chief of the Province and three councilors for the three branches
above mentioned.
The Chief of the Province as President, the Chief of the town which
is the capital of the Province, as Vice President, and the above
named councilors will constitute the Provincial Council, which will
supervise the carrying out of the instructions of this government
in the territory of the Province, and for the general interest of
the Province, and will propose to this government the measures which
should be adopted for the general welfare.
Article VI. The above named chiefs will also elect by majority of
votes three representatives for each one of the Provinces of Manila
and Cavite, two for each one of the Provinces classified as terminal
in Spanish legislation, and one for each one of the other Provinces
and Politico-Military commands of the Philippine Archipelago.
The above named representatives will guard the general interests of the
Archipelago and the particular interests of their respective Provinces,
and will constitute the Revolutionary Congress, which will propose to
this government the measures concerning the preservation of internal
order, and external security of these islands, and will be heard by
this government on all questions of grave importance. The decision
of which will admit of delay or adjournment.
Article VII. Persons elected to any office whatsoever in the form
prescribed in the preceding article can not perform the functions
of the same without the previous confirmation by this government,
which will give it in accordance with the certificates of election.
Representatives will establish their identity by exhibiting the above
named certificates.
Article VIII. The Military Chiefs named by this government in each
Province will not intervene in the government and administration of
the Province, but will confine themselves to requesting of the Chiefs
of Provinces and towns the aid which may be necessary both in men
and resources, which are not to be refused in case of actual necessity.
Nevertheless, when the Province is threatened or occupied by the
enemy in whole or in part, the military chief of highest rank therein
may assume powers of the Chief of the Province, until the danger
has disappeared.
Article IX. The government will name for each Province a commissioner,
specially charged with establishing therein the organization prescribed
in this decree, in accordance with instructions which this government
will communicate to him. Those military chiefs who liberate the
towns from the Spanish domination are commissioners by virtue of
their office.
The above named commissioners will preside over the first meetings
held in each town and in each Province.
Article X. As soon as the organization provided in the decree has been
established all previous appointments to any civil office, whatsoever,
no matter what their origin or source, shall be null and void, and
all instructions in conflict with the foregoing are hereby annulled.
Given at Cavite, the 18th of June, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo_.
No. 2.
For the execution and proper carrying out of what is prescribed in the
decree of this government concerning the management of the Provinces
and towns of the Philippine Archipelago, I decree as follows:
_Instructions_.
Concerning the Management of the Provinces and towns.
(Then follow 45 rules concerning the elections, formation of the
police, the courts and the levying and collection of taxes.)
Given at Cavite, 20th of June, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo_.
No. 3.
_Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy_,
President of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines, and
General in Chief of Its Army.
This government desiring to demonstrate to the Philippine people that
one of its ends is to combat with a firm hand the inveterate vices
of the Spanish administration, substituting for personal luxury
and that pompous ostentation which have made it a mere matter of
routine, cumbrous and slow in its movements, another administration
more modest, simple and prompt in performing the public service:
I decree as follows:
_Chapter I._
_Of the Revolutionary Government_.
Article I. The dictatorial government will be entitled hereafter
the revolutionary government, whose object is to struggle for the
independence of the Philippines until all nations, including the
Spanish, shall expressly recognize it, and to prepare the country so
that a true republic may be established.
The dictator will be entitled hereafter President of the Revolutionary
Government.
Article II. Four secretaryships of government are created; one of
foreign affairs, navy and commerce; another of war and public works;
another of police and internal order, justice, education and hygiene;
and another of finance, agriculture, and manufacturing industry.
The government may increase this number of secretaryships, when it
shall find in practice that this distribution is not sufficient for
the multiplied and complicated necessities of the public service.
Article III. Each secretaryship shall aid the President in the
administration of questions concerning the different branches which
it comprises.
At the head of each one shall be a secretary who shall not be
responsible for the decrees of the Presidency, but shall sign them
with the President, to give them authority.
But if it shall appear that the decree has been promulgated on the
proposition of the secretary of the department, the latter shall be
responsible conjointly with the President.
Article IV. The secretaryship of foreign affairs will be divided
into three bureaus, one of diplomacy, another of navy and another
of commerce.
The first bureau will study and dispose of all questions pertaining to
the management of diplomatic negotiations with other powers and the
correspondence of this government with them. The second will study
all questions relating to the formation and organization of our navy
and the fitting out of such expeditions as the necessities of the
revolution may require; and the third will have charge of everything
relating to internal and external commerce, and the preliminary
work which may be necessary for making treaties of commerce with
other nations.
Article V. The secretaryship of war will be divided into two bureaus;
one of war, properly speaking, and the other of public works.
The first bureau will be subdivided into four sections: One
of campaigns, another of military justice, another of military
administration, and another of military health.
The section of campaigns will have charge of the appointment and
formation of the certificates of enlistment and service of all who
serve in the revolutionary militia; of the direction of campaigns;
the preparation of plans, works of fortification, and preparing
reports of battles; of the study of military tactics for the army
and the organization of the general staff, artillery and cavalry;
and finally, of the determination of all other questions concerning
the business of campaigns and military operations.
