Philippines remained stationed at Manila and Cavite, as
provided in General Merritt's orders of August 23, with very
slight exceptions, Major-General Anderson retaining
supervision of the district of Cavite and Major-General
MacArthur of the troops stationed in Manila, the three
organizations composing the provost guard continuing, however,
under the control of Brigadier-General Hughes. They were most
bountifully supplied with subsistence and medicines, but light
clothing suited to the climate and facilities necessary for
occupying and messing in barracks were needed. These were soon
obtained through contract and purchase from the merchants of
Hongkong and Manila and by shipment from the United States.
The troops received tactical instructions daily, but the
weather was too hot for much physical exertion, and time hung
heavily upon them. They entertained the impression that the
Spanish war had terminated, and the volunteers appeared to
believe that they should be recalled to the United States at
once and regular troops sent out to perform the monotonous
garrison duties which were about to follow the victory of
Manila. Many became ill from too free indulgence in the fruits
and manufactured drinks of the country, and indifference to
that care and attention of person which a tropical climate
makes necessary. Homesickness alone produced illness in
numerous cases, so that early in September the hospitals began
to be rapidly filled. This led to the adoption of judicious
precautionary measures. … In November improvement was
noticeable, and in January the health of this army would
compare favorably with those of any concentrated army of like
proportions in existence. To be sure the men had become by
this time fairly acclimatized, and new troops arriving here
will be obliged to pass through this period of acclimatization
before they become properly efficient for prolonged service in
the field.
{372}
"During my first weeks of duty here I was impressed with the
spirit of suspicion and the partially concealed unfriendly
feeling manifested by the Tagalos toward the American forces.
That they either had very little confidence in our promises or
were then forming conclusions to oppose any establishment of
United States authority in Luzon was apparent, however loudly
they might disclaim hostile intent or declare as an excuse for
their attitude fear of the return of Spain. I saw, however,
with satisfaction, their ablest men by education, and mental
equipment taking part in their authoritative deliberations,
and I had considerable confidence in the efficacy of their
suggestions and advice. Still, after carefully weighing
conditions, I was unable to arrive at any satisfactory
conclusions. …
"Measures were being applied constantly to improve the
sanitary condition of the city, to increase the efficiency of
the troops, and to meet any emergency which might develop from
an uprising of the inhabitants, or from hasty action by any
portion of our or the insurgent forces, which, though
maintaining amicable intercourse, were, in fact, in an
attitude of resistance and hostility upon all questions
involving the right of armed occupation of the suburbs and
defenses of Manila. The insurgent soldiers had looted
extensively the portions of the city to which they gained
access, and were greatly disappointed that this privilege over
other parts of the same was not accorded them. Their enforced
withdrawal to outer lines was the cause of discontent, and
augmented any desire which they may have formerly entertained
to resist or attack the American troops. This growing
discontent was observable among the lower classes of the
city's inhabitants, from whom a considerable share of
Aguinaldo's army was drawn, and was undoubtedly increased by
the reprehensible conduct and illegal actions of some of our
own men, who were severely punished for their misdeeds when
detected. Outwardly, however, relations of the most friendly
character were maintained. The officers and enlisted men of
the two armies mingled in friendly social intercourse. To the
casual observer the only discordant element in this dense
complex population, made up of every nation and tongue in
existence, were the hated Spanish prisoners, whom the
Filipinos still longed to persecute and kill, and who were
obliged to keep within the walls of Old Manila for safety.
Repeated conferences were held with influential insurgents,
whose chief aim appeared to be to obtain some authoritative
expression on the intent of the United States with regard to
the Philippines, and complained that they were unable to
discover anyone who could speak ex cathedra. They asserted
that their Malolos arrangement was a government de facto,
which had the right to ask an expression of intent from the
United States Government. …
"My own confidence at this time in a satisfactory solution of
the difficulties which confronted us may be gathered from a
dispatch sent to Washington on December 7, wherein I stated
that conditions were improving and that there were signs of
revolutionary disintegration; that I had conferred with a
number of the members of the revolutionary government and
thought that the most of them would favor peaceful submission
to United States authority. I had strong reasons for this
expressed confidence from assurances made to me by some of the
ablest Filipinos who had occupied positions of importance in the
insurgent government and had signified their intention to
withdraw from it."
_Report of General Otis,
August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgement, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1048-1052)._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August-December).
The state of things following the occupation of Manila,
as represented by English witnesses.
The writer of the following remarks, in an interesting book on
"The Inhabitants of the Philippines," published late in 1900, is
an English civil engineer, who had resided in Luzon for
fourteen years and knew the country and people thoroughly
well:
"Personally, I think that if a sympathetic and conciliatory
attitude had been adopted, had the local government
established been recognized, had Aguinaldo and his staff been
given commissions in the Native Army or Civil Service, and the
flower of the Tagal Army taken into the service of the United
States, a peaceful settlement could have been made on the
lines of a Protectorate. I therefore look upon the war as
unnecessary, and consider the lives already sacrificed, and
that will have to be sacrificed, as absolutely thrown away.
The tragical side of American unpreparedness is manifest in
the state of anarchy in which the whole Archipelago has been
plunged by the American unreadiness to occupy the military
posts as soon as they were vacated by the Spanish garrisons. A
hideous orgy of murder, plunder, and slave-raiding has
prevailed in Visayas, and especially in Mindanao.
"Three conditions were essential to a peaceful settlement:
First.
A broad-minded and sympathetic representative of America,
fully authorized to treat, and a lover of peace.
Second.
A strict discipline amongst the American forces.
Third,
The principal aim and object of the Tagal insurrection must be
secured.
"General Otis does not seem to me to fulfil the first
condition, he lacked prestige and patience, and he showed that
he had an insufficient conception of the magnitude of his task
by occupying himself with petty details of all kinds and by
displaying an ill-timed parsimony. Apparently he had no power
to grant anything at all, and only dealt in vague generalities
which the Tagals could not be expected to accept.
"As regards the second point, I regret that I am not
personally acquainted with the gentlemen from Nebraska,
Colorado, Dakota and other states serving in the United States
Army or volunteers. I have no doubt that they are good
fighting-men, but from all I can hear about them they are not
conspicuous for strict military discipline, and too many of
them have erroneous ideas as to the most suitable drink for a
tropical climate. Manila was in the time of the Spaniards a
most temperate city; a drunken man was a very rare sight, and
would usually be a foreign sailor. Since the American
occupation, some hundreds of drinking saloons have been
opened, and daily scenes of drunkenness and debauchery have
filled the quiet natives with alarm and horror. When John L.
Motley wrote his scathing denunciation of the army which the
great Duke of Alva led from Spain into the Low Countries, to
enforce the high religious purposes of Philip II., he could
not foresee that his words would be applicable to an American
Army sent to subjugate men struggling to be free 'for their
welfare, not our gain,' nor that this army, besides bringing
in its train a flood of cosmopolitan harlotry, would be
allowed by its commander to inaugurate amongst a strictly
temperate people a mad saturnalia of drunkenness that has
scarcely a parallel.
{373}
Such, however, is undoubtedly the case, and I venture to think
that these occurrences have confirmed many of the Tagals in
their resolve rather to die fighting for their independence
than to be ruled over by such as these."
_F. H. Sawyer,
The Inhabitants of the Philippines,
page 113-114 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons)._
Substantially the same account of things at Manila in this
period has been given in a magazine article by Mr. John
Foreman, the well known writer on the Philippine Islands. "The
conduct," he declares, "of the boisterous, undisciplined
individuals who formed a large percentage of the first
volunteer contingents sent to Manila had had an ineffaceably
demoralizing effect on the proletariat, and has inspired a
feeling of horror and loathful contempt in the affluent and
educated classes who guide the Philippine public opinion. From
the outset it was a mistake to treat the Christian Philippine
population like savages ignorant of western civilization,
considering that there are thousands of Filipinos mentally
equal to the invading forces, and comparable, in intellectual
training, with the average middle-class Europeans.
"Within a fortnight after the capitulation of Manila the
drinking saloons had increased four-fold. According to the
latest advices, there are at least twenty to one existing in
the time of the Spaniards. Drunkenness, with its consequent
evils, is rife all over the city among the new white
population. The orgies of the new-comers, the incessant street
brawls, the insults offered with impunity to natives of both
sexes, the entry with violence into private houses by the
soldiery, who maltreated the inmates and laid hands on what
they chose, were hardly calculated to arouse in the natives
admiration for their new masters. Brothels were absolutely
prohibited under the Spanish rule, but since the evacuation
there has been a great influx of women of ill fame, whilst
native women have been pursued by lustful tormentors. During a
certain period after the capitulation there was indiscriminate
shooting, and no peaceable native's life was safe in the
suburbs. Adventurers of all sorts and conditions have flocked
to this centre of vice, where the sober native is not even
spoken of as a man by many of the armed rank and file, but, by
way of contempt, is called a yuyu. A few miles from Manila,
the villages of Mandaloyan and Sant Ana were looted by the
victors, much of the spoil being brought up to the capital and
included in auction sales or sold to the Chinese. In Taal the
houses of families, with whom I have been long acquainted,
were ransacked, effects of little value, or too difficult to
transport, being carelessly strewn about from sheer
wantonness. And presumably no greater respect for private
property was shown in the other numerous villages overrun by
the invaders. …
"The situation then during this period was somewhat as
follows: The Filipinos, aided by Dewey's victory, had driven
the Spaniards from practically the whole Archipelago except
the city of Manila, they had established a government of their
own, and they looked upon the country as belonging both by
nature and by right of conquest to them. We upon the other
hand, having destroyed the Spanish fleet and captured the city
of Manila, and being in the process of acquiring by treaty the
Spanish title to the whole country regarded it as belonging to
us. The situation was therefore critical."
_J. Foreman,
Will the United States withdraw from the Philippines?
(National Review, September, 1900)._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (September-December).
Instructions from the President of the United States to the
Commissioners for the negotiation of peace with Spain
concerning the Philippine Archipelago.
Cession of the Islands to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (October-November).
State of the country under the native government of Aguinaldo,
as witnessed by two U. S. naval officers who traversed it.-
Conflicting opinions as to the fitness of the Filipinos
for self-government.
During October and November, 1898, while the only authority in
Luzon, outside of Manila and Cavite, was that exercised by the
native government organized under Aguinaldo, two American
naval officers, Paymaster W. B. Wilcox and Cadet Leonard R.
Sargent, with permission from Admiral Dewey, made a tour of
observation through seven provinces of the island, and
rendered a report of what they saw and what they experienced,
which Admiral Dewey sent to Washington, commending it to the
attention of the government as containing "the most complete
and reliable information obtainable in regard to the present
state of the northern part of Luzon Island." Subsequently Mr.
Sargent wrote articles descriptive of the journey, which were
published in "The Outlook" and "The Independent," and which
were reprinted, with the official report, in a document
compiled for the U. S. Senate. The following is from the
article in "The Outlook," September 2, 1899:
"Although this government has never been recognized, and in
all probability will go out of existence without recognition,
yet it cannot be denied that, in a region occupied by many
millions of inhabitants, for nearly six months it stood alone
between anarchy and order. The military forces of the United
States held control only in Manila, with its environs, and in
Cavite, and had no authority to proceed further; while in the
vast remaining districts the representatives of the only
recognized power on the field were prisoners in the hands of
their despised subjects. It was the opinion at Manila during
this anomalous period in our Philippine relations, and
possibly in the United States as well, that such a state of
affairs must breed something akin to anarchy. I can state
unreservedly, however, that Mr. Wilcox and I found the
existing conditions to be much at variance with this opinion.
During our absence from Manila we travelled more than 600
miles in a very comprehensive circuit through the northern
part of the island of Luzon, traversing a characteristic and
important district. In this way we visited seven provinces, of
which some were under the immediate control of the central
government at Malolos, while others were remotely situated,
separated from each other and from the seat of government by
natural divisions of land, and accessible only by lengthy and
arduous travel. As a tribute to the efficiency of Aguinaldo's
government and to the law-abiding character of his subjects, I
offer the fact that Mr. Wilcox and I pursued our journey
throughout in perfect security, and returned to Manila with
only the most pleasant recollections of the quiet and orderly
life which we found the natives to be leading under the new
regime."
{374}
The following is from the official report, jointly made by
Cadet Sargent and Paymaster Wilcox:
"The Philippine officers, both military and civil, that we
have met in all the provinces we have visited, have, with very
few exceptions, been men of intelligent appearance and
conversation. The same is true of all those men who form the
upper class in each town. The education of most of them is
limited, but they appear to seize every opportunity to improve
it. They have great respect and admiration for learning. Very
many of them desire to send their children to schools in the
United States or Europe. Many men of importance in different
towns have told us that the first use to be made of the
revenues of their government, after there is no more danger of
war, will be to start good schools in every village. The
poorer classes are extremely ignorant on most subjects, but a
large percentage of them can read and write. …
"Of the large number of officers, civil and military, and of
the leading townspeople we have met, nearly every man has
expressed in our presence his sentiment on this question [of
independence]. It is universally the same. They all declare
that they will accept nothing short of independence. They
desire the protection of the United States at sea, but fear
any interference on land. …
"There is much variety of feeling among the Philippines with
regard to the debt of gratitude they owe the United States. In
every town we found men who said that our nation had saved
them from slavery, and others who claimed that without our
interference their independence would have been recognized
before this time. On one point they are united, however, viz.,
that whatever our Government may have done for them it has not
gained the right to annex them. They have been prejudiced
against us by the Spaniards. The charges made have been so
numerous and so severe that what the natives have since
learned has not sufficed to disillusion them. With regard to
the record of our policy toward a subject people, they have
received remarkable information on two points,—that we have
mercilessly slain and finally exterminated the race of Indians
that were natives of our soil, and that we went to war in 1861
to suppress an insurrection of negro slaves, whom we also
ended by exterminating. Intelligent and well-informed men have
believed these charges. They were rehearsed to us in many
towns in different provinces, beginning at Malolos. The
Spanish version of our Indian problem is particularly well
known."
