By the President:
ELIHU ROOT,
_Secretary of War_.
Gen. Chaffee is relieved of his civil duties, and the Philippine
Commission is made the superior authority in the following order:
The insurrection against the sovereign authority of the United States
in the Philippine archipelago having ended, and provincial civil
governments having been established throughout the entire territory of
the archipelago not inhabited by Moro tribes, under the instructions of
the President to the Philippine Commission, dated April 7, 1900, now
ratified and confirmed by the act of Congress approved July 1, 1902,
entitled "An act temporarily to provide for the administration of
affairs of civil government in the Philippine Islands, and for other
purposes," the general commanding the division of the Philippines is
hereby relieved from the further performance of the duties of military
governor, and the office of military governor in said archipelago is
terminated. The general commanding the Division of the Philippines and
all military officers in authority therein will continue to observe the
direction contained in the aforesaid instructions of the President that
the military forces in the division of the Philippines shall be at all
times subject, under the orders of the military commander, to the call
of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and order, and the
enforcement of their authority.
Finally the President, through Secretary Root, pronounces the following
eulogy upon the United States Army:
HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
_Washington, July 4, 1902_.
_General Order, No. 66_.
The following has been received from the War Department:
WAR DEPARTMENT, _Washington, July 4, 1902_.
_To the Army of the United States:_
The President, upon this anniversary of national independence, wishes to
express to the officers and enlisted men of the United States Army his
deep appreciation of the service they have rendered to the country in
the great and difficult undertakings which they have brought to a
successful conclusion during the past year.
He thanks the officers and the enlisted men who have been maintaining
order and carrying on the military government in Cuba, because they
have faithfully given effect to the humane purposes of the American
people. They have with sincere kindness helped the Cuban people to take
all the successive steps necessary to the establishment of their own
constitutional government. During the time required for that process
they have governed Cuba wisely, regarding justice and respecting
individual liberty; have honestly collected and expended for the
best interests of the Cuban people the revenues, amounting to over
$60,000,000; have carried out practical and thorough sanitary measures,
greatly improving the health and lowering the death rate of the island.
By patient, scientific research they have ascertained the causes of
yellow fever, and by good administration have put an end to that most
dreadful disease which has long destroyed the lives and hindered the
commercial prosperity of the Cubans. They have expedited justice and
secured protection for the rights of the innocent, while they have
cleansed the prisons and established sound discipline and healthful
conditions for the punishment of the guilty.
They have re-established and renovated and put upon a substantial basis
adequate hospitals and asylums for the care of the unfortunate. They
have established a general system of free common schools throughout
the island, in which over two hundred thousand children are in actual
attendance. They have constructed great and necessary public works.
They have gradually trained the Cubans themselves in all branches of
administration, so that the new government upon assuming power has begun
its work with an experienced force of Cuban civil service employees
competent to execute its orders. They have borne themselves with dignity
and self-control, so that nearly four years of military government
have passed unmarred by injury or insult to man or woman. They have
transferred the government of Cuba to the Cuban people amid universal
expressions of friendship and good will, and have left a record of
ordered justice and liberty of rapid improvement in material and moral
conditions and progress in the art of government which reflects great
credit upon the people of the United States.
The President thanks the officers and enlisted men of the army in
the Philippines, both regulars and volunteers, for the courage and
fortitude, the indomitable spirit and loyal devotion with which they
have put down and ended the great insurrection which has raged
throughout the archipelago against the lawful sovereignty and just
authority of the United States. The task was peculiarly difficult and
trying. They were required at first to overcome organized resistance
of superior numbers, well equipped with modern arms of precision,
intrenched in an unknown country of mountain defiles, jungles, and
swamps, apparently capable of interminable defense. When this resistance
had been overcome they were required to crush out a general system of
guerrilla warfare conducted among a people speaking unknown tongues,
from whom it was almost impossible to obtain the information necessary
for successful pursuit or to guard against surprise and ambush.
The enemies by whom they were surrounded were regardless of all
obligations of good faith and of all the limitations which humanity has
imposed upon civilized warfare. Bound themselves by the laws of war,
our soldiers were called upon to meet every device of unscrupulous
treachery and to contemplate without reprisal the infliction of
barbarous cruelties upon their comrades and friendly natives. They
were instructed, while punishing armed resistance, to conciliate the
friendship of the peaceful, yet had to do with a population among whom
it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, and who in countless
instances used a false appearance of friendship for ambush and
assassination. They were obliged to deal with problems of communication
and transportation in a country without roads and frequently made
impassable by torrential rains. They were weakened by tropical heat and
tropical disease. Widely scattered over a great archipelago, extending
a thousand miles from north to south, the gravest responsibilities,
involving the life or death of their comrades, frequently devolved upon
young and inexperienced officers beyond the reach of specific orders or
advice.
Under all these adverse circumstances the army of the Philippines has
accomplished its task rapidly and completely. In more than two thousand
combats, great and small, within three years, it has exhibited unvarying
courage and resolution. Utilizing the lessons of the Indian wars it has
relentlessly followed the guerrilla bands to their fastness in mountain
and jungle, and crushed them. It has put an end to the vast system of
intimidation and secret assassination, by which the peaceful natives
were prevented from taking a genuine part in government under American
authority. It has captured or forced to surrender substantially all
the leaders of the insurrection. It has submitted to no discouragement
and halted at no obstacle. Its officers have shown high qualities of
command, and its men have shown devotion and discipline. Its splendid
virile energy has been accompanied by self-control, patience, and
magnanimity.
With surprisingly few individual exceptions its course has been
characterized by humanity and kindness to the prisoner and the
non-combatant. With admirable good temper, sympathy, and loyalty to
American ideals its commanding generals have joined with the civilian
agents of the government in healing the wounds of war and assuring to
the people of the Philippines the blessings of peace and prosperity.
Individual liberty, protection of personal rights, civil order, public
instruction and religious freedom have followed its footsteps. It has
added honor to the flag, which it defended, and has justified increased
confidence in the future of the American people, whose soldiers do not
shrink from labor or death, yet love liberty and peace.
The President feels that he expresses the sentiments of all the loyal
people of the United States in doing honor to the whole army which has
joined in the performance and shares in the credit of these honorable
services.
This general order will be read aloud at parade in every military post
on the 4th day of July, 1902, or on the first day after it shall have
been received.
ELIHU ROOT,
_Secretary of War_.
By command of Lieutenant-General Miles:
H.C. CORBIN,
_Adjutant-General, Major-General, U.S.A._