The section of military justice will have charge of everything relating
to courts of war and military tribunals; the appointment of judges and
counsel and the determination of all questions of military justice; the
section of military administration will he charged with the furnishing
of food and other supplies necessary for the use of the army; and the
section of military health will have charge of everything relating
to the hygiene and healthfulness of the militia.
Article VI. The other secretaryships will he divided into such bureaus
as their branches may require and each bureau will be subdivided into
sections according to the nature and importance of the work it has
to do.
Article VII. The secretary will inspect and supervise all the work of
his secretaryship and will determine all questions with the President
of the government.
At the head of each bureau will be a director and in each section an
officer provided with such number of assistants as may be specified.
Article VIII. The President will appoint the secretaries of his own
free choice and in concert with them will appoint all the subordinate
officials of each secretaryship.
In order that in the choice of persons it may be possible to avoid
favoritism, it must be fully understood that the good name of the
country and the triumph of the revolution require the services of
persons truly capable.
Article IX. The secretaries may be present at the revolutionary
congress in order that they may make any motion in the name of
the President or may be interpolated publicly by any one of the
representatives; but when the question which is the object of the
motion shall be put to vote or after the interpolation is ended they
shall leave and shall not take part in the vote.
Article X. The President of the government is the personification of
the Philippine people, and in accordance with this idea it shall not
he possible to hold him responsible while he fills the office.
His term of office shall last until the revolution triumphs, unless,
under extraordinary circumstances, he shall feel obliged to offer his
resignation to congress, in which case congress will elect whomsoever
it considers most fit.
_Chapter II._
_Of the Revolutionary Congress._
Article XI. The Revolutionary Congress is the body of representatives
of the Provinces of the Philippine Archipelago elected in the manner
prescribed in the decrees of the 18th, present month.
Nevertheless, if any Province shall not be able as yet to elect
representatives because the greater part of its towns shall have not
yet succeeded in liberating themselves from Spanish domination, the
government shall have power to appoint as provisional representatives
for this Province those persons who are most distinguished for high
character and social position, in such numbers as are prescribed by
the above named decree, provided always that they are natives of the
Province which they represent or have resided therein for a long time.
Article XII. The representatives having met in the town which is the
seat of the revolutionary government, and in the building which may
be designated, will proceed to its preliminary labors, designating
by plurality of votes a commission composed of five individuals
charged with examining documents accrediting each representative,
and another commission, composed of three individuals, who will
examine the documents which the five of the former commission exhibit.
Article XIII. On the following day the above named representatives will
meet again and the two commissions will read their respective reports
concerning the legality of the said documents, deciding by an absolute
majority of votes on the character of those which appear doubtful.
This business completed, it will proceed to designate, also by absolute
majority, a President, a Vice President, and two secretaries, who
shall be chosen from among the representatives, whereupon the congress
shall be considered organized, and shall notify the government of
the result of the election.
Article XIV. The place where congress deliberates is sacred and
inviolable, and no armed force shall enter therein unless the
President thereof shall ask therefor in order to establish internal
order disturbed by those who can neither honor themselves nor its
august functions.
Article XV. The powers of congress are: To watch over the general
interest of the Philippine people, and the carrying out of the
revolutionary laws; to discuss and vote upon said laws; to discuss and
approve prior to their ratification treaties and loans; to examine and
approve the accounts presented annually by the secretary of finance, as
well as extraordinary and other taxes which may hereafter be imposed.
Article XVI. Congress shall also be consulted in all grave and
important questions, the determination of which admits of delay or
adjournment; but the President of the government shall have power to
decide questions of urgent character, but in that case he shall give
account by message to said body of the decision which he has adopted.
Article XVII. Every representative shall have power to present to
congress any project of a law, and every secretary on the order of
the President of the government shall have similar power.
Article XVIII. The sessions of congress shall be public, and only
in cases which require reserve shall it have power to hold a secret
session.
Article XIX. In the order of its deliberations, as well as in the
internal government of the body the instructions which shall be
formulated by the congress itself shall be observed. The President
shall direct the deliberations and shall not vote except in case of
a tie, when he shall have the casting vote.
Article XX. The President of the government shall not have power
to interrupt in any manner the meeting of congress, nor embarrass
its sessions.
Article XXI. The congress shall designate a permanent commission of
justice which shall be presided over by the auxilliary vice president
or each of the secretaries, and shall be composed of those persons
and seven members elected by plurality of votes from among the
representatives.
This commission shall judge on appeal the criminal cases tried by
the Provincial courts; and shall take cognizance of and have original
jurisdiction in all cases against the secretaries of the government,
the chiefs of Provinces and towns, and the Provincial judges.
Article XXII. In the office of the secretary of congress shall be kept
a book of honor, wherein shall be recorded special services rendered
to the country, and considered as such by said body. Every Filipino,
whether in the military or civil service, may petition congress for
notation in said book, presenting duly accredited documents describing
the service rendered by him on behalf of the country, since the
beginning of the present revolution. For extraordinary services, which
may be rendered hereafter, the government will propose said notation
accompanying the proposal with the necessary documents justifying it.