_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document 66._
In the third number of the first series of its publications,
the Philippine Information Society—see below: A. D. 1899
(JANUARY-FEBRUARY)—has brought together a number of
conflicting opinions expressed by various persons concerning
the capacity of the Filipinos for self-government, among them
the following:
"The population of Luzon is reported to be something over
3,000,000, mostly natives. These are gentle, docile, and under
just laws and with the benefits of popular education would
soon make good citizens. In a telegram sent to the department
on June 23 I expressed the opinion that 'these people are far
superior in their intelligence and more capable of
self-government than the natives of Cuba, and I am familiar
with both races.' Further intercourse with them has confirmed
me in this opinion."
_Admiral Dewey,
Letter, August 29, 1898,
Replying to inquiry of War Department._
"They [the natives] would have to be educated up to it
[self-government]. They want a protectorate, but they do not
exactly understand what that means. Their idea is that they
should collect the revenues and keep them in their treasury,
and that we should be at the expense of maintaining an army
and a navy there for their protection, which is the kind of a
protectorate they would like very much."
_General Merritt,
statement before United States Peace Commission at Paris,
October 4, 1898._
"If the United States should evacuate these islands, anarchy
and civil war will immediately ensue and lead to foreign
intervention. The insurgents were furnished arms and the moral
support of the navy prior to our arrival, and we cannot ignore
obligations, either to the insurgents or to foreign nations,
which our own acts have imposed upon us. The Spanish
Government is completely demoralized, and Spanish power is
dead beyond all possibility of resurrection. … On the other
hand, the Filipinos cannot govern the country without the
support of some strong nation. They acknowledge this
themselves, and say their desire is for independence under
American protection, but they have only vague ideas as to what
our relative positions would be—what part we should take in
collecting and expending the revenue, and administering the
government."
_General F. V. Greene,
Memorandum concerning the Philippine Islands,
made August 27, 1898._
"The capability of the Filipinos for self-government cannot be
doubted. Such men as Arellano, Aguinaldo, and many others whom
I might name are highly educated; nine tenths of the people
can read and write, all are skilled artisans in one way or
another; they are industrious, frugal, temperate, and, given a
fair start, could look out for themselves infinitely better
than our people imagine. In my opinion they rank far higher
than the Cubans or the uneducated negroes to whom we have
given right of suffrage."
_General Charles King,
Letter to Milwaukee Journal,
June 22, 1899._
"Concerning the capacity of the Filipinos to govern themselves
I regret to say that I see no reason to change the opinion
previously expressed, that they are unfit. I wish my opinion
might be otherwise, for I prefer to believe them capable of
self-government. There are a number of Filipinos whom I have
met, among them General Aguinaldo and a few of his leaders,
whom I believe thoroughly trustworthy and fully capable of
self-government, and the main reliance for small official
positions and many larger ones would be upon people who know
no standard of government other than that the Spaniards have
furnished. Their sense of equity and justice seems not fully
developed, and their readiness to coerce those who come under
their power has been strongly illustrated in this city since
our occupation. A regularly organized system of blackmail has
been instituted under the guise of making subscriptions to the
insurgent cause."
_Major J. F. Bell
[of Engineers, on "secret service"]
Letter to General Merritt, Manila, August 29, 1898._
{375}
"The people are the most enlightened and vigorous branch of
the Malay race, and have been Christians for centuries, in
fact longer than the principles of the Reformation were
established in Great Britain, and are the nearest akin to
European people of any alien race, and it is simply ridiculous
to imagine that eight to ten millions of such people can be
bought and sold as an article of commerce without first
obtaining their consent. Let all those who are greedy for a
slice of the archipelago ponder well over this before burning
their fingers."
_H. W. Bray
[merchant and planter in the islands for fifteen years],
Letter to Singapore Free Press, June 8, 1898._
"The native has no expansive ideas; he cannot go far enough to
understand what it is to rule matters for the benefit of the
common weal; he cannot get past his own most personal
interest, or his town, at the most. I think the greatest
length he would go would be his own town. But constructing
laws, and obeying them, for the benefit of the commonwealth, I
do not think he is capable of it at all. I think an attempt at
a native government would be a fiasco altogether."
_John Foreman,
Testimony before United States Peace Commission at Paris._
"The excuse that they [the Filipinos] are not ripe for
independence is not founded on facts. The Filipinos number
more educated people than the kingdom of Servia and the
principalities of Bulgaria and Montenegro. They have fewer
illiterates than the states of the Balkan peninsula, Russia,
many provinces of Spain and Portugal, and the Latin republics
of America. There are provinces in which few people can be
found who do not at least read. They pay more attention to
education than Spain or the Balkan states do. There is no lack
of trained men fit to govern their own country, and indeed in
every branch, because under the Spanish rule the official
business was entirely transacted by the native subalterns. The
whole history of the Katipunan revolt and of the war against
Spain and America serves to place in the best light the
capability of the Filipinos for self-government."
_F. Blumentritt,
The Philippine Islands,
page 61._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898-1899 (December-January).
Instructions by the President of the United States to
General Otis, Military Governor and Commander in
the Philippines.
Their proclamation to the people of the Islands as
modified by General Otis.
The effect.
On the 27th of December, 1898, the following instructions,
dated December 21, and signed by the President, were cabled by
the Secretary of War to General Otis, in command of the United
States forces in the Philippines. They were not made public in
the United States until the 5th of January following, when
they appeared in the newspapers of that day: "The destruction
of the Spanish fleet in the harbor of Manila by the United
States naval squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Dewey,
followed by the reduction of the city and the surrender of the
Spanish forces, practically effected the conquest of the
Philippine Islands and the suspension of Spanish sovereignty
therein. With the signature of the treaty of peace between the
United States and Spain by their respective plenipotentiaries
at Paris, on the 10th inst., and as the result of victories of
the American arms, the future control, fulfilment disposition
and government of the Philippine Islands are ceded to the
United States. In of the offices of the sovereignty thus
acquired, and the responsible obligations of government thus
assumed, the actual occupation and administration of the
entire group becomes immediately necessary, and the military
government heretofore maintained by the United States in the
city, harbor and bay of Manila is to be extended with all
possible despatch to the whole of the ceded territory. In
performance of this duty, the military commander of the United
States is enjoined to make known to the inhabitants of the
Philippine Islands that in succeeding to the sovereignty of
the islands, in severing the former political relations of the
inhabitants and in establishing a new political power, the
authority of the United States is to be exerted for the
security of the persons and property of the people of the
islands and for the confirmation of all their private rights.
It will be the duty of the commander of the forces of
occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner
that we come, not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends,
to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments
and in their personal and religious rights. All persons who,
either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate with
the government of the United States to give effect to these
beneficent purposes, will receive the reward of its support
and protection. All others will be brought within the lawful
rule we have assumed, with firmness if need be, but without
severity so far as may be possible.
"Within the absolute domain of military authority, which
necessarily is and must remain supreme in the ceded territory
until the government of the United States shall otherwise
provide, the municipal laws of the territory in respect to
private interests and property and the repression of crime are
continued in force, the authority to be administered by the
ordinary tribunals so far as practicable. The operations of
civil and municipal government are to be performed by such
officers as may accept the supremacy of the United States by
taking the oath of allegiance, or by officers chosen, as far
as may be practicable, from the inhabitants of the islands.
While the control of all the public property and the revenues
of the state passes with the cession, and while the use and
management of all public means are of necessity reserved to
the authority of the United States, private property, whether
belonging to individuals or corporations, is to be respected
except for cause duly established. The taxes and duties
heretofore payable by the inhabitants to the late government
become payable to the authorities of the United States, unless
it be seen fit to substitute for them other reasonable rates
or modes of contribution to the expenses of government,
whether general or local. If private property be taken for
military use, it shall be paid for when possible in cash at a
fair valuation, and when payment in cash is not practicable
receipts are to be given.
{376}
"All ports and places in the Philippine Islands in the actual
possession of the land and naval forces of the United States
will be opened to the commerce of all friendly nations. All
goods and wares not prohibited for military reasons by due
announcement of the military authority will be admitted upon
payment of such duties and other charges as shall be in force
at the time of their importation. Finally, it should be the
earnest and paramount aim of the military administration to
win the confidence, respect and affection of the inhabitants
of the Philippines by assuring to them in every possible way
that full measure of individual rights and liberties which is
the heritage of free peoples, and by proving to them that the
mission of the United States is one of benevolent
assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right
for arbitrary rule. In the fulfilment of this high mission,
supporting the temperate administration of affairs to the
greatest good of the governed, there must be sedulously
maintained the strong arm of authority, to repress disturbance
and to overcome all obstacles to the bestowal of the blessings
of good and stable government upon the people of the
Philippine Islands under the free flag of the United States.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
On receiving President McKinley's "proclamation," as the
instructions of December 21 were commonly described, General
Otis promptly forwarded a copy to General Miller, who had been
sent to occupy the city of Iloilo, and the latter made it public.
Meantime General Otis had studied the document with care and
arrived at conclusions which he sets forth in his subsequent
annual report as follows: "After fully considering the
President's proclamation and the temper of the Tagalos with
whom I was daily discussing political problems and the
friendly intentions of the United States Government toward
them, I concluded that there were certain words and
expressions therein, such as 'sovereignty,' 'right of
cession,' and those which directed immediate occupation, etc.,
though most admirably employed and tersely expressive of
actual conditions, might be advantageously used by the Tagalo
war party to incite widespread hostilities among the natives.
The ignorant classes had been taught to believe that certain
words, as 'sovereignty,' 'protection,' etc., had peculiar
meaning disastrous to their welfare and significant of future
political domination, like that from which they had recently
been freed. It was my opinion, therefore, that I would be
justified in so amending the paper that the beneficent object
of the United States Government would be brought clearly
within the comprehension of the people, and this conclusion
was the more readily reached because of the radical change [a
change of cabinet] of the past few days in the constitution of
Aguinaldo's government, which could not have been understood
at Washington at the time the proclamation was prepared. …
"The amended proclamation of January 4 appeared in the
English, Spanish, and Tagalo languages, and was published in
Manila through newspapers and posters. The English text is as
follows: 'To the people of the Philippine Islands:
Instructions of His Excellency the President of the United
States relative to the administration of affairs in the
Philippine Islands have been transmitted to me by direction of
the honorable the Secretary of War, under date of December 28,
1898. They direct me to publish and proclaim, in the most
public manner, to the inhabitants of these islands that in the
war against Spain the United States forces came here to
destroy the power of that nation and to give the blessings of
peace and individual freedom to the Philippine people; that we
are here as friends of the Filipinos; to protect them in their
homes, their employments, their individual and religious
liberty, and that all persons who, either by active aid or
honest endeavor, co-operate with the Government of the United
States to give effect to these beneficent purposes, will
receive the reward of its support and protection. The
President of the United States has assumed that the municipal
laws of the country in respect to private rights and property
and the repression of crime are to be considered as continuing
in force in so far as they be applicable to a free people, and
should be administered by the ordinary tribunals of justice,
presided over by representatives of the people and those in
thorough sympathy with them in their desires for good
government; that the functions and duties connected with civil
and municipal administration are to be performed by such
officers as wish to accept the assistance of the United
States, chosen in so far as it may be practicable from the
inhabitants of the islands; that while the management of
public property and revenues and the use of all public means
of transportation are to be conducted under the military
authorities, until such authorities can be replaced by civil
administration, all private property, whether of individuals
or corporations, must be respected and protected. If private
property be taken for military uses it shall be paid for at a
fair valuation in cash if possible, and when payment in cash
is not practicable at the time, receipts therefor will be
given to be taken up and liquidated as soon as cash becomes
available. The ports of the Philippine Islands shall be open
to the commerce of all foreign nations, and goods and
merchandise not prohibited for military reasons by the
military authorities shall be admitted upon payment of such
duties and charges as shall be in force at the time of
importation. The President concludes his instructions in the
following language: "Finally, it should be the earnest and
paramount aim of the Administration to win the confidence,
respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines
by insuring to them in every possible way the full measure of
individual rights and liberty which is the heritage of a free
people, and by proving to them that the mission of the United
States is one of beneficent assimilation, which will
substitute the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary
rule. In the fulfillment of this high mission, while upholding
the temporary administration of affairs for the greatest good
of the governed, there will be sedulously maintained the
strong arm of authority to repress disturbance, and to
overcome all obstacles to the bestowal of the blessings of
good and stable government upon the people of the Philippine
Islands."
"'From the tenor and substance of the above instructions of
the President, I am fully of the opinion that it is the
intention of the United States Government, while directing
affairs generally, to appoint the representative men now
forming the controlling element of the Filipinos to civil
positions of trust and responsibility, and it will be my aim
to appoint thereto such Filipinos as may be acceptable to the
supreme authorities at Washington. It is also my belief that
it is the intention of the United States Government to draw
from the Filipino people so much of the military force of the
islands as is possible and consistent with a free and
well-constituted government of the country, and it is my
desire to inaugurate a policy of that character.
{377}
I am also convinced that it is the intention of the United
States Government to seek the establishment of a most liberal
government for the islands, in which the people themselves
shall have as full representation as the maintenance of law
and order will permit, and which shall be susceptible of
development, on lines of increased representation and the
bestowal of increased powers, into a government as free and
independent as is enjoyed by the most favored provinces of the
world. It will be my constant endeavor to cooperate with the
Filipino people, seeking the good of the country, and I invite
their full confidence and aid.
E. S. OTIS, Major-General,
U. S. V., Military Governor.'
"Before publication of this proclamation I endeavored to
obtain from able Filipino residents of the city an expression
of opinion as to its probable effect upon the population, but
was not much encouraged. A few days thereafter they declared
the publication to have been a mistake, although the foreign
residents appeared to believe the proclamation most excellent
in tone and moderation, offered everything that the most
hostile of the insurgents could expect, and undoubtedly would
have a beneficial influence. It was received by the better
classes of natives with satisfaction, as it was the first
authoritative announcement of the attitude which the United
States assumed toward the islands and declared the policy
which it intended to pursue, and because the declared policy
was one which, in their opinion, conditions imperatively
demanded should be imposed for the interests of the Filipino
people who were incapable of self-government. The publication
separated more widely the friendly and war factions of the
inhabitants and was the cause of exciting discussion. The
ablest of insurgent newspapers, which was now issued at
Malolos and edited by the uncompromising Luna, … attacked the
policy of the United States as declared in the proclamation,
and its assumption of sovereignty over the islands, with all
the vigor of which he was capable. …
"Aguinaldo met the proclamation by a counter one in which he
indignantly protested against the claim of sovereignty by the
United States in the islands, which really had been conquered
from the Spaniards through the blood and treasure of his
countrymen, and abused me for my assumption of the title of
military governor. Even the women of Cavite province, in a
document numerously signed by them, gave me to understand that
after all the men were killed off they were prepared to shed
their patriotic blood for the liberty and independence of
their country. The efforts made by Aguinaldo and his
assistants made a decided impression on the inhabitants of
Luzon outside of Manila. … Shortly before this time the
insurgents had commenced the organization of clubs in the
city, membership in which now, I was informed, amounted to
10,000. The chief organizer was a shrewd mestizo, a former
close companion of Aguinaldo, by whom he had been commissioned
to perform this work. He was a friend and associate of some of
our officers; was engaged in organizing the clubs only, as he
stated, to give the poorer classes amusement and education;
held public entertainments in athletics to which our officers
were invited, and in which our soldiers were asked to
participate. Gradually arms were being secretly introduced and
bolos were being manufactured and distributed. The arms were
kept concealed in buildings, and many of them were
subsequently captured. The Chinamen were carrying on a
lucrative business in bolo making, but the provost-marshal had
cruelly seized considerable of their stock. These clubs had
received military organization and were commanded by cunning
Filipino officers regularly appointed by the Malolos
government. The chief organizer departed after organization
had been perfected and thereafter became a confidential
adviser in Malolos affairs. This organization was the subject
of grave apprehension, as it was composed of the worst social
element of the city, and was kept under police supervision as
closely as possible. … The streets of the city were thronged
with unarmed insurgent officers and enlisted men from the
numerically increasing insurgent line on the outskirts, proud
of their uniforms and exhibiting matchless conceit, amusing to
our men, who were apparently unconcerned observers, but who
were quick to take in the rapidly changing conditions. …
"Greater precautionary measures were directed and taken in the
way of redistributing organizations throughout the city, in
advancing and strengthening (though still far within our own
mutually conceded military lines) our posts of observation,
and for the quick response of the men if summoned for
defensive action. Otherwise no change in the conduct,
condition, or temper of the troops was observable. So quietly
were these precautions effected that Filipino citizens,
noticing the apparent indifference of our men, warned me
repeatedly of the danger to be apprehended from a sudden
simultaneous attack of the insurgents within and without the
city, and were quietly informed that we did not anticipate any
great difficulty. Another very noticeable proof of
premeditated intent on the part of the insurgents was
perceived in the excitement manifested by the natives and
their removal in large numbers from the city. All avenues of
exit were filled with vehicles transporting families and
household effects to surrounding villages. The railway
properties were taxed to their utmost capacity in carrying the
fleeing inhabitants to the north within the protection of the
established insurgent military lines. Aguinaldo, by written
communications and messages, invited his old-time friends to
send their families to Malolos, where their safety was
assured, but Hongkong was considered a more secure retreat and
was taken advantage of. A carefully prepared estimate showed
that 40,000 of the inhabitants of the city departed within the
period of fifteen days."
_Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1075-88)._
The counter-proclamation of Aguinaldo, referred to above by
General Otis, was issued on the 5th of January, 1899, from
Malolos, addressed to My brothers, the Filipinos, all the
honorable consuls, and other foreigners." It said:
"Major General E. S. Otis's proclamation published yesterday
in the Manila papers obliges me to circulate the present one,
in order that all who read and understand it may know of my
most solemn protest against said proclamation, for I am moved
by my duty and my conscience before God, by my political
obligations with my beloved country, by my official and
private relations to the North American nations.
{378}
In the above mentioned proclamation, General Otis calls
himself 'Military Governor in the Philippines,' and I protest
once and a thousand times, with all the energy in my soul,
against such an authority. I solemnly proclaim that I have
never had, either at Singapore or here in the Philippines, any
verbal or written contract for the recognition of American
sovereignty over this cherished soil. … Our countrymen and
foreigners are witnesses that the land and naval forces of the
United States existing here have recognized by act the
belligerency of the Philippines, not only respecting but also
doing public honor to the Filipino banner, which triumphantly
traversed our seas in view of foreign nations represented here
by their respective consuls.
"As in his proclamation General Otis alludes to some
instructions issued by His Excellency the President of the
United States relating to the administration of affairs in the
Philippines, I solemnly protest in the name of God, root and
source of all justice and all right, who has visibly acceded
me the power to direct my dear brethren in the difficult task
of our regeneration, against this intrusion of the United
States Government in the administration of these islands. In
the same manner I protest against such an unexpected act which
treats of American sovereignty in these islands in the face of
all antecedents that I have in my possession referring to my
relations with the American authorities, which are unequivocal
testimony that the United States did not take me out of Hong
Kong to make war against Spain for their own benefit, but for
the benefit of our liberty and independence, to which end said
authorities verbally promised me their active support and
efficacious co-operation. So that you all may understand it,
my beloved brothers, it is the principle of liberty and
absolute independence that has been our noble ambition for the
purpose of obtaining the desired object, with a force given by
the conviction, now very widespread, not to retrace the path
of glory that we have passed over."-
_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document 208, page 103._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January).
Appointment of the First Commission to the Philippines
and the President's instructions to it.
On the 20th of January, 1899, the President of the United
States addressed the following communication to the Secretary
of State: "My communication to the Secretary of War, dated
December 21, 1898, declares the necessity of extending the
actual occupation and administration of the city, harbor, and
bay of Manila to the whole of the territory which by the
treaty of Paris, signed on December 10, 1898, passed from the
sovereignty of Spain to the sovereignty of the United States,
and the consequent establishment of military government
throughout the entire group of the Philippine Islands. While
the treaty has not yet been ratified, it is believed that it
will be by the time of the arrival at Manila of the
commissioners named below. In order to facilitate the most
humane, pacific, and effective extension of authority
throughout these islands, and to secure, with the least
possible delay, the benefits of a wise and generous protection
of life and property to the inhabitants, I have named Jacob G.
Schurman, Rear-Admiral George Dewey, Major General Elwell S.
Otis, Charles Denby, and Dean C. Worcester to constitute a
commission to aid in the accomplishment of these results. In
the performance of this duty, the commissioners are enjoined
to meet at the earliest possible day in the city of Manila and
to announce, by a public proclamation, their presence and the
mission intrusted to them, carefully setting forth that, while
the military government already proclaimed is to be maintained
and continued so long as necessity may require, efforts will
be made to alleviate the burden of taxation, to establish
industrial and commercial prosperity, and to provide for the
safety of persons and of property by such means as may be
found conducive to these ends.
"The commissioners will endeavor, without interference with
the military authorities of the United States now in control
of the Philippines, to ascertain what amelioration in the
condition of the inhabitants and what improvements in public
order may be practicable, and for this purpose they will study
attentively the existing social and political state of the
various populations, particularly as regards the forms of
local government, the administration of justice, the
collection of customs and other taxes, the means of
transportation, and the need of public improvements. They will
report through the Department of State, according to the forms
customary or hereafter prescribed for transmitting and preserving
such communications, the results of their observations and
reflections, and will recommend such executive action as may
from time to time seem to them wise and useful. The
commissioners are hereby authorized to confer authoritatively
with any persons resident in the islands from whom they may
believe themselves able to derive information or suggestions
valuable for the purposes of their commission, or whom they
may choose to employ as agents, as may be necessary for this
purpose.
"The temporary government of the islands is intrusted to the
military authorities, as already provided for by my
instructions to the Secretary of War of December 21, 1898, and
will continue until Congress shall determine otherwise. The
commission may render valuable services by examining with
special care the legislative needs of the various groups of
inhabitants, and by reporting, with recommendations, the
measures which should be instituted for the maintenance of
order, peace, and public welfare, either as temporary steps to
be taken immediately for the perfection of present
administration, or as suggestions for future legislation. In
so far as immediate personal changes in the civil
administration may seem to be advisable, the commissioners are
empowered to recommend suitable persons for appointment to
these offices from among the inhabitants of the islands who
have previously acknowledged their allegiance to this
Government.
"It is my desire that in all their relations with the
inhabitants of the islands the commissioners exercise due
respect for all the ideals, customs, and institutions of the
tribes which compose the population, emphasizing upon all
occasions the just and beneficent intentions of the Government
of the United States. It is also my wish and expectation that the
commissioners may be received in a manner due to the honored
and authorized representatives of the American Republic, duly
commissioned on account of their knowledge, skill, and
integrity as bearers of the good will, the protection, and the
richest blessings of a liberating rather than a conquering
nation.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
_Report of the Philippine Commission, January 31, 1900,
volume 1, exhibit 2 (page 185)._
{379}
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January-February).
Causes of and responsibility for the outbreak of hostilities
between the Americans and the Filipinos.
"The Philippine Information Society," organized for the
purpose of "placing within reach of the American people the
most reliable and authoritative evidence attainable in regard
to the people of the Philippine Islands and our relations to
them," has published in Number VII of the First Series of its
pamphlets a carefully made collection of information, from
official and other sources, relative to the circumstances in
which hostilities between the American and Filipino forces
came about. On this as on other subjects which the society has
investigated it seems to have pursued its inquiries with no
aim but to learn and set forth the truth. Its conclusions,
resting on the evidence which it submits, are stated in an
introduction to the pamphlet as follows:
"It will presumably he admitted that the important question
with regard to the Outbreak of Hostilities, February 4, 1899,
is not, who fired the first shot, but who was responsible for
the conditions that made it evident to every observer weeks
before the clash came that a single shot might bring on war. …
The situation may be briefly explained as follows: We believed
that the Philippine Archipelago was and ought to be ours, and
we were moving to take possession as rapidly as possible. The
Filipinos, or at least Aguinaldo's government and followers,
believed that the country was theirs and they resented every
effort on our part to occupy it. We considered it ours through
cession from Spain and right of conquest. They claimed that
Spain no longer held possession of the country and therefore
had no right to cede it to us; moreover, that by right of
conquest we were entitled only to temporary occupation of
Manila. We wished to extend our sovereignty throughout the
Archipelago with all possible dispatch. They desired
independence, or at least a protectorate which, while securing
them from foreign aggression, should leave them control of
their internal affairs. While a discussion of the justice of
either position does not come within the limits of the present
inquiry, it is important to remember that from the first a
minority in this country urged that the Filipinos were
entitled to a promise of ultimate independence, and that a
resolution of Congress, similar to that passed in the case of
Cuba, would avert all occasion for war. This course having
been rejected by our country, the question arises, did the
assertion of United States sovereignty render war inevitable? …
"No doubt most Americans believe that left to themselves the
Filipinos would soon have lapsed into anarchy, while a few
maintain that with temporary assistance in international
affairs they would have developed a government better suited
to their peculiar needs than we can ever give them. Still
others who are familiar with the Filipinos and kindred races
believe that their aspiration for an independent national
existence was not deep rooted, that had we adopted an
affectionate, admiring tone to their leaders, had we
recognized their government and approved of it, we could soon
have made their government our government, could have been as
sovereign as we pleased, and had the people with us. Whatever
view one may hold, it must be admitted that if we were to
establish our sovereignty by peaceful methods it was essential
to win the confidence and affection of the Filipinos. … There
is every indication that the Filipinos were prepared, at
first, to treat us as friends and liberators. General Anderson
tells the following interesting story: The prevailing
sentiment of the Filipinos towards us can be shown by one
incident. About the middle of July the insurgent leaders in
Cavite invited a number of our army and navy officers to a
banquet. There was some post-prandial speech-making, the
substance of the Filipino talk being that they wished to be
annexed but not conquered. One of our officers in reply
assured them that we had not come to make them slaves, but to
make them free men. A singular scene followed. All the
Filipinos rose to their feet, and Buencomeno, taking his
wine-glass in his hand, said: We wish to be baptized in that
sentiment. Then he and the rest poured the wine from their
glasses over their heads. After the very first, however, the
cultivation of intimate relations with the Filipino leaders
seems to have been considered unimportant or inadvisable.
General Merritt states that he never saw Aguinaldo. Social
intercourse between our officers and the Filipinos was
discouraged by General Otis. In fact after the surrender of
Manila General Whittier seems to have been the only one of our
superior officers who ever had a personal interview with
Aguinaldo.
"Certainly after the proclamation of January 4, [see above: A.
D. 1898-1899 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY)] war could only have been
avoided by a decisive action of Congress promising ultimate
independence to the Filipinos. That proclamation of January 4
raised the issue and provoked the counter proclamation of
January 5, which so stirred the people against us—a
proclamation in which Aguinaldo once and a thousand times and
with all the energy of his soul protested against American
sovereignty, and which closed with the words, 'upon their
heads be all the blood which may be shed.' …
"Aguinaldo's proclamation was followed by a series of
conferences of which General Otis reports 'It was one
continued plea for some concession that would satisfy tho
people.' On January 16th he cabled to Washington, 'Aspiration
Filipino people is independence with restrictions resulting
from conditions which its government agree with American when
latter agree to officially recognize the former.' Finally on
January 25th he sent word to the insurgent commissioners that
'To this dispatch no reply has been received.' From this time
General Otis states, the insurgents hurried forward
preparations for war. Contemporaneous with these events in the
Philippines the Treaty of Peace was pending in the United
States Senate where it had been assigned for a vote on
February 6th.
"With regard to the actual outbreak of' hostilities, there is
a sharp difference of opinion. The United States press
dispatches announcing the outbreak, and the contemporaneous
newspaper statements by the Filipinos … are of interest as
evidence that from the very first each side claimed the other
to be the aggressor.
{380}
As to which of these opposing claims is borne out by the
facts, the editors would say that after careful study of all
the accessible evidence they find that according to the most
authoritative statements the outbreak occurred as the result
of a trespass by four armed Filipinos on territory admitted by
the Filipino in command to be within the jurisdiction of the
United States. The number of Filipinos has been variously
estimated. The editors follow the report of General MacArthur
in command of the division in which the firing began, which
agrees with the report of Second-Lieutenant Wheedon of the
First Nebraska U. S. Volunteer Infantry, stationed at Santa
Mesa. The action of the Filipino trespassers seems to have
been an instance of bad discipline in the insurgent army.
Certainly it was not ordered on that date by the insurgent
leaders, although there are some indications that the leaders
had planned to attack in a few days. The claim that our forces
instigated the attack for the purpose of securing the votes
necessary to ratify the treaty is absolutely unsupported by
any evidence which has come to the attention of the editors."