Article XXIII. The congress will also grant, on the proposal of the
government rewards in money, which can be given only once to the
families of those who were victims of their duty and patriotism,
as a result of extraordinary acts of heroism.
Article XXIV. The acts of congress shall not take effect until
the President of the government orders their fulfillment and
execution. Whenever the said President shall be of the opinion that
any act is unsuitable or against public policy, or pernicious, he
shall explain to congress the reasons against its execution, and if
the latter shall insist on its passage the President shall have power
to oppose his veto under his most rigid responsibility.
_Chapter III._
_Of Military Courts and Justice._
Article XXV. When the chiefs of military detachments have notice that
any soldier has committed or has perpetrated any act of those commonly
considered as military crimes, he shall bring it to the knowledge of
the commandant of the Zone, who shall appoint a judge and a secretary,
who shall begin suit in the form prescribed in the instructions dated
the 20th of the present month. If the accused shall be of the grade of
lieutenant or higher, the said commandant shall himself be the judge,
and if the latter shall be the accused, the senior commandant of the
Province shall name as judge an officer who holds a higher grade,
unless the same senior commandant shall himself have brought the
suit. The judge shall always belong to the class of chiefs.
Article XXVI. On the conclusion of the preliminary hearing, the senior
commandant shall designate three officers of equal or higher rank to
the judge and the military court shall consist of the said officers,
the judge, the councilor and the President. The latter shall be the
commandant of the Zone, if the accused be of the grade of sergeant or
less, and the senior commandant if he be of the grade of lieutenant
or higher. This court shall conduct the trial in the form customary
in the Provincial courts, but the judgment shall be appealable to
the higher courts of war.
Article XXVII. The superior court shall be composed of six members,
who shall hold rank not less than brigadier generals, and the judge
advocate. If the number of generals present in the capitol of the
revolutionary government shall not be sufficient the deficiency
shall be supplied by representatives designated and commissioned by
congress. The president of the court shall be the general having the
highest rank of all, and should there be more than one having equal
rank, the president shall be elected from among them by absolute
majority of votes.
Article XXVIII. The superior court shall have jurisdiction in all
cases affecting the higher commandants, the commandants of Zones and
all officers of the rank of major or higher.
Article XXIX. Commit Military Crimes: 1st. Those who fail to grant the
necessary protection to foreigners, both in their persons and property,
and those who similarly fail to afford protection to hospitals and
ambulances, including persons and effects which may be found in
possession of one or the other, and those engaged in the service of
the same, provided always they commit no hostile act. 2d. Those who
fail in the respect due to the lives, money and jewels of enemies who
lay down their arms, and of prisoners of war. 3d. Filipinos who place
themselves in the service of the enemy acting as spies or disclosing
to them secrets of war and the plans of revolutionary positions and
fortifications, and those who present themselves under a flag of
truce without justifying properly their office and their personality;
and 4th, those who fail to recognize a flag of truce duly accredited
in the forms, prescribed by international law.
Will Commit also Military Crimes: 1st. Those who conspire against
the unity of the revolutionists, provoking rivalry between chiefs and
forming divisions and armed bands. 2d. Those who solicit contributions
without authority of the government and misappropriate the public
funds. 3d. Those who desert to the enemy, or are guilty of cowardice
in the presence of the enemy, being armed; and, 4th, those who seize
the property of any person who has done no wrong to the revolution,
violate women and assassinate or inflict serious wounds on unarmed
persons and commit robberies or arson.
Article XXX. Those who commit the crimes enumerated will be considered
as declared enemies of the revolution, and will incur the penalties
prescribed in the Spanish penal code, and in the highest grade.
If the crime shall not be found in the said code, the offender shall
be imprisoned until the revolution triumphs unless the result of this
shall be an irreparable damage, which in the judgment of the tribunal
shall be a sufficient cause for imposing the penalty of death.
_Additional Clauses._
The government will establish abroad a revolutionary committee,
composed of a number not yet determined of persons most competent
in the Philippine Archipelago. This committee will be divided into
three delegations; one of diplomacy, another of the navy and another
of the army.
The delegation of diplomacy will manage and conduct negotiations with
foreign cabinets with a view to the recognition of the belligerency
and independence of the Philippines.
The delegation of the navy will be charged with studying and
organizing the Philippine navy and preparing the expenditures which
the necessities of the revolution may require.
The delegation of the army will study military tactics and the best
form of organization for the general staff, artillery and engineers
and whatever else may be necessary in order to fit out the Philippine
Army under the conditions required by modern progress.
Article XXXII. The government will issue the necessary instructions
for the proper execution of the present decree.
Article XXXIII. All decrees of the dictatorial government in conflict
with the foregoing are hereby annulled.
Given at Cavite, the 23d of June, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo._
_Instructions._
Desiring to bring about a proper execution of the decree dated the 23d
of the present month, and to provide that the administrative measures
shall not result hereafter in the paralysis of public business,
but that, on the contrary, it shall constitute the best guarantee of
the regularity, promptitude and fitness in the transaction of public
business, I give the following instructions and decree:
(Then follow ten rules concerning the details of installing the
government.)