_Philippine Information Society,
Publications, First Series, VII., Introduction._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (January-November).
Attack on American forces by the Tagalos.
Continued hostilities.
Progress of American conquest.
"No definite date had been set for the attack [by the hostile
Tagalos], but a signal by means of rockets had been agreed
upon, and it was universally understood that it would come
upon the occurrence of the first act on the part of the
American forces which would afford a pretext; and in the lack
of such act, in the near future at all events. Persistent
attempts were made to provoke our soldiers to fire. The
insurgents were insolent to our guards and made persistent and
continuous efforts to push them back and advance the insurgent
lines farther into the city of Manila. … With great tact and
patience the commanding general had held his forces in check,
and he now made a final effort to preserve the peace by
appointing a commission to meet a similar body appointed by
Aguinaldo and to 'confer with regard to the situation of
affairs and to arrive at a mutual understanding of the intent,
purposes, aims, and desires of the Filipino people and of the
people of the United States.' Six sessions were held, the last
occurring on January 29, six days before the outbreak of
hostilities. No substantial results were obtained, the
Filipino commissioners being either unable or unwilling to
give any definite statements of the 'intent, purposes, and
aims of their people.' At the close of the last session they
were given full assurances that no hostile act would be
inaugurated by the United States troops. The critical moment
had now arrived. Aguinaldo secretly ordered the Filipinos who
were friendly to him to seek refuge outside the city. The
Nebraska regiment at that time was in camp on the east line at
Santa Mesa, and was guarding its front. For days before the
memorable 4th of February, 1899, the outposts in front of the
regiment had been openly menaced and assaulted by insurgent
soldiers; they were attempting to push our outposts back and
advance their line. They made light of our sentinels and
persistently ignored their orders. On the evening of the 4th
of February, an insurgent officer came to the front with a
detail of men and attempted to pass the guard on the San Juan
Bridge, our guard being stationed at the west end of the
bridge. The Nebraska sentinel drove them back without firing,
but a few minutes before 9 o'clock that evening a large body
of insurgent troops made an advance on the South Dakota
outposts, which fell back rather than fire. About the same
time the insurgents came in force to the east end of the San
Juan Bridge, in front of the Nebraska regiment. For several
nights prior thereto a lieutenant in the insurgent army had
been coming regularly to our outpost No. 2, of the Nebraska
regiment, and attempting to force the outpost back and
insisting on posting his guard within the Nebraska lines; and
at this time and in the darkness he again appeared with a
detail of about six men and approached Private Grayson, of
Company D, First Nebraska Volunteers, the sentinel on duty at
outpost No. 2. He, after halting them three times without
effect, fired, killing the lieutenant, whose men returned the
fire and then retreated. Immediately rockets were sent up by
the Filipinos, and they commenced firing all along the line, …
and continued to fire until about midnight; and about 4
o'clock on the morning of February 5 the insurgents again
opened fire all around the city and kept it up until the
Americans charged them and drove them with great slaughter out
of their trenches."
_Philippine Commission, Preliminary Report
(Exhibit 1.—Report, January 31, 1900,
volume 1, pages 174-175)._
"They [the insurgents] were promptly repulsed in a series of
active engagements which extended through the night of the
4th, and the 5th, 6th, and 10th days of February. Our lines
were extended and established at a considerable distance from
the city in every direction. On the 22d of February a
concerted rising of the Tagalogs in the city of Manila, of
whom there are about 200,000, was attempted, under
instructions to massacre all the Americans and Europeans in
the city. This attempt was promptly suppressed and the city
was placed under strict control. The troops composing the
Eighth Army Corps under General Otis's command at that time
were of regulars 171 officers and 5,201 enlisted men and of
volunteers 667 officers and 14,831 enlisted men, making an
aggregate of 838 officers and 20,032 enlisted men. All of the
volunteers and 1,650 of the regulars were, or were about to
become entitled to their discharge, and their right was
perfected by the exchange of ratifications of the treaty on
the 11th of April. …
"The months of the most intense heat, followed by the very
severe rainy season of that climate, were immediately
approaching, and for any effective occupation of the country
it was necessary to await both the close of the rainy season
and the supply of new troops to take the place of those about
to be discharged. Practically all the volunteers who were then
in the Philippines consented to forego the just expectation of
an immediate return to their homes, and to remain in the field
until their places could be supplied by new troops. They
voluntarily subjected themselves to the dangers and casualties
of numerous engagements, and to the very great hardships of
the climate. They exhibited fortitude and courage, and are
entitled to high commendation for their patriotic spirit and
soldierly conduct. …
{381}
"No attempt was … made to occupy the country, except in the
vicinity of Manila, and at such points as were important for
the protection of our lines. Such movements as passed beyond
this territory were designed primarily to break up threatening
concentrations of insurgent troops, and to prevent undue
annoyance to the positions which we occupied. On the 11th of
February the city of Iloilo, on the island of Panay, the
second port of the Philippines in importance, was occupied.
After the capture of Iloilo the navy took possession of the
city of Cebu, on the island of Cebu, and on the 26th of
February a battalion of the 23d Infantry was dispatched to
that port for the protection of the inhabitants and property.
On the 1st of March a military district comprising the islands
of Panay, Negros, and Cebu, and such other Visayan islands as
might be thereafter designated, to be known as the 'Visayan
Military District,' was established and placed under the
supervision of Brigadier General Marcus P. Miller, commanding
1st Separate Brigade, Eighth Army Corps, with headquarters at
Iloilo. The 3d Battalion of the 1st California Volunteer
Infantry was thereupon ordered to the island of Negros, under
the command of Colonel (now Brigadier General) James F. Smith,
and took possession of the city of Bacolod, on that island,
without resistance. On the 5th of May Brigadier General James
F. Smith assumed temporary command of the Visayan military
district, and on the 25th of May Brigadier General R. P.
Hughes, United States Volunteers, was assigned to the command
of the district. On the 19th of May the Spanish garrison at
Jolo, in the Sulu Archipelago, was replaced by American
troops. By the 31st of August the number of troops stationed
at Jolo and the Visayan Islands, including a small guard at
the Cavite Arsenal, amounted to 4,145. …
"All of the forces who were entitled to be discharged as above
mentioned have now [November. 29, 1899] been returned to this
country and mustered out. The new troops designed to take the
place of those returning to this country, and to constitute an
effective army for the occupation of the Philippines, have
been transported to Manila. … The troops now in the
Philippines comprise 905 officers and 30,578 men of the
regular force, and 594 officers and 15,388 men of the
volunteer force, making an aggregate of 1,499 officers and
45,966 men, and when the troops on the way have arrived the
total force constituting the Eighth Army Corps will be 2,051
officers and 63,483 men.
"By the 10th of October the process of changing armies and the
approach of the dry season had reached a point where an
advance toward the general occupation of the country was
justified. At that time the American lines extended from the
Bay of Manila to Laguna de Bay, and included considerable
parts of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, and Morong to the
south and east of Manila, substantially all of the province of
Manila and the southern parts of Bulacan and Pampanga,
dividing the insurgent forces into two widely separated parts.
To the south and east of our lines in Cavite and Morong were
numerous bands occasionally concentrating for attack on our
lines, and as frequently dispersed and driven back toward the
mountains. On the 8th or October, the insurgents in this
region having again gathered and attacked our lines of
communication, General Schwan with a column of 1,726 men
commenced a movement from Bacoor, in the province of Cavite,
driving the enemy through Old Cavite, Noveleta, Santa Cruz,
San Francisco de Malabon, Saban, and Perez das Marinas,
punishing them severely, scattering them and destroying them
as organized forces, and returning on the 13th to Bacoor. On
the north of our lines stretched the great plain of central
Luzon extending north from Manila about 120 miles. This plain
comprises parts of the provinces of Manila, Pampanga, Bulacan,
Tarlac, Nueva, Ecija, and Pangasinan. It is, roughly speaking,
bounded on the south by the Bay of Manila: on the east and
west by high mountain ranges separating it from the seacoasts,
and on the north by mountains and the Gulf of Lingayen.
Through the northeast and central portion flows the Rio Grande
from the northern mountains southwesterly to the Bay of Manila,
and near the western edge runs the only railroad on the island
of Luzon, in a general southeasterly direction from Dagupan,
on the Bay of Lingayen, to Manila. In this territory Aguinaldo
exercised a military dictatorship, and with a so-called
cabinet imitated the forms of civil government, having his
headquarters at Tarlac, which he called his capital, and which
is situated near the center of the western boundary of the
plain.
"The operations commenced in October involved the movement of
three separate forces:
(1) A column proceeding up the Rio Grande and along the
northeastern borders of the plain and bending around to the
westward across the northern boundary toward the Gulf of
Lingayen, garrisoning the towns and occupying the mountain
passes which gave exit into the northeastern division of the
island.
(2) An expedition proceeding by transports to the Gulf of
Lingayen, there to land at the northwestern corner of the
plain and occupy the great coast road which from that point
runs between the mountains and the sea to the northern
extremity of the island, and to proceed eastward to a junction
with the first column.
(3) A third column proceeding directly up the railroad to the
capture of Tarlac, and thence still up the road to Dagupan,
driving the insurgent forces before it toward the line held by
the first two columns.
These movements were executed with energy, rapidity, and
success, notwithstanding the exceedingly unfavorable weather
and deluges of rain, which rendered the progress of troops and
transportation of subsistence most difficult. On the 12th of
October a strong column under General Lawton, with General
Young commanding the advance, commenced the northerly movement
up the Rio Grande from Arayat, driving the insurgents before
it to the northward and westward. On the 18th the advance
reached Cabiao. On the 19th San Isidro was captured, and a
garrison established; on the 27th Cabanatuan was occupied, and
a permanent station established there. On the 1st of November
Aliaga and Talavera were occupied. In the meantime
detachments, chiefly of Young's cavalry, were operating to the
west of the general line of advance, striking insurgent
parties wherever they were found and driving them toward the
line of the railroad. By the 13th of November the advance had
turned to the westward, and our troops had captured San Jose,
Lupao, Humingan, San Quintin, Tayug, and San Nicolas. By the
18th of November the advance had occupied Asingan and Rosales,
and was moving on Pozorrubio, a strongly intrenched post about 12
miles east of San Fabian. General Lawton's forces now held a
line of posts extending up the eastern side of the plain and
curving around and across the northern end to within a few
miles of the Gulf of Lingayen.
{382}
"On the 6th of November a force of 2,500, under command of
General Wheaton, sailed from Manila for the Gulf of Lingayen,
convoyed by ships of the Navy, and on the 7th the expedition
was successfully landed at San Fabian with effective
assistance from a naval convoy against spirited opposition. On
the 12th the 33d Volunteers, of Wheaton's command, under
Colonel Hare, proceeded southeastward to San Jacinto, attacked
and routed 1,200 intrenched insurgents, with the loss of the
gallant Major John A. Logan and 6 enlisted men killed, and one
officer and 11 men wounded. The enemy left 81 dead in the
trenches and suffered a total loss estimated at 300. In the
meantime, on the 5th of November, a column under General
McArthur advanced up the railroad from Angeles to Magalang,
clearing the country between Angeles and Arayat, encountering
and routing bodies of the enemy at different points, and
capturing Magalang. On the 11th it took Bamban, Capas, and
Concepcion, and on the 12th of November entered Tarlac, from
which the enemy fled on its approach. Meantime, parties,
mainly of the 36th Volunteers, under Colonel J. F. Bell,
cleared the country to the right of the line of advance as far
east as the points reached by General Lawton's flanking
parties. On the 17th of November McArthur's column had
occupied Gerona and Panique, to the north of Tarlac, On the
19th, Wheaton's troops, and on the 20th, McArthur's troops,
entered Dagupan.
"On the 24th of November General Otis was able to telegraph to
the Department as follows: 'Claim to government by insurgents
can be made no longer under any fiction. Its treasurer,
secretary of the interior, and president of congress in our
hands; its president and remaining cabinet officers in hiding,
evidently in different central Luzon provinces; its generals
and troops in small bands scattered through these provinces,
acting as banditti, or dispersed, playing the rôle of
"Amigos," with arms concealed.' Since that time our troops
have been actively pursuing the flying and scattered bands of
insurgents, further dispersing them, making many prisoners,
and releasing many Spanish prisoners who had been in the
insurgents' hands. On the 23d General Young's column had
reached Namacpacan, 30 miles north of San Fernando, in the
province of Union, and passed north into the mountains; and on
the 24th Vigan, the principal port of the northwest coast, was
occupied by a body of marines landed from the battle ship
Oregon. Wherever the permanent occupation of our troops has
extended in the Philippine Islands civil law has been
immediately put in force. The courts have been organized and
the most learned and competent native lawyers have been
appointed to preside over them. A system of education has been
introduced and numerous schools have been established."
_Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 735-741)._
General Young, whose movement is referred to above, reported
to General Otis from Pozorrubio, on the 17th of November:
"Aguinaldo is now a fugitive and an outlaw, seeking security
in escape to the mountains or by sea. My cavalry have ridden
down his forces wherever found, utterly routing them in every
instance, killing some, capturing and liberating many
prisoners, and destroying many arms, ammunition, and other war
impediments." On the 30th, Major March was sent by General
Young, as he expresses it, "on Aguinaldo's trail," and
encountered the forces of the Filipino General Pilar in the
Tila Pass. The following is Major March's report of the fight
which then occurred, and in which the Filipino commander fell:
"The trail winds up the Tila Mountains in a sharp zigzag. The
enemy had constructed a stone barricade across the trail at a
point where it commanded the turns of the zigzag for a
considerable distance. The barricade was loopholed for
infantry fire and afforded head cover for the insurgents. On
passing on beyond Lingey the advance was checked by a heavy
fire from this barricade, which killed and wounded several
men, without having its position revealed. I brought up the
remainder of the command at double time, losing two men
wounded during the run up. On arriving at the point, I located
the insurgents' position with my glasses—their fire being
entirely Mauser and smokeless powder—by the presence of the
insurgent officer who showed himself freely and directed the
fire. On pushing forward, the number of my men who were hit
increased so rapidly that it was evident that the position
could not be taken by a front attack, when the trail only
allowed the men to pass one at a time. On the left of the
barricade was a gorge several hundred feet deep. On its right,
as we faced it, was a precipitous mountain which rose 1,500 feet
above the trail. Across the gorge and to the left front of the
barricade was a hill, which, while it did not permit of flank
fire into the barricade, commanded the trail in its rear, and
this point I occupied with ten sharpshooters in command of
Sergeant-Major McDougall. He lost one man wounded in getting
to the top, and when there rendered most effective assistance.