Cavite, the 27th of June, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo._
_Message of the President of the Philippine Revolution._
If it is true, as it is true, that political revolutions properly
understood, are the violent means which people employ to recover the
sovereignty which naturally belongs to them, usurped and trampled
upon by a tyrannical and arbitrary government, no revolution can be
more righteous than that of the Philippines, because the people have
had recourse to it after having exhausted all the pacific means which
reason and experience could suggest.
The ancient Kings of Castile felt obliged to consider the Philippines
as a brother people, united to the Spanish in a perfect participation
of aims and interests, so much so that when the Constitution of
1812 was promulgated, at Cadiz, on account of the War of Spanish
Independence, these islands were represented in the Spanish Cortez;
but the interests of the Monastic corporations which have always
found unconditional support in the Spanish Government, overcame this
sacred duty and the Philippines remained excluded from the Spanish
Constitution, and the people at the mercy of the discretionary or
arbitrary powers of the Governor-General.
In this condition the people claimed justice, begged of the metropolis
the recognition and restitution of their secular rights by means
of reforms which should assimilate in a gradual and progressive
manner, the Philippines to the Spaniards; but their voice was quickly
throttled and their sons received as the reward of their self-denial,
deportation, martyrdom and death. The religious corporations with
whose interests, always opposed to those of the Philippine people, the
Spanish Government has been identified, scoffed at these pretensions
and answered with the knowledge of that Government that Spanish
liberties have cost blood.
What other recourse then remained to the people for insisting as in
duty bound on regaining its former rights? No alternative remained
except force and, convinced of that, it has had recourse to revolution.
And now it is not limited to asking assimilation to the Spanish
Political Constitution, but it asks a definite separation from it;
it struggles for its independence in the firm belief that the time
has arrived in which it can and ought to govern itself.
There has been established a Revolutionary Government, under wise
and just laws, suited to the abnormal circumstances through which
it is passing, and which, in proper time, will prepare it for a true
Republic. Thus taking as a sole model for its acts, reason, for its
sole end, justice, and, for its sole means, honorable labor, it calls
all Filipinos its sons without distinction of class, and invites them
to unite firmly with the object of forming a noble society, not based
upon blood nor pompous titles, but upon the work and personal merit
of each one; a free society, where exist neither egotism nor personal
politics which annihilate and crush, neither envy nor favoritism which
debase, neither fanfaronade nor charlatanism which are ridiculous.
And it could not be otherwise. A people which has given proofs of
suffering and valor in tribulation and in danger, and of hard work and
study in peace, is not destined to slavery; this people is called to
be great, to be one of the strongest arms of Providence in ruling the
destinies of mankind; this people has resources and energy sufficient
to liberate itself from the ruin and extinction into which the Spanish
Government has plunged it, and to claim a modest but worthy place in
the concert of free nations.
Given at Cavite the 23d of June, 1898.
_Emilio Aguinaldo._
_To Foreign Governments._
The Revolutionary Government of the Philippines, on its establishment,
explained, through the message dated the 23d of June last, the
true causes of the Philippine Revolution, showing, according to
the evidence, that this popular movement is the result of the laws
which regulate the life of a people which aspires to progress and to
perfection by the sole road of liberty.
The said Revolution now rules in the Provinces of Cavite, Batangas,
Mindoro, Tayabas, Laguna, Morong, Bulacan, Bataan, Pampanga,
Neuva-Ecija, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Union, Infanta, and Zambales, and
it holds besieged the capital of Manila.
In these Provinces complete order and perfect tranquility reign,
administered by the authorities elected by the Provinces in accordance
with the organic decrees dated the 18th and 23d of June last.
The Revolution holds, moreover, about 9,000 prisoners of war, who
are treated in accordance with the customs of war between civilized
nations and humane sentiments, and at the end of the war it has more
than 30,000 combatants organized in the form of a regular army.
In this situation the chiefs of the towns comprised in the above
mentioned Provinces, interpreting the sentiments which animate
those who have elected them, have proclaimed the Independence of the
Philippines, petitioning the Revolutionary Government that will entreat
and obtain from foreign Governments recognition of its belligerency
and its independence, in the firm belief that the Philippine people
have already arrived at that state in which they can and ought to
govern themselves.
This is set forth in the accompanying documents, subscribed by the
above named chiefs.
Wherefore, the undersigned, by virtue of the powers which belong to
him as President of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines
and in the name and representation of the Philippine people, asks
the support of all the powers of the civilized world, and earnestly
entreats them to proceed to the formal recognition of the belligerency
of the Revolution and the Independence of the Philippines; since they
are the means designated by Providence to maintain the equilibrium
between peoples, sustaining the weak and restraining the strong,
to the end that by these means shall shine forth and be realized the
most complete justice in the indefinite progress of humanity.
Given at Bacoor, in the Province of Cavite, the 6th day of August,
1898. The President of the Revolutionary Government,
_Emilio Aguinaldo_.
_Statement_.
The undersigned chiefs of towns comprising the Provinces hereinafter
named, elected as such in the manner prescribed by the decree of the
18th and the instructions dated the 20th of June last, after having
been confirmed in their respective offices by the President of the
Government and having taken the prescribed oath before him, have met
in full assembly previously called for that purpose for the purpose
of discussing the solemn proclamation of Philippine independence.