I then ordered Lieutenant Tompkins to take his company (H) and
proceeding back on the trail to ascend the slope of the
mountain under cover of a slight ridge which struck the face
of the mountain about 150 feet from the summit. From there he
had a straight-up climb to the top, where the men pulled
themselves up by twigs and by hand. The ascent took two hours,
during which the enemy kept up an incessant and accurate fire,
which they varied by rolling down stones on our heads. When
Tompkins' men appeared upon the crest of the hills over their
heads, he had the command of the two other trenches which were
constructed in rear of the barricade, I have described, around
a sharp turn in the trail, and which were also held by the
insurgents. He opened fire upon them and I charged the first
barricade at the same time, and rushed the enemy over the
hill. We found eight dead bodies on the trail, and the bushes
which grew at the edge of the gorge were broken and
blood-stained where dead or wounded men fell through. Among
the dead bodies was that of Gregorio del Pilar, the general
commanding insurgent forces. I have in my possession his
shoulder straps; French field glasses, which gave the range of
objects; official and private papers, and a mass of means of
identification. He was also recognized personally by Mr.
McCutcheon and Mr. Keene, two newspaper correspondents who had
met him before.
{383}
The insurgents' report of their loss in this fight is 52,
given to me after I reached Cervantes. My loss was 2 killed
and 9 wounded. I reached the summit at 4.30 P. M. and camped
there for the night. … At Cervantes I learned that the force
at Tila Pass was a picked force from Aguinaldo's body guard,
and that it was wiped out of existence. Aguinaldo with his
wife and two other women and a handful of men were living in a
convent at Cervantes, perfectly secure in his belief that Tila
Pass was an impregnable position. It was the insurgents'
Thermopylæ."
_Report of Lieutenant-General Commanding the Army, 1900,
part 4, page 331._
Mr. McCutcheon, one of the newspaper correspondents referred
to by Major March, gave to the "Chicago Record" a graphic
account of the fight in Tila Pass, and wrote feelingly of the
death to the young Filipino General Pilar:
"General Gregorio del Pilar," wrote Mr. McCutcheon, "was the
last man to fall. He was striving to escape up the trail and
had already received a wound in the shoulder. A native was
holding his horse for him and just as he was preparing to
mount a Krag-Jorgensen bullet caught him in the neck, and
passing through came out just below his mouth. The men of
Company E, rushing up the trail, caught the native, who was
endeavoring to secure the papers which the general had in his
pockets, and a moment later captured the horse. At that time
no one knew who the dead man was, but from his uniform and
insignia they judged that he was an officer of high rank. The
souvenir fiend was at once at work and the body was stripped
of everything of value from the diamond ring to the boots. …
Many letters were found, most of them from his sweetheart,
Dolores Jose, who lived in Dagupan. A handkerchief bearing her
name was also found in his pocket. One letter was found from
the president of Lingay and gave the exact number of soldiers
in March's command. Pilar's diary, which ran from November 19
on to the day of his death, was of remarkable interest, for it
detailed many things regarding the wild flight of himself and
Aguinaldo's party up the coast. The last words written in it
were pathetic and indicated something of the noble character
of the man. The passage, which was written only a few minutes
previously, while the fight was on and while death even then
was before him, said: 'I am holding a difficult position
against desperate odds, but I will gladly die for my beloved
country.'
"Pilar alive and in command, shooting down good Americans, was
one thing, but Pilar lying in that silent mountain trail, his
body half denuded of its clothes, and his young, handsome,
boyish face discolored with the blood which saturated his
blouse and stained the earth, was another thing. We could not
help but feel admiration for his gallant fight, and sorrow for
the sweetheart whom he left behind. The diary was dedicated to
the girl, and I have since learned that he was to have married
her in Dagupan about two weeks before. But the Americans came
too soon. Instead of wedding bells there sounded the bugle
calls of the foe and he was hurriedly ordered to accompany his
chief, Aguinaldo, on that hasty retreat to the mountains. The
marriage was postponed, and he carried out his orders by
leaving for the north. Pilar was one of the best types of the
Filipino soldier. He was only 23 years old, but he had been
through the whole campaign in his capacity as
brigadier-general. It was he who commanded the forces at
Quingua the day that Colonel Stotsenberg was killed, and it
may be remembered that the engagement that day was one of the
most bloody and desperate that has occurred on the island. He
was a handsome boy, and was known as one of the Filipinos who
were actuated by honestly patriotic motives, and who fought
because they believed they were fighting in the right and not
for personal gain or ambition."
_Chicago Record's Stories of Filipino Warfare,
page 14._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (March-July).
The establishment of a provisional government
in the island of Negros.
Negros "was the first island to accept American sovereignty.
Its people unreservedly proclaimed allegiance to the United
States and adopted a constitution looking to the establishment
of a popular government. It was impossible to guarantee to the
people of Negros that the constitution so adopted should be
the ultimate form of government. Such a question, under the
treaty with Spain and in accordance with our own Constitution
and laws, came exclusively within the jurisdiction of the
Congress. The government actually set up by the inhabitants of
Negros eventually proved unsatisfactory to the natives
themselves. A new system was put into force by order of the
Major-General Commanding the Department [July 22, 1899], of
which the following are the most important elements:
"It was ordered that the government of the island of Negros
should consist of a military governor appointed by the United
States military governor of the Philippines, and a civil
governor and an advisory council elected by the people. The
military governor was authorized to appoint secretaries of the
treasury, interior, agriculture, public instruction, an
attorney-general, and an auditor. The seat of government was
fixed at Bacolod. The military governor exercises the supreme
executive power. He is to see that the laws are executed,
appoint to office, and fill all vacancies in office not
otherwise provided for, and may with the approval of the
military governor of the Philippines, remove any officer from
office. The civil governor advises the military governor on
all public civil questions and presides over the advisory
council. He, in general, performs the duties which are
performed by secretaries of state in our own system of
government. The advisory council consists of eight members
elected by the people within territorial limits which are
defined in the order of the commanding general. The times and
places of holding elections are to be fixed by the military
governor of the island of Negros. The qualifications of voters
are as follows:
(1) A voter must be a male citizen of the island of Negros.
(2) Of the age of 21 years.
(3) He shall be able to speak, read, and write the English,
Spanish, or Visayan language, or he must own real property
worth $500, or pay a rental on real property of the value of
$1,000.
(4) He must have resided in the island not less than one year
preceding, and in the district in which he offers to register
as a voter not less than three months immediately preceding
the time he offers to register.
(5) He must register at a time fixed by law before voting.
(6) Prior to such registration he shall have paid all taxes
due by him to the Government.
{384}
Provided, that no insane person shall bc allowed to register
or vote. The military governor has the right to veto all bills
or resolutions adopted by the advisory council, and his veto
is final if not disapproved by the military governor of the
Philippines. The advisory council discharges all the ordinary
duties of a legislature. The usual duties pertaining to said
offices are to be performed by the secretaries of the
treasury, interior, agriculture, public instruction, the
attorney-general, and the auditor. The judicial power is
vested in three judges, who are to be appointed by the
military governor of the island. Inferior courts are to be
established. Free public schools are to be established
throughout the populous districts of the island, in which the
English language shall be taught, and this subject will
receive the careful consideration of the advisory council. The
burden of government must be distributed equally and equitably
among the people. The military authorities will collect and
receive the customs revenue, and will control postal matters
and Philippine inter-island trade and commerce. The military
governor, subject to the approval of the military governor of
the Philippines, determines all questions not specifically
provided for and which do not come under the jurisdiction of
the advisory council."
_Message of the President, December 5, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, page 47)._
Also in:
_Report of General Otis (Message and Documents,
volume 2, page 1131-1137)._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (May-August).
Agreement of terms with the Sultan of Jolo concerning
the Sulu Archipelago.
On the 19th of May, a detachment of U. 8. troops took the
place of the Spanish garrison at Jolo, the military station in
the Sulu Archipelago. On the 3d of July, General Otis, Military
Governor of the Philippines, issued orders as follows to
General J. C. Bates, U. S. V.: "You will proceed as soon as
practicable to the United States military station of Jolo, on
the island of that name, and there place yourself in
communication with the Sultan of Jolo, who is believed to be
at Siassi, where he was sojourning when the last information
concerning him was received. You are hereby appointed and
constituted an agent on the part of the United States military
authorities in the Philippines to discuss, enter into
negotiations, and perfect, if possible, a written agreement of
character and scope as hereinafter explained, with the Sultan,
which upon approval at these headquarters and confirmation by
the supreme executive authority of the United States, will
prescribe and control the future relations, social and
political, between the United States Government and the
inhabitants of the archipelago. … In your discussions with the
Sultan and his datos the question of sovereignty will be
forced to the front, and they will undoubtedly request an
expression of opinion thereon, as they seem to be impressed
apparently with the belief that the recent Spanish authorities
with whom they were in relationship have transferred full
sovereignty of the islands to them. The question is one which
admits of easy solution, legally considered, since by the
terms of treaties or protocols between Spain and European
powers Spanish sovereignty over the archipelago is conceded.
Under the agreement between Spain and the Sultan and datos of
July, 1878, the latter acknowledged Spanish sovereignty in the
entire archipelago of Jolo and agreed to become loyal Spanish
subjects, receiving in consideration certain specific payments
in money. The sovereignty of Spain, thus established and
acknowledged by all parties in interest, was transferred to
the United States by the Paris treaty. The United States has
succeeded to all the rights which Spain held in the
archipelago, and its sovereignty over the same is an
established fact. But the inquiry arises as to the extent to
which that sovereignty can be applied under the agreement of
1878 with the Moros. Sovereignty, of course, implies full
power of political control, but it is not incompatible with
concessionary grants between sovereign and subject. The Moros
acknowledged through their accepted chiefs Spanish sovereignty
and their subjection thereto, and that nation in turn conferred
upon their chiefs certain powers of supervision over them and
their affairs. The kingly prerogatives of Spain, thus abridged
by solemn concession, have descended to the United States, and
conditions existing at the time of transfer should remain. The
Moros are entitled to enjoy the identical privileges which
they possessed at the time of transfer, and to continue to
enjoy them until abridged or modified by future mutual
agreement between them and the United States, to which they
owe loyalty, unless it becomes necessary to invoke the
exercise of the supreme powers of sovereignty to meet
emergencies. You will therefore acquaint yourself thoroughly
with the terms of the agreement of 1878, and take them as a
basis for your directed negotiations. …
"It is greatly desired by the United States for the sake of
the individual improvement and social advancement of the
Moros, and for the development of the trade and agriculture of
the islands in their interests, also for the welfare of both the
United States and Moros, that mutual friendly and well-defined
relations be established. If the Sultan can be made to give
credit to and fully understand the intentions of the United
States, the desired result can be accomplished. The United
States will accept the obligations of Spain under the
agreement of 1878 in the matter of money annuities, and in
proof of sincerity you will offer as a present to the Sultan
and datos $10,000, Mexican, with which you will be supplied
before leaving for Jolo—the same to be handed over to them,
respectively, in amounts agreeing with the ratio of payments
made to them by the Spanish Government for their declared
services. From the 1st of September next, and thereafter, the
United States will pay to them regularly the sums promised by
Spain in its agreement of 1878, and in any subsequent promises
of which proof can be furnished. The United States will
promise, in return for the concessions to be hereinafter
mentioned, not to interfere with, but to protect the Moros in
the free exercise of their religion and customs, social and
domestic, and will respect the rights and dignities of the
Sultan and his advisers."
{385}
Of the results of the mission of General Bates, General Otis
reported subsequently as follows:
"General Bates had a difficult task to perform and executed it
with tact and ability. While a number of the principal datos were
favorably inclined, the Sultan, not responding to invitations,
kept aloof and was represented by his secretary, until
finally, the general appearing at Maibung, the Moro capital, a
personal interview was secured. He being also Sultan of North
Borneo and receiving large annual payments from the North
Borneo Trading Company, expected like returns from the United
States, and seemed more anxious to obtain personal revenue
than benefits for his people. Securing the port of Siassi from
the Spaniards, establishing there his guards and police, he
had received customs revenues from the Sandaken trade which he
was loath to surrender. Negotiations continued well into
August, and finally, after long conferences, an agreement was
reached by which the United States secured much more liberal
terms than the Spaniards were ever able to obtain."
_Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1162-1164). _
"By Article I the sovereignty of the United States over the
whole archipelago of Jolo and its dependencies is declared and
acknowledged. The United States flag will be used in the
archipelago and its dependencies, on land and sea. Piracy is
to be suppressed, and the Sultan agrees to co-operate heartily
with the United States authorities to that end and to make
every possible effort to arrest and bring to justice all
persons engaged in piracy. All trade in domestic products of
the archipelago of Jolo when carried on with any part of the
Philippine Islands and under the American flag shall be free,
unlimited, and undutiable. The United States will give full
protection to the Sultan in case any foreign nation should
attempt to impose upon him. The United States will not sell
the island of Jolo or any other island of the Jolo archipelago
to any foreign nation without the consent of the Sultan.
Salaries for the Sultan find his associates in the
administration of the islands have been agreed upon to the
amount of $760 monthly. Article X provides that any slave in
the archipelago of Jolo shall have the right to purchase
freedom by paying to the master the usual market value. The
agreement by General Bates was made subject to confirmation by
the President and to future modifications by the consent of
the parties in interest. I have confirmed said agreement,
subject to the action of the Congress, and with the
reservation, which I have directed shall be communicated to
the Sultan of Jolo, that this agreement is not to be deemed in
any way to authorize or give the consent of the United States
to the existence of slavery in the Sulu archipelago."