The discussion took place with the prudence and at the length which
so important a question demands and, after suitable deliberation,
the following declarations were unanimously adopted:
The Philippine Revolution records on the one hand brilliant feats of
arms, realized with singular courage by an improvised army almost
without arms, and on the other the no less notable fact that the
people, after the combat, have not entered upon great excesses nor
pursued the enemy further; but have treated him, on the contrary,
with generosity and humanity, returning at once to their ordinary
and tranquil life.
Such deeds demonstrate, in an indisputable manner, that the Philippine
people was not created, as all believed, for the sole purpose of
dragging the chains of servitude, but that it has a perfect idea of
order and justice, shuns a savage life, and loves a civilized life.
But what is most surprising in this people is that it goes on giving
proofs that it knows how to frame laws, commensurate with the progress
of the age, to respect them and obey them, demonstrating that its
national customs are not repugnant to this progress; that it is not
ambitious for power nor honors nor riches aside from the rational
and just aspirations for a free and independent life, and inspired
by the most lofty idea of patriotism and national honor; and that in
the service of this idea and for the realization of that aspiration
it has not hesitated in the sacrifice of life and fortune.
These admirable--and more than admirable, these wonderful--deeds
necessarily engender the most firm and ineradicable convictions of
the necessity of leaving the Philippines free and independent, not
only because they deserve it, but because they are prepared to defend,
to the death, their future and their history.
Filipinos are fully convinced that if individuals have need of
material, moral and intellectual perfection in order to contribute
to the welfare of their fellows peoples require to have fullness of
life; they need liberty and independence in order to contribute to the
indefinite progress of mankind. It has struggled and will struggle,
with decision and constancy, without ever turning back or retrograding
before the obstacles which may arise in its path, and with unshakable
faith that it will obtain justice and fulfill the laws of Providence.
And neither will it be turned aside from the course it has hitherto
followed by the unjustifiable imprisonment, tortures, assassinations,
and the other vandal acts committed by the Spaniards against the
persons of peaceful and defenseless Filipinos. The Spaniards believe
themselves released from every legal obligation toward the Filipinos
for the sole reason that the belligerency of the Revolution has
not been recognized, taking no account of the fact that over and
above every law, whether written or prescriptive, are placed with
imprescriptible characters, culture, national honor and humanity. No;
the Filipinos have no need ever to make use of reprisals because they
seek independence with culture, liberty with unconditional respect
for the law, as the organ of justice, and a name purified in the
crucible of human sentiments.
In virtue of the foregoing considerations the undersigned, giving
voice to the unanimous aspiration of the people whom they represent,
and performing the offices received from them and the duties pertaining
to the powers with which they are invested,
Proclaim solemnly in the face of the whole world the Independence of
the Philippines;
Recognize and respect Senor Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy as President
of the Revolutionary Government, organized in the manner prescribed by
decree of the 23d and instructions of the 27th of June last, and beg
the said President that he will ask and obtain from foreign Governments
the recognition of its belligerency and independence, not only because
this act constitutes a duty of justice, but also because to no one
is it permitted to contravene natural laws nor stifle the legitimate
aspiration of a people for its amelioration and dignification.
Given in the Province of Cavite the 1st day of August, of the year
of our Lord 1898, and the first year of Philippine independence.
Follow the signatures of the local Presidents of the Provinces of
Cavite and many others.
The undersigned, Secretary of the Interior, certifies, That the present
document is a literal copy of the original, which is deposited in
the Secretaryship under his charge; in proof of which he signs it,
with the approval of the President of the Revolutionary Government
in Bacoor, the 6th day of August, 1898.
El Presidente del G. R.,
_Emilio Aguinaldo_.
El Secretano del Interior,
_Leandro Ibarra_.
_Letter from Senor Aguinaldo to General Anderson._
July 23d, 1898.
To Brigadier-General T. M. Anderson, U. S. A., etc., etc., Cavite.
In answer to the letter of your Excellency dated the 22nd of the
present month, I have the honor to manifest to you the following:
That even supposing that the effects existing in the storehouse
of Don Antonio Osorio were subject to capture, when I established
myself in the plaza (town) of Cavite, Admiral Dewey authorized me
to dispose of everything that I might find in the same, including
the arms which the Spanish left in the arsenal. But as he was aware
that said effects belonged to the personal property (ownership) of
a Filipino, who traded with them by virtue of a contribution to the
Spanish Government, I would not have touched them had not the owner
placed them at my disposition for the purposes of the war.
I came from Hong Kong to prevent my countrymen from making common
cause with the Spanish against the North Americans, pledging, before,
my word to Admiral Dewey to not give place to (to allow) any internal
discord because (being) a judge of their desires I had the strong
conviction that I would succeed in both objects; establishing a
government according to their desires.
Thus it is that at the beginning I proclaimed the dictatorship,
and afterwards, when some of the Provinces had already liberated
themselves from Spanish domination, I established a revolutionary
government that to-day exists, giving it a democratic and popular
character, as far as the abnormal circumstances of war permitted,
in order that they (the Provinces) might be justly represented and
administered to their satisfaction.
It is true that my government has not been acknowledged by any of
the foreign powers; but we expect that the great North American
nation, which struggled first for its independence and afterwards
for the abolition of slavery, and is now actually struggling for the
independence of Cuba, would look upon it with greater benevolence
than any other nation. Because of this we have always acknowledged
the right of preference as to our gratitude.
Debtor to the generosity of the North Americans, and to the favors
which we have received through Admiral Dewey, and being more desirous
than any other of preventing any conflict which would have as a result
foreign intervention which must be extremely prejudicial not alone to
my nation, but also to that of Your Excellency, I consider it my duty
to advise you of the undesirability of disembarking North American
troops in the places conquered by the Filipinos from the Spanish,
without previous notice to this government, because as no formal
agreement yet exists between the two nations, the Philippine people
might consider the occupation of its territories by North American
troops as a violation of its rights.
I comprehend that without the destruction of the Spanish squadron the
Philippine revolution would not have advanced so rapidly; because
of this I take the liberty of indicating to Your Excellency the
necessities that before disembarking troops you should communicate
in writing to this government the places that are to be occupied,
and also the object of the occupation, that the people may be advised
in due form and (thus) prevent the commission of any transgression
against friendship. I can answer for my people, because they have
given me evident proofs of their absolute confidence in my government,
but I cannot answer for that which another nation, whose friendship
is not well guaranteed, might inspire in it (the people); and it
is certain that I do this not as a menace, but as a further proof
of the true and sincere friendship which I have always professed to
the North American people in the complete security that it will find
itself completely identified with our cause of liberty.
I am, with respect,
Your obedient servant,
_Emilio Aguinaldo_.
CHAPTER VII
Interview with the Archbishop of Manila.
Insurgents' Deadly Hostility to Spanish Priests--The Position of
the Archbishop as He Defined It--His Expression of Gratitude to the
American Army--His Characterization of the Insurgents--A Work of
Philippine Art--The Sincerity of the Archbishop's Good Words.
The intense feeling by the Philippine insurgents against the Spanish
priests made it seem very desirable to see the Archbishop of Manila,
and he informed two American priests that he would have pleasure in
making an expression of his views to me to be placed before the people
of the United States. He had been charged with extreme vindictiveness
and the responsibility of demanding that the city should be defended to
the last extremity, when actually, in the consultation of dignitaries
that took place, and the surrender of the capital was demanded by
General Merritt and Admiral Dewey, he declared the situation hopeless
and that it was a plain duty to prevent the sacrifice of life. He was
overruled by the peculiar folly that has caused Spain in the course
of the war to inflict heavy and avoidable losses upon herself. Indeed,
the war originated in the Spanish state of mind that it was necessary
to open fire and shed blood for the honor of the arms of Spain. The
Spanish officers knew they could not save Manila from the hands of the
Americans while the command of the sea by our fleet was indisputable
and we had unlimited reserves to draw upon to strengthen the land
forces, irrespective of the swarms of insurgents pressing in the
rear and eager to take vengeance for centuries of mismanagement
and countless personal grievances. It was the acknowledgment of the
Spanish Captain-General, when he received the peremptory summons from
Merritt and Dewey to give up the city, that there was no place of
refuge for the women and children, the sick and the wounded; and yet
it was insisted that the honor of Spain required bloodshed--not much,
perhaps, but enough to prove that the army of Spain was warlike. When
the American army had been reinforced so as to have 8,000 men ready to
take the field, General Merritt and Admiral Dewey had a conference and
agreed to send the Spaniards in authority a formal notification that
in forty-eight hours they would bombard and assail the defenses of
the city of Manila if it were not surrendered. The Spanish reply was
that the Americans could commence operations at once, but there was
no place where the women and children, the wounded and the sick could
go to find a place of security. This was tantamount to a declaration
that the Spaniards were sliding into a surrender, but wanted to make
a claim to the contrary.
The residence of the Archbishop is within the walled city and a very
substantial edifice, the stone work confined to the lower story and
hardwood timber freely used in massive form instead of stone. His grace
was seated at a small table in a broad hall, with a lamp and writing
material before him. He is imposing as a man of importance and his
greeting was cordial to kindliness. He said his acknowledgments were
personally due the American people for the peace of mind he had enjoyed
during the occupation of the city by the army of the United States,
for its establishment of order and the justice in administration
that relieved good citizens from oppression and alarm. He was glad
to have Americans know his sensibility on this subject, and wanted
me to convey his sentiments to the President.
When asked what it was that caused the insurgents to be so ferocious
against the priests and resolved on their expulsion or destruction he
said the rebels were at once false, unjust and ungrateful. They had
been lifted from savagery by Catholic teachers, who had not only been
educators in the schools but teachers in the fields. The same Catholic
Orders that were singled out for special punishment had planted in
the islands the very industries that were sources of prosperity,
and the leaders of the insurgents had been largely educated by the
very men whom now they persecuted. Some of the persecutors had been in
Europe and became revolutionists in the sense of promoting disorder as
anarchists. It was the antagonism of the church to murderous anarchy
that aroused the insurgents of the Philippines to become the deadly
enemies of priests and church orders. It was true in Spain, as in the
Philippines, that the anarchists were particularly inflamed against
the church. His grace did not seem to have heard of the American
anarchist, but the European revolutionist has received a large share
of his attention.