_Message of the President, December 5, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 47-48)._
"The population of the Sulu Archipelago is reckoned at
120,000, mostly domiciled in the island of Jolo, and numbers
20,000 fighting men. Hostilities would be unfortunate for all
parties concerned, would be very expensive to the United
States in men and money, and destructive of any advancement of
the Moros for years to come. Spain's long struggle with these
people and their dislike for the former dominant race in the
Philippines, inherited, it would seem, by each rising
generation during three centuries, furnishes an instructive
lesson. Under the pending agreement General Bates, assisted by
the officers of the Navy, quietly placed garrisons of one
company each at Siassi and at Bongao, on the Tawai Tawai group
of islands, where they were well received by the friendly
natives. With the approval of the agreement, the only
difficulty to a satisfactory settlement of the Sulu affairs
will arise from discontent on the part of the Sultan
personally because of a supposed decrease in anticipated
revenues or the machinations of the insurgents of Mindanao,
who are endeavoring to create a feeling of distrust and
hostility among the natives against the United States troops.
"The Sultan's government is one of perfect despotism, in form
at least, as all political power is supposed to center in his
person; but this does not prevent frequent outbreaks on the
part of the datos, who frequently revolt, and are now, in two
or three instances, in declared enmity. All Moros, however,
profess the Mohammedan religion, introduced in the fourteenth
century, and the sacredness of the person of the Sultan is
therefore a tenet of faith. This fact would prevent any marked
success by a dato in attempting to secure supreme power. Spain
endeavored to supplant the Sultan with one of his most
enterprising chiefs and signally failed. Peonage or a species
of serfdom enters largely into the social and domestic
arrangements and a dato's following or clan submits itself
without protest to his arbitrary will. The Moro political
fabric bears resemblance to the state of feudal times—the
Sultan exercising supreme power by divine right, and his
datos, like the feudal lords, supporting or opposing him at
will, and by force of arms occasionally, but not to the extent
of dethronement, as that would be too great a sacrilege for a
Mohammedan people to seek to consummate. The United States
must accept these people as they are, and endeavor to
ameliorate their condition by degrees, and the best means to
insure success appears to be through the cultivation of
friendly sentiments and the introduction of trade and commerce
upon approved business methods. To undertake forcible radical
action for the amelioration of conditions or to so interfere
with their domestic relations as to arouse their suspicions
and distrust would be attended with unfortunate consequences."
_Report of General Otis, August 31, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, page 1165)._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899-1900.
Military operations against the Insurgents.
Death of General Lawton.
"The enlargement of the field of operations and government in
the Philippine Islands made it impracticable to conduct the
business under the charge of the army in those islands through
the machinery of a single department, and by order made April
7, 1900, the Philippine Islands were made a military division,
consisting of four departments: The Department of Northern Luzon,
the Department of Southern Luzon, the Department of the
Visayas, and the Department of Mindanao and Jolo. The
Department of Northern Luzon is subdivided into six, the
Department of Southern Luzon into four, the Department of the
Visayas into four, and the Department of Mindanao and Jolo
into four military districts. …
"At the date of the last report (November 29, 1899 [see
above]) the government established by the Philippine
insurgents in central Luzon and the organized armed forces by
which it was maintained had been destroyed, and the principal
civil and military leaders of the insurrection, accompanied by
small and scattered bands of troops, were the objects of
pursuit in the western and the northern parts of the island.
{386}
That pursuit was prosecuted with vigor and success, under
conditions of extraordinary difficulty and hardship, and
resulted in the further and practically complete
disintegration of the insurrectionary bands in those regions,
in the rescue of nearly all the American prisoners and the
greater part of the Spanish prisoners held by the insurgents,
in the capture of many of the leading insurgents, and in the
capture and destruction of large quantities of arms,
ammunition, and supplies. There still remained a large force
of insurgents in Cavite and the adjacent provinces south of
Manila, and a considerable force to the east of the Rio Grande
de Pampanga, chiefly in the province of Bulacan, while in the
extreme southeastern portions of Luzon, and in the various
Visayan islands, except the island of Negros, armed bodies of
Tagalogs had taken possession of the principal seacoast towns,
and were exercising military control over the peaceful
inhabitants. Between the insurgent troops in Bulacan and the
mountains to the north, and the insurgents in the south,
communication was maintained by road and trail, running along
and near the eastern bank of the Mariquina River, and through
the towns of Mariquina, San Mateo, and Montalban and the
province of Morong. This line of communication, passing
through rough and easily defended country, was strongly
fortified and held by numerous bodies of insurgents.
"On the 18th of December, 1899, a column, under the command of
Major General Henry W. Lawton, proceeded from Manila, and
between that date and the 29th of December captured all the
fortified posts of the insurgents, took possession of the line
of communication, which has ever since been maintained, and
destroyed, captured, or dispersed the insurgent force in that
part of the island. In the course of this movement was
sustained the irremediable loss of General Lawton, who was
shot and instantly killed while too fearlessly exposing his
person in supervising the passing of his troops over the river
Mariquina at San Mateo.
"On the 4th of January, 1900, General J. C. Bates, U. S. V.,
was assigned to the command of the First Division of the
Eighth Army Corps, and an active campaign under his direction
was commenced in Southern Luzon. The plan adopted was to
confront and hold the strong force of the enemy near Imus and
to the west of Bacoor by a body of troops under General
Wheaton, while a column, under General Schwan, should move
rapidly down the west shore of the Laguna de Bay to Biñang,
thence turn southwesterly and seize the Silang, Indang, and
Naic road, capture the enemy's supplies supposed to be at the
towns of Silang and Indang, and arrest the retreat of the
enemy, when he should be driven from northern Cavite by our
troops designated to attack him there, and thus prevent his
reassembling in the mountains of southern Cavite and northern
Batangas. This plan was successfully executed. General
Schwan's column moved over the lines indicated with great
rapidity, marching a distance of over 600 miles, striking and
defeating numerous bodies of insurgents and capturing many
intrenched positions, taking possession of and garrisoning
towns along the line, and scattering and demoralizing all the
organized forces of the enemy within that section of country.
From these operations and the simultaneous attacks by our
troops under General Wheaton in the north the rebel forces in
the Cavite region practically disappeared, the members either
being killed or captured or returning to their homes as
unarmed citizens, and a few scattered parties escaping through
General Schwan's line to the south. By the 8th of February the
organized forces of the insurgents in the region mentioned had
ceased to exist. In large portions of the country the
inhabitants were returning to their homes and resuming their
industries, and active trade with Manila was resumed. In the
course of these operations about 600 Spanish prisoners were
released from the insurgents, leaving about 600 more still in
their hands in the extreme southeastern provinces of Camarines
and Albay, nearly all of whom were afterwards liberated by our
troops. In the meantime an expedition was organized under the
command of Brigadier General William A. Kobbé, U. S. V., to
expel the Tagalogs who had taken possession of the principal
hemp ports of the islands situated in Albay, the extreme
southeastern province of Luzon, and in the islands of Leyte,
Samar, and Catanduanes. This expedition sailed from Manila on
the 18th of January and accomplished its object. All of the
principal hemp ports were relieved from control of the
insurgents, garrisoned by American troops, and opened to
commerce by order of the military governor of the islands on
the 30th of January and the 10th and 14th of February. The
expedition met with strong resistance at Legaspi by an
intrenched force under the Chinese general, Paua. He was
speedily overcome and went into the interior. After a few days
he reassembled his forces and threatened the garrisons which
had been left in Albay and Legaspi, whereupon he was attacked,
and defeated, and surrendered. Thirty pieces of artillery, a
large quantity of ammunition, a good many rifles, and a
considerable amount of money were captured by this expedition.
"On the 15th of February an expedition, under the supervision
of Major-General Bates and under the immediate command of
Brigadier General James M. Bell, U. S. V., sailed from Manila
to take possession of the North and South Camarines provinces
and Western Albay, in which the insurgent forces had been
swelled by the individuals and scattered bands escaping from
our operations in various sections of the north. The insurgent
force was defeated after a sharp engagement near the mouth of
the Bicol River, pursued, and scattered. Large amounts of
artillery and war material were captured. The normal
conditions of industry and trade relations with Manila were
resumed by the inhabitants. On the 20th of March the region
covered by the last-described operations was created a
district of southeastern Luzon, under the command of General
James M. Bell, who was instructed to proceed to the
establishment of the necessary customs and internal-revenue
service in the district. In the meantime similar expeditions
were successfully made through the mountains of the various
islands of the Visayan Group, striking and scattering and
severely punishing the bands of bandits and insurgents who
infested those islands. In the latter part of March General
Bates proceeded with the Fortieth infantry to establish
garrisons in Mindanao. The only resistance was of a trifling
character at Cagayan, the insurgent general in northeastern
Mindanao surrendering and turning over the ordnance in his
possession.
{387}
With [the execution of these movements] all formal and open
resistance to American authority in the Philippines
terminated, leaving only an exceedingly vexatious and annoying
guerilla warfare of a character closely approaching
brigandage, which will require time, patience, and good
judgment to finally suppress. As rapidly as we have occupied
territory, the policy of inviting inhabitants to return to
their peaceful vocations, and aiding them in the
reestablishment of their local governments, has been followed,
and the protection of the United States has been promised to
them. The giving of this protection has led to the
distribution of troops in the Philippine Islands to over 400
different posts, with the consequent labor of administration
and supply. The maintenance of these posts involves the
continued employment of a large force, but as the Tagalogs who
are in rebellion have deliberately adopted the policy of
murdering, so far as they are able, all of their countrymen
who are friendly to the United States, the maintenance of
garrisons is at present necessary to the protection of the
peaceful and unarmed Filipinos who have submitted to our
authority; and if we are to discharge our obligations in that
regard their reduction must necessarily be gradual."
_United States, Secretary of War,
Annual Report, November 30, 1900, pages 5-10._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (January).
Report of the First Philippine Commission.
The First Commission to the Philippines returned to the United
States in the autumn of 1899, and then submitted to the President
a brief preliminary statement of its proceedings in the
Islands and the opinions its members had formed, concerning
the spirit and extent of the Tagalo revolt, the general
disposition of the people at large, their capacity for
independent self-government, etc. On the 31st of January
following the commissioners presented a report which deals
extensively with many subjects of investigation and
deliberation. In Part I., it sets forth the efforts made by
the commission "toward conciliation and the establishment of
peace," through interviews with various emissaries of
Aguinaldo, and others, and by means of a proclamation to the
people. In Part II., it gives an extended account of the races
and tribes of which the native population of the Islands is
composed. In Part III., it details the provision that has
heretofore been made for education, and states the conclusions
of the commission as to the capacity of the people and their
fitness for a popular government. In Part IV., a very full
account of the Spanish organization of government in the
Philippines, general, provincial and municipal, is given, and
the reforms that were desired by the Filipino people are
ascertained. From this the commission proceeds to consider the
question of a plan of government for the Islands under the
sovereignty of the United States, and concludes that the
Territorial system of the United States offers all that can be
desired. "What Jefferson and the nation did for Louisiana,"
says the report, "we are … free to-day to do for the
Philippines. The fact that Bonaparte had provided in the
treaty that Louisiana should in due time be admitted as a
State in the Union, and that in the meantime its inhabitants
should have protection in the free enjoyment of their liberty,
property, and religion, made no difference in the relation of
Louisiana to the Constitution of the United States so long as
Louisiana remained a Territory; and, if it had made a
difference, it should have constituted something of a claim to
the immediate enjoyment of some or all of the benefits of the
Constitution. Unmoved by that consideration, however, the
Jeffersonian policy established once for all the subjection of
national domain outside the States to the absolute and
unrestricted power of Congress. The commission recommends that
in dealing with the Philippines this vast power be exercised
along the lines laid down by Jefferson and Madison in
establishing a government for Louisiana, but with … deviations
in the direction of larger liberty to the Filipinos. … The
result would be substantially the transformation of their
second-class Territorial government of Louisiana into a
Territorial government of the first-class for the Philippine
Islands." To this recommendation of the Territorial system of
government the commission adds a strenuous plea for a closely
guarded civil service. "It is a safe and desirable rule," says
the report, "that no American should be appointed to any office
in the Philippines for which a reasonably qualified Filipino
can, by any possibility, be secured. Of course the merit or
business system must be adopted and lived up to; the patronage
or spoils system would prove absolutely fatal to good
government in this new Oriental territory." Further parts of
the report are devoted to the Philippine judicial system, as
it had been and as it should be; to "the condition and needs
of the United States in the Philippines from a naval and
maritime standpoint"; to the secular clergy and religious
orders; to registration laws; to the currency; to the Chinese
in the Philippines; and to public health. Among the exhibits
appended in volume 1 of the published Report are the
constitution of Aguinaldo's Philippine Republic (called the
Malolos constitution), and several other constitutional drafts
and proposals from Filipino sources, indicating the political
ideas that prevail.
_Report of the Philippine Commission,
January 31, 1900, volume 1._
See, also (in this volume),
EDUCATION: A. D. 1898 (PHILIPPINE ISLANDS).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (March).
Institution of municipal governments.
By General Orders, on the 29th of March, 1900, the Military
Governor of the Islands promulgated a law providing for the
election and institution of municipal governments, the
provisions of which law had been framed by a board appointed
in the previous January, under the presidency of Don Cayetano
Arellano, chief justice of the Philippines. The first chapter
of the law reads as follows:
"ARTICLE 1.
The towns of the Philippine Islands shall be recognized as
municipal corporations with the same limits as heretofore
established, upon reorganizing under the provisions of this
order. All property vested in any town under its former
organization shall be vested in the same town upon becoming
incorporated hereunder.
"ARTICLE 2.
Towns so incorporated shall be designated as 'municipios,' and
shall be known respectively by the names heretofore adopted.
Under such names they may, without further authorization, sue
and be sued, contract and be contracted with, acquire and hold
real and personal property for the general interests of the
town, and exercise all the powers hereinafter conferred. The
city of Manila is exempt from the provisions of this order.
{388}
"ARTICLE 3.
The municipal government of each town is hereby vested in an
alcalde and a municipal council. The alcalde and councilors,
together with the municipal lieutenant, shall be chosen at
large by the qualified electors of the town, and their term of
office shall be for two years from and after the first Monday
in January next after their election and until their
successors are duly chosen and qualified: Provided, That the
alcalde and municipal lieutenant elected in 1900 shall hold
office until the first Monday in January, 1902, only; and that
the councilors elected in 1900 shall divide themselves, by
lot, into two classes; the scats of those of the first class
shall be vacated on the first Monday of January, 1901, and
those of the second class one year thereafter, so that
one-half of the municipal council shall be chosen annually.
"ARTICLE 4.
Incorporated towns shall be of four classes, according to the
number of inhabitants. Towns of the first class shall be those
which contain not less than 25,000 inhabitants and shall have
18 councilors; of the second class, those containing 18,000
and less than 25,000 inhabitants and shall have 14 councilors;
of the third class, those containing 10,000 and less than
18,000 inhabitants and shall have 10 councilors; of the fourth
class, those containing less than 10,000 inhabitants and shall
have 8 councilors. Towns of less than 2,000 inhabitants may
incorporate under the provisions of this order, or may, upon
petition to the provincial governor, signed by a majority of
the qualified electors thereof, be attached as a barrio to an
adjacent and incorporated town, if the council of the latter
consents.
The qualifications of voters are defined in the second chapter
as follows:
"ARTICLE 5.
The electors charged with the duty of choosing elective
municipal officers must be male persons, 23 years of age or
over, who have had a legal residence in the town in which they
exercise the suffrage for a period of six months immediately
preceding the election, and who are not citizens or subjects
of any foreign power, and who are comprised within one of the
following three classes:
1. Those who, prior to the 13th of August, 1898, held the
office of municipal captain, gobernadorcillo, lieutenant or
cabeza de barangay.
2. Those who annually pay 30 pesos or more of the established
taxes.
3. Those who speak, read, and write English or Spanish."
Succeeding articles in this chapter prescribe the oath to be
taken and subscribed by each elector before his ballot is
cast, recognizing and accepting "the supreme authority of the
United States of America"; appoint the times and places for
holding elections, and set forth the forms to be observed in
them. In the third chapter, the qualifications of officers are
thus defined:
"ARTICLE 13.
An alcalde, municipal lieutenant, or councilor must have the
following qualifications:
1. He must be a duly qualified elector of the municipality in
which he is a candidate, of 26 years of age or over, and have
had a legal residence therein for at least one year prior to
the date of election.
2. He must correctly speak, read, and write either the English
language or the local dialect.
"ARTICLE 14.
In no case can there be elected or appointed to municipal
office ecclesiastics, soldiers in active service, persons
receiving salary from municipal, provincial or government
funds; debtors to said funds, whatever the class of said
funds; contractors of public works and their bondsmen; clerks
and functionaries of the administration or government while in
said capacity; bankrupts until discharged, or insane or
feeble-minded persons.
"ARTICLE 15.
Each and every person elected or appointed to a municipal
office under the provisions of this order shall, before
entering upon the duties thereof, take and subscribe before
the alcalde or town secretary"—an oath analogous to that
required from the electors.
Further articles in this chapter and the next define the
duties of the alcalde, the municipal lieutenant, municipal
attorney, municipal secretary, municipal treasurer, and the
municipal councilors. The fifth chapter relates to taxation
and finances; the sixth and seventh contain provisions as
follows:
"ARTICLE 53.
The governor of the province shall be ex officio president of
all municipal councils within the province and shall have
general supervisory charge of the municipal affairs of the
several towns and cities therein organized under the
provisions of this order, and in his said supervisory capacity
may inspect or cause to be inspected, at such times as he may
determine, the administration of municipal affairs and each
and every department thereof, and may hear and determine all
appeals against the acts of municipal corporations or their
officers. He, or those whom he may designate in writing for
that duty, shall at all times have free access to all records,
books, papers, moneys, and property of the several towns and
cities of the province, and may call upon the officers thereof
for an accounting of the receipts and expenditures, or for a
general or special report of the official acts of the several
municipal councils or of any and every of them, or of any and
every of the officers thereof, at any time, and as often as he
may consider necessary to inform himself of the state of the
finances or of the administration of municipal affairs, and
such requests when made must be complied with without excuse,
pretext, or delay. He may suspend or remove municipal
officers, either individually or collectively, for cause, and
appoint substitutes therefor permanently, for the time being
or pending the next general election, or may call a special
election to fill the vacancy or vacancies caused by such
suspension or removal, reporting the cause thereof with a full
statement of his action in the premises to the governor of the
islands without delay. He shall forward all questions or
disputes that may arise over the boundaries or jurisdictional
limits of the city, towns, or municipalities to the governor
of the islands for final determination, together with full
report and recommendations relative to the same. He may, with
the approval of the governor of the islands, authorize the
cities and towns to form among themselves associations or
communities for determined ends, such as the construction of
public works, the creation and foundation of beneficent,
charitable, or educational institutions, for the better
encouragement of public interests or the use of communal
property.
{389}
"ARTICLE 54.
It shall be the duty of commanding officers of military
districts, immediately after the publication of this order, to
recommend to the office of the military governor in which towns
within their commands municipal governments shall be
established, and upon approval of recommendations, either
personally or through subordinate commanders designated by
them, to issue and cause to be posted proclamations calling
elections therein. Such proclamations shall fix the time and
place of election and shall designate three residents of the
town who shall be charged with the duty of administering
electors' oaths; of preparing, publishing, and correcting,
within specified dates, a list of electors having the
qualifications hereinbefore set forth, and of presiding at and
making a due return of the election thus appointed. The
proclamation shall specify the offices to be filled, and in
order to determine the number of councilors the commanders
charged with calling the election shall determine, from the
best available evidence, the class to which the town belongs,
as hereinbefore defined; the classification thus made shall
govern until the taking of an official census. The first
alcaldes appointed under the provisions of this order shall
take and subscribe the oath of office before the commanding
officer of the military district or some person in the several
towns designated by said commanding officer for the said
purpose; whereupon the alcalde so sworn shall administer the
said oath of office to all the other officers of the municipio
there elected and afterwards appointed. The election returns
shall be canvassed by the authority issuing the election
proclamation, and the officers elected shall assume their
duties on a date to be specified by him in orders.
"ARTICLE. 55.
Until the appointment of governors of provinces their duties
under this order will be performed by the commanding officers
of the military districts. They may, by designation, confer on
subordinate commanding officers of subdistricts or of other
prescribed territorial limits of their commands the
supervisory duties herein enumerated, and a subordinate
commander so designated shall perform all and every of the
duties herein prescribed for the superior commanding officer.
"ARTICLE. 56.
For the time being the provisions of this order requiring that
alcaldes be elected, in all cases shall be so far modified as
to permit the commanding officers of military districts, in
their discretion, either to appoint such officers or to have
them elected as hereinbefore prescribed. The term of office of
alcaldes appointed under this authority shall be the same as
if they had been elected; at the expiration of such term the
office shall be filled by election or appointment.
"ARTICLE 57.
The governments of towns organized under General Orders No.
43, Headquarters Department of the Pacific and Eighth Army
Corps, series 1899, will continue in the exercise of their
functions as therein defined and set forth until such time as
municipal governments therefor have been organized and are in
operation under this order."
_United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
House Document Number 659._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).
Appointment of the Second Commission to the Philippines and
the President's instructions to it.
Steps to be taken towards the establishment of civil
government, and the principles to be observed.
On the 7th of April, 1900, the President of the United States
addressed the following communication to the Secretary of War,
appointing a Second Commission to the Philippines, "to
continue and perfect the work of organizing and establishing
civil government" in the Islands, and defining the principles
on which that work should proceed: "In the message transmitted
to the Congress on the 5th of December, 1899, I said, speaking of
the Philippine Islands: 'As long as the insurrection continues
the military arm must necessarily be supreme. But there is no
reason why steps should not be taken from time to time to
inaugurate governments essentially popular in their form as
fast as territory is held and controlled by our troops. To
this end I am considering the advisability of the return of
the commission, or such of the members thereof as can be
secured, to aid the existing authorities and facilitate this
work throughout the islands.'
"To give effect to the intention thus expressed I have
appointed the Honorable William H. Taft of Ohio, Professor
Dean C. Worcester of Michigan, the Honorable Luke I. Wright of
Tennessee, the Honorable Henry C. Ide of Vermont, and
Professor Bernard Moses of California, Commissioners to the
Philippine Islands to continue and perfect the work of
organizing and establishing civil government already commenced
by the military authorities, subject in all respects to any
laws which Congress may hereafter enact. The Commissioners
named will meet and act as a board, and the Honorable William
H. Taft is designated as President of the board. It is
probable that the transfer of authority from military
commanders to civil officers will be gradual and will occupy a
considerable period. Its successful accomplishment and the
maintenance of peace and order in the meantime will require
the most perfect co-operation between the civil and military
authorities in the island, and both should be directed during
the transition period by the same executive department. The
commission will therefore report to the Secretary of War, and
all their action will be subject to your approval and control.
"You will instruct the commission to proceed to the City of
Manila, where they will make their principal office, and to
communicate with the Military Governor of the Philippine
Islands, whom you will at the same time direct to render to
them every assistance within his power in the performance of
their duties. Without hampering them by too specific
instructions, they should in general be enjoined, after making
themselves familiar with the conditions and needs of the
country, to devote their attention in the first instance to
the establishment of municipal governments, in which the
natives of the islands, both in the cities and in the rural
communities, shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their
own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are
capable, and subject to the least degree of supervision and
control which a careful study of their capacities and
observation of the workings of native control show to be
consistent with the maintenance of law, order, and loyalty.
The next subject in order of importance should be the
organization of government in the larger administrative
divisions corresponding to counties, departments, or
provinces, in which the common interests of many or several
municipalities falling within the same tribal lines, or the
same natural geographical limits, may best be subserved by a
common administration. Whenever the commission is of the
opinion that the condition of affairs in the islands is such
that the central administration may safely be transferred from
military to civil control, they will report that conclusion to
you, with their recommendations as to the form of central
government to be established for the purpose of taking over
the control.
{390}
"Beginning with the 1st day of September, 1900, the authority
to exercise, subject to my approval, through the Secretary of
War, that part of the power of government in the Philippine
Islands which is of a legislative nature is to be transferred
from the Military Governor of the Islands to this commission,
to be thereafter exercised by them in the place and stead of
the Military Governor, under such rules and regulations as you
shall prescribe, until the establishment of the civil central
government for the islands contemplated in the last foregoing
paragraph, or until Congress shall otherwise provide. Exercise
of this legislative authority will include the making of rules
and orders, having the effect of law, for the raising of
revenue by taxes, customs duties, and imposts; the
appropriation and expenditure of public funds of the islands;
the establishment of an educational system throughout the
islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient
civil service; the organization and establishment of courts;
the organization and establishment of municipal and
departmental governments, and all other matters of a civil
nature for which the Military Governor is now competent to
provide by rules or orders of a legislative character. The
commission will also have power during the same period to
appoint to office such officers under the judicial,
educational, and civil service systems and in the municipal
and departmental governments as shall be provided for. Until
the complete transfer of control the Military Governor will
remain the chief executive head of the Government of the
islands, and will exercise the executive authority now
possessed by him and not herein expressly assigned to the
commission, subject, however, to the rules and orders enacted
by the commission in the exercise of the legislative powers
conferred upon them. In the meantime the municipal and
departmental governments will continue to report to the
Military Governor, and be subject to his administrative
supervision and control, under your direction, but that
supervision and control will be confined within the narrowest
limits consistent with the requirement that the powers of
government in the municipalities and departments shall be
honestly and effectively exercised and that law and order and
individual freedom shall be maintained. All legislative rules
and orders, establishments of Government, and appointments to
office by the commission will take effect immediately, or at
such times as it shall designate, subject to your approval and
action upon the coming in of the commission's reports, which
are to be made from time to time as its action is taken.
Wherever civil Governments are constituted under the direction
of the commission, such military posts, garrisons, and forces
will be continued for the suppression of insurrection and
brigandage, and the maintenance of law and order, as the
military commander shall deem requisite, and the military
forces shall be at all times subject, under his orders to the
call of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and
order and the enforcement of their authority.
"In the establishment of Municipal Governments the commission
will take as the basis of its work the Governments established
by the Military Governor under his order of Aug. 8, 1899, and
under the report of the board constituted by the Military
Governor by his order of January 29, 1900, to formulate and
report a plan of Municipal Government, of which his Honor
Cayetano Arellano, President of the Audencia, was Chairman,
and it will give to the conclusions of that board the weight
and consideration which the high character and distinguished
abilities of its members justify. In the constitution of
Departmental or Provincial Governments it will give especial
attention to the existing Government of the Island of Negros,
constituted, with the approval of the people of that island,
under the order of the Military Governor of July 22, 1899, and
after verifying, so far as may be practicable, the reports of
the successful working of that Government, they will be guided
by the experience thus acquired, so far as it may be
applicable to the conditions existing in other portions of the
Philippines. It will avail itself, to the fullest degree
practicable, of the conclusions reached by the previous
commissions to the Philippines. In the distribution of powers
among the Governments organized by the commission, the
presumption is always to be in favor of the smaller
sub-division, so that all the powers which can properly be
exercised by the Municipal Government shall be vested in that
Government, and all the powers of a more general character
which can be exercised by the Departmental Government shall be
vested in that Government, and so that in the governmental
system, which is the result of the process, the Central
Government of the islands, following the example of the
distribution of the powers between the States and the National
Government of the United States, shall have no direct
administration except of matters of purely general concern,
and shall have only such supervision and control over local
Governments as may be necessary to secure and enforce faithful
and efficient administration by local officers.
"The many different degrees of civilization and varieties of
custom and capacity among the people of the different islands
preclude very definite instruction as to the part which the
people shall take in the selection of their own officers; but
these general rules are to be observed: That in all cases the
municipal officers, who administer the local affairs of the
people, are to be selected by the people, and that wherever
officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in
any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if
they can be found competent and willing to perform the duties,
they are to receive the offices in preference to any others.
It will be necessary to fill some offices for the present with
Americans which after a time may well be filled by natives of
the islands. As soon as practicable a system for ascertaining
the merit and fitness of candidates for civil office should be
put in force. An indispensable qualification for all offices and
positions of trust and authority in the islands must be
absolute and unconditional loyalty to the United States, and
absolute and unhampered authority and power to remove and
punish any officer deviating from that standard must at all
times be retained in the hands of the central authority of the
islands.
{391}
In all the forms of government and administrative provisions
which they are authorized to prescribe, the commission should
bear in mind that the government which they are establishing
is designed not for our satisfaction, or for the expression of
our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace, and
prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands, and the
measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs,
their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent
consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable
requisites of just and effective government.