He produced a box of cigars, also a bottle of sherry, and chatted
comfortably and humorously. There was one thing then that he had in
his heart--that his anxiety for peace and appreciation of order as
enjoyed under the American military government should be recorded and
responsibly reported to the people of the United States. The American
priests had informed him that I was a friend of long standing of
President McKinley, and he again enjoined that I should declare his
sentiments to the President. A beautiful work of wood carving was
shown on an easel, which had a frame of hard wood, the whole, easel and
frame, with elaborately wrought ornamentation, cut out of one tree. It
was at once strong and graceful, simple and decorative. The picture was
a gold medallion, raised on a plate of silver, an excellent likeness
of his grace. It was evident that the refinements of art were known to
"these barbarians of the Philippines," for their works testified.
His grace announced that he would return my call, and his convenience
being consulted, the time was fixed for him to appear at 11 o'clock
the next day, Sunday, and he came accordingly, accompanied by three
priests, the chaplain of the First California, Father Daugherty
who sailed with General Merritt to Manila, and Father Boyle, the
superintendent of the famous observatory founded by the Jesuits, who
was a typical Irishman of a strong and humorously hearty type. Father
Boyle had one of the most perfect methods of speaking English in the
Irish way that I have ever heard, and admitted that he had resided in
England long enough to be born there; and this was great fun. It is
not too much to say that the institution he represented is illustrious.
The cathedral of Manila is within the walled city and of immense
proportions. It was shattered by an earthquake, and in its
reconstruction wood rather than marble was used for the supporting
pillars within, but no one would find out that the stately clusters
of columns were not from the quarries rather than the forests, unless
personally conducted to the discovery. Here 2,000 Spanish soldiers,
held under the articles of capitulation, were quartered, consumed
their rations and slept, munching and dozing all around the altar and
pervading the whole edifice. The other great churches, five in number,
in the walled city, were occupied in the same way. The Archbishop
was anxious to have the soldiers otherwise provided with shelter,
and if not all of them could be restored to their ordinary uses it
was most desirable, in his opinion, the cathedral should be.
It is estimated that 2,000 of the American soldiers in the
expeditionary force are Catholics, and Father Daugherty was anxious to
preach to them in English. During the call upon me by the Archbishop
this subject was discussed, and the suggestion made that the Americans
had tents in great number that they did not occupy and that would
probably not be preserved by keeping them stored in that hot and trying
climate. They might be pitched on the Luneta, which is beside the sea,
and the town thus relieved of 13,000 men, who, herded in churches,
produced unsanitary conditions. This seemed reasonable, and the policy
of the change would have a tendency to develop an element of good-will
not to be despised and rejected. It might be that the cathedral alone
could be cleared without delay or prejudice with a pleasant effect,
and if so why not? His grace was certainly diplomatic and persuasive
in stating the case, and his attendants were animated with zeal that
the Americans should have the credit of re-opening the cathedral
for worship. It was true the Spanish garrison first occupied it,
but if the necessity that its ample roof should protect soldiers
from the torrential rains had existed perhaps it had ceased to be
imperative. The matter was duly presented to the military authorities,
and the objection found to immediate action that the Spanish prisoners
of war should not for the time be located outside the walled city. They
must be held where they could be handled.
Coincident with the call of the Archbishop came Captain Coudert,
of the distinguished family of that name in New York, and his grace
was deeply interested in that young man and warmly expressed his
gratification in meeting an American officer of his own faith. The
Archbishop is a man of a high order of capacity, and his influence
has been great. His position is a trying one, for it would be quite
impossible for him to remain in Manila if the insurgents should
become the masters of the situation. The claim of hostile natives
that the Spanish priests have an influence in matters of state that
make them a ruling class is one that they urge when expressing their
resolve that the Friars must go. The Spanish policy, especially in
the municipal governments, has been to magnify the office of the
priests in political functions. The proceedings of a meeting of the
people in order to receive attention or to have legal standing must
be certified by a priest. It is the Spanish priest that is wanted in
matters of moment, and the laws make his presence indispensable. The
Spanish priests are, therefore, identified in the public mind with
all the details of misgovernment. The civilized Filipinos profess
christianity and faith in the native priests, carefully asserting
the distinction. In his conversation with me, General Aguinaldo
repeatedly referred to the necessity of consulting his advisers,
and said he had to be careful not to offend many of his followers,
who thought he had gone very far in his friendship for the United
States. He gave emphasis to the assertion that they were "suspicious"
of him on that account. It was my judgment at first that the General,
in stopping short when a question was difficult and referring to
the Council he had to consult, was showing a capacity for finesse,
that he really had the power to do or to undo, though he has not a
personal appearance of possible leadership. Now this, even, has been
modified. His Council seems to be the real center of power. When I
was talking with Aguinaldo there were two American priests waiting to
propose the deportation of his prisoners who were priests, and he had
to refer that question. The Council has decided to keep the priests
in confinement, and it is remarked that the General desired to give
up his prisoners and was false in saying he favored sending them
to Spain. There are misapprehensions in this association. He has no
doubt thought well of holding fast his most important hostages. If
he personally desired to release the priests, he probably would
not venture to do it. He is not so silly as to believe in his own
inviolability by bullets, and digestion of poisons; and those who are
such savages as to confide in these superstitions are not unlikely
to try experiments just to strengthen their faith. The potentiality
of Aguinaldo as a personage is not so great as has been imagined,
and if he attempts a rally against the American flag he will be found
full of weakness.
The Archbishop, I was told, had much pleasure in meeting an American
he was assured would attempt to be entirely just, and present
him according to his own declarations to the people of the United
States. He knew very well, unquestionably, the stories circulated
in the American camps, that his voice had been loudest and last
in urging hopeless war, in telling impossible tales of visionary
Spanish reinforcements, and denouncing the Americans as "niggers"
and "pigs." It is a fact that Spaniards have cultivated the notion
among the rural Filipinos, that Americans are black men, and pigs
is their favorite epithet for an American. The radical enemies of
His Grace are, no doubt, responsible for unseemly stories about his
animosities, for that he and those around him were sincere in their
respect for, and gratitude toward the American army of occupation,
for its admirable bearing and good conduct, was in itself too obviously
true to be doubted.
CHAPTER VIII
Why We Hold the Philippines.
The Responsibility of Admiral Dewey--We Owe It to Ourselves to Hold
the Philippines--Prosperity Assured by Our Permanent Possession--The
Aguinaldo Question--Character Study of the Insurgent Leader--How
Affairs Would Adjust Themselves for Us--Congress Must Be Trusted to
Represent the People and Firmly Establish International Policy.
If Admiral Dewey, after obeying the order of the President to destroy
the Spanish fleet at Manila, had steamed away and sought a station
to get coal to drive him somewhere else, there would have been no
Philippine question on the other side of the world from Washington
City. The Admiral desired to keep open telegraphic communication,
and made a proposition to that effect, but the Spanish authorities
curtly refused. Then the cable was cut by order of the Admiral, a
section removed, and both ends marked by buoys. Reflection caused the
Spaniards to regret that they had not consented to keep open the cable,
that it might be used under restrictions by both belligerents. They
mentioned their change of mind, and were told they were too late. The
American Admiral may have been apprehensive, and he had reason to be,
that the Spaniards, knowing they would be crushed in the West Indies
if they risked a decisive naval engagement there, might send all their
available ships of war to the Philippines, and secure a superiority
of force, possibly to destroy their enemies at Manila. It is clear
now that this is what the Spaniards ought to have tried to do. The
Americans were committed to the blockade of Cuba, occupying all
the vessels of war they had at hand, and the whole fleet of Spain
could have been in the Suez Canal, on the way to Manila when the
movement was known to our navy department. Then Admiral Dewey would,
of course, have been warned by way of Hong Kong and a dispatch boat,
that he should put to sea and take care of his men and ships. The
result might have been the temporary restoration of the Philippines to
Spain. Our Admiral, six hundred miles from Hongkong, the closest cable
connection, could not afford to leave Manila in direct communication
with Madrid. It was for this reason and not that he desired to keep
out of way or orders, as some able publicists have kindly promulgated,
that the Admiral cut the cable.
The gravest of his responsibilities came upon him after his victory
freed the harbor of declared enemies, and placed the great city at
his mercy. If the Spaniards used their big Krupp guns against his
ships, he could bombard the city and burn it. He held the keys to the
Philippines, with Manila under his guns, and the question before him
then was the same before the country now. The question that incessantly
presses is, whether the Dewey policy is to be confirmed, and the logic
of the stay in the harbor, and the dispatch of troops to take the town
made good. We hold the keys of the Philippines. Shall we continue to
do so? This question transcends in immediate importance--inevitable
consequence--remote as well as near, all the war with Spain has
raised. So broad a matter should not be rested on narrow grounds, nor
decided with haste. It ought to be scrutinized in all its bearings,
and all susceptibilities and material affairs regarded, for it will
affect all the people for all time.
What are the Philippines? They are the richest prize of soil and
climate that has been at hazard in the world for many years--one that
would be seized, if it could be done without war, by any of the great
nations other than our own without hesitation. The only scruple we need
entertain, the sole reason for deliberation, is because it is a duty of
the government to be sure when there are imperial considerations to be
weighed, that the people should be consulted. It was on this account
distinctly, that the President knew the issue of the permanency of
the possession of the Philippines was one of peculiar novelty and
magnitude, that he permitted it to exist. Spain must have been as
acquiescent in this as in yielding the independence of Cuba, and the
concession to us without any intermediate formality of Porto Rico. It
is not inconsistent with the policy of magnanimity that is generally
anticipated after the victory of a great power over a lesser one,
that we should hold the Philippines. We have only to keep the power
we have in peace, and let it work as a wholesome medicine, and all
the islands of the group of which Manila is the central point, will
be ours without conflict. In our system there is healing for wounds,
and attraction for the oppressed. The ho
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