"At the same time the commission should bear in mind, and the
people of the islands should be made plainly to understand,
that there are certain great principles of government which
have been made the basis of our governmental system which we
deem essential to the rule of law and the maintenance of
individual freedom, and of which they have, unfortunately,
been denied the experience possessed by us; that there are
also certain practical rules of government which we have found
to be essential to the preservation of these great principles
of liberty and law, and that these principles and these rules
of government must be established and maintained in their
islands for the sake of their liberty and happiness, however
much they may conflict with the customs or laws of procedure
with which they are familiar. It is evident that the most
enlightened thought of the Philippine Islands fully
appreciates the importance of these principles and rules, and
they will inevitably within a short time command universal
assent. Upon every division and branch of the government of
the Philippines, therefore, must be imposed these inviolable
rules: That no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without due process of law; that private property
shall not be taken for public use without just compensation;
that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with the
witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance
of counsel for his defense; that excessive bail shall not be
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual
punishment inflicted; that no person shall be put twice in
jeopardy for the same offense, or be compelled in any criminal
case to be a witness against himself; that the right to be
secure against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be
violated; that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
exist except as a punishment for crime; that no bill of
attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed; that no law
shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech or of the
press, or the rights of the people to peaceably assemble and
petition the Government for a redress of grievances; that no
law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, and that the free
exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship
without discrimination or preference shall forever be allowed.
"It will be the duty of the commission to make a thorough
investigation into the titles to the large tracts of land held
or claimed by individuals or by religious orders; into the
justice of the claims and complaints made against such
landholders by the people of the island or any part of the
people, and to seek by wise and peaceable measures a just
settlement of the controversies and redress of wrongs which
have caused strife and bloodshed in the past. In the
performance of this duty the commission is enjoined to see
that no injustice is done; to have regard for substantial
rights and equity, disregarding technicalities so far as
substantial right permits, and to observe the following rules:
That the provision of the treaty of Paris pledging the United
States to the protection of all rights of property in the
islands, and, as well, the principle of our own Government,
which prohibits the taking of private property without due
process of law, shall not be violated; that the welfare of the
people of the islands, which should be a paramount
consideration, shall be attained consistently with this rule
of property right; that if it becomes necessary for the public
interest of the people of the islands to dispose of claims to
property which the commission finds to be not lawfully
acquired and held, disposition shall be made thereof by due
legal procedure, in which there shall be full opportunity for
fair and impartial hearing and judgment; that if the same
public interests require the extinguishment of property rights
lawfully acquired and held, due compensation shall be made out
of the public Treasury therefor; that no form of religion and
no minister of religion shall be forced upon any community or
upon any citizen of the islands; that, upon the other hand, no
minister of religion shall be interfered with or molested in
following his calling, and that the separation between State
and Church shall be real, entire, and absolute.
"It will be the duty of the commission to promote and extend,
and, as it finds occasion, to improve, the system of education
already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this
it should regard as of first importance the extension of a system
of primary education which shall be free to all, and which
shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and
for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. This
instruction should be given in the first instance in every
part of the islands in the language of the people. In view of
the great number of languages spoken by the different tribes,
it is especially important to the prosperity of the islands
that a common medium of communication may be established, and
it is obviously desirable that this medium should be the
English language. Especial attention should be at once given
to affording full opportunity to all the people of the islands
to acquire the use of the English language. It may be well
that the main changes which should be made in the system of
taxation and in the body of the laws under which the people
are governed, except such changes as have already been made by
the military Government, should be relegated to the civil
Government which is to be established under the auspices of
the commission. It will, however, be the duty of the
commission to inquire diligently as to whether there are any
further changes which ought not to be delayed, and, if so, it
is authorized to make such changes, subject to your approval.
In doing so it is to bear in mind that taxes which tend to
penalize or to repress industry and enterprise are to be
avoided; that provisions for taxation should be simple, so
that they may be understood by the people; that they should
affect the fewest practicable subjects of taxation which will
serve for the general distribution of the burden.
{392}
"The main body of the laws which regulate the rights and
obligations of the people should be maintained with as little
interference as possible. Changes made should be mainly in
procedure, and in the criminal laws to secure speedy and
impartial trials, and at the same time effective
administration and respect for individual rights. In dealing
with the uncivilized tribes of the islands the commission
should adopt the same course followed by Congress in
permitting the tribes of our North American Indians to
maintain their tribal organization and government, and under
which many of those tribes are now living in peace and
contentment, surrounded by a civilization to which they are
unable or unwilling to conform. Such tribal governments
should, however, be subjected to wise and firm regulation;
and, without undue or petty interference, constant and active
effort should be exercised to prevent barbarous practices and
introduce civilized customs. Upon all officers and employés of
the United States, both civil and military, should be
impressed a sense of the duty to observe not merely the
material but the personal and social rights of the people of
the islands, and to treat them with the same courtesy and
respect for their personal dignity which the people of the
United States are accustomed to require from each other. The
articles of capitulation of the City of Manila on the 13th of
August, 1898, concluded with these words: 'This city, its
inhabitants, its churches and religious worship, its
educational establishments, and its private property of all
descriptions, are placed under the special safeguard of the
faith and honor of the American Army.' I believe that this
pledge has been faithfully kept. As high and sacred an
obligation rests upon the Government of the United States to
give protection for property and life, civil and religious
freedom, and wise, firm, and unselfish guidance in the paths
of peace and prosperity to all the people of the Philippine
Islands. I charge this commission to labor for the full
performance of this obligation, which concerns the honor and
conscience of their country, in the firm hope that through
their labors all the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands may
come to look back with gratitude to the day when God gave
victory to American arms at Manila and set their land under
the sovereignty and the protection of the people of the United
States.
WILLIAM McKINLEY."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (April).
Speech of Senator Hoar against the subjugation and
retention of the Islands by the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May).
Filipinos killed, captured and surrendered from the breaking
out of hostilities with them to May, 1900.
Losses of American army.
In response to a resolution of the United States Senate, May
17, 1900, the following report, by cable, from Manila, was
made by General MacArthur:
"Filipinos killed, 10,780;
wounded, 2,104;
captured and surrendered, 10,425;
number prisoners in our possession, about 2,000.
No systematic record Filipino casualties these headquarters.
Foregoing, compiled from large number reports made immediately
after engagements, is as close an approximation as now
possible, owing to wide distribution of troops. More accurate
report would take weeks to prepare. Number reported killed
probably in excess of accurate figures; number reported
wounded probably much less, as Filipinos managed to remove
most wounded from field, and comparatively few fell into our
hands. Officers high rank and dangerous suspicious men have
been retained as prisoners; most other men discharged on field
as soon as disarmed. Propose to release all but very few
prisoners at early date."
_56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Doc. 435._
For returns of casualties in the American army during the same
period,
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (May-November).
The question in American politics.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 {July).
Appeal of citizens of Manila to the
Congress of the United States.
An appeal "to the Congress of the United States," dated at
Manila, July 15, 1900, and signed by 2,006 of the inhabitants
of the city, who were said by Senator Hoar and Senator Teller
to be "the leading people of that section of country—lawyers
and bankers and professional men generally" was presented to
the Senate on the 10th of January, 1901. It opens as follows:
"The undersigned, Filipinos and peaceful inhabitants of this
city, in their own name and in the name of the misnamed
'irreconcilables,' respectfully present themselves and submit
to the worthy consideration of the Congress of the United
States of America the following appeal: "The people of the
Philippine Islands, in view of their calamitous condition,
demand in the name of her sons, in the name of all races, in
the name of humanity, that an end be put to the misfortunes
which afflict them which, while they distress and agonize her,
compel her to struggle for the rights that are hers, and for
the maintenance whereof she must, if necessary, continue to
pour out her blood as she has so constantly and generously
done on battlefields, in the woods, on the mountains, in the
city, everywhere! The blood which has been shed and that is
still being shed, and which will continue to be shed until she
has secured her rights, is not shed because of the intrigues
of a few who, according to misinformed persons, desire to
exploit the people and enrich themselves at the cost of their
brother's blood. It has, gentlemen, sprung from the hearts of
the people, who alone are the real strength of nations, the
sovereign king of races, the producers of the arts, of
science, of commerce, of wealth, of agriculture, of
civilization, of progress, and of all the productions of human
labor and intelligence, in all of which the people of the
Philippine Islands had made great progress. The Filipinos were
not sunk in lethargy, as some untruthfully assert. They
suffered, but the hour to break their chains came to them in
August, 1896, and they proclaimed to the world their
emancipation."
{393}
The paper proceeds to review the circumstances of the revolt
against Spanish rule which broke out in 1896, and the later
circumstances of the conflict between Filipinos and Americans
at such length that it cannot be given in full. Its aim and
its spirit may be sufficiently shown by quotation of the
following passages from the closing parts of the appeal:
"Even supposing that America should force us to submit, and
after many years of war the country should submit, as the
lesser evil, to the proclamation of an ample autonomy, that
autonomy would not produce a sincere bond of friendship
between the two people, because, having sacrificed herself for
her independence, the country could not look with affection upon
those who would be the only obstacle to her happiness. She
would always retain her aspirations, so that autonomy would be
a short 'interregnum' which the country would necessarily take
advantage of to regain new strength to be used in the
attainment of her high political ideals, happen what may, and
perhaps in some hour of peril strike a fatal blow at a hated
oppressor. … In giving this warning we do not forget the good
Americans whom we sincerely respect; we are mindful of the
rupture of our good relations with the United States; we are
mindful of the blood which will again run on the soil of our
country. We see in that autonomy a new and sorrowful page in
the history of the Philippines, and therefore we can not but
look upon it with horror. Our people have had enough of
suffering. … They steadfastly believe that their independence
is their only salvation. Should they obtain it, they would be
forever grateful to whomsoever shall have helped them in their
undertaking; they would consider him as their redeemer, and
his name will be engraved with bright letters in the national
history, that all the generations to come may read it with
sublime veneration. America, consistent with her tradition, is
the only one which could play that great rôle in the present
and future of the Philippines. If she recognizes their
independence, they could offer her a part of the revenues of
the Philippine state, according to the treaty which shall be
stipulated; the protection in the country of the merchandise
of the United States, and a moral and material guarantee for
American capital all over the archipelago; finally, whatever
may bring greater prosperity to America and progress to the
country will, we doubt not, be taken into account in the
treaty which shall be celebrated.
"That the independence of the country will be attended with
anarchy is asserted only by those who, offending the truth and
forgetting their dignity, represent the Filipinos under
horrible colors, comparing them to beasts. Their assertions
are backed by isolated acts of pillage and robbery. What
revolution of the world was free from such deeds? At this
epoch passions are unrestrained; vengeance finds opportunity
to satisfy itself; private ambitions are often favored by the
occasion. Could such criminal deeds be avoided? Pythagoras
said: 'If you like to see monsters, travel through a country
during a revolution.' …
"In order to end our appeal we will say, with the learned
lawyer, Senor Mabini: 'To govern is to study the wants and
interpret the aspirations of the people, in order to remedy
the former and satisfy the latter.' If the natives who know
the wants, customs, and aspirations of the people are not fit
to govern them, would the Americans, who have had but little
to do with the Filipinos, be more capable to govern the
latter? We have, therefore, already proven—
1. That the revolution was the exclusive work of the public;
2. That in preparing it they were moved by a great ideal, the
ideal of independence;
3. That they are ready to sacrifice their whole existence in
order to realize their just aspirations;
4. That in spite of the serious difficulties through which
they are passing, they still expect from America that she will
consider them with impartiality and justice, and will
recognize what by right belongs to them, and thus give them an
opportunity to show their boundless gratitude;
5. That the annexation of the Philippines to America is not
feasible;
6. That the American sovereignty is not favored by the
Philippine people;
7. That an ample autonomy can not be imposed without violating
the Filipino will;
8. That the Filipinos are firm for self-government.
"From this it results that the only admissible solution for
the present difficulties is the recognition by America of the
independence of the Filipinos. In saying this we do not
consider either the nullity or the legality of the Paris
treaty on our country, but the well-known doctrine of the
immortal Washington, and of the sons of the United States of
America, worthy champions of oppressed people. Therefore we,
in the name of justice and with all the energies of our souls,
demand—
1. That the independence of the Filipinos be recognized;
2. That all the necessary information regarding the events
which are taking place, concerning the peaceful towns and
places which are supporting the arms of the revolution, be
obtained from Filipinos who, by their antecedents and by their
actual conduct, deserve the respect and confidence of the
Filipino people."
_Congressional Record,
January 10, 1901, page 850._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September).
Adoption of civil service rules.
See (in this volume)
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (September-November).
Civil government of the Islands by the President's Commission.
Legislative measures.
Report of the Commission.
"In April of this year the second Philippine commission, of
which Honorable William H. Taft, of Ohio, Professor Dean C.
Worcester, of Michigan, Honorable Luke I. Wright, of
Tennessee, Honorable Henry C. Ide, of Vermont, and Professor
Bernard Moses, of California, were members, sailed for Manila
with the powers of civil government prescribed in the
instructions of April 7, 1900 [see above]. After devoting
several months to familiarizing themselves with the conditions
in the islands, this commission on the 1st of September, 1900,
entered upon the discharge of the extensive legislative powers
and the specific powers of appointment conferred upon them in
the instructions, and they have since that time continued to
exercise all that part of the military power of the President
in the Philippines which is legislative in its character,
leaving the military governor still the chief executive of the
islands, the action of both being duly reported to this
Department for the President's consideration and approval. …
On consultation with the commission, and with the President's
approval, a note of amnesty was issued by the military
governor, dated June 21, 1900, and supplemented by a public
statement by the military governor, under date of July 2,
1900, based, in the main, upon the instructions to the
commission.
{394}
… In pursuance of them something over 5,000 persons, of all
grades of the civil and military service of the insurrection,
presented themselves and took the following oath: 'I hereby
renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary
governments in the Philippine Islands and recognize and accept
the supreme authority of the United States of America therein;
and I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to that government; that I will at all times
conduct myself as a faithful and law-abiding citizen of said
islands, and will not, either directly or indirectly, hold
correspondence with or give intelligence to an enemy of the
United States, neither will I aid, abet, harbor, or protect
such enemy. That I impose upon myself this voluntary
obligation without any mental reservation or purpose of
evasion, so help me God.' This number included many of the
most prominent officials of the former Tagalog government. …
"The commission in its legislative action is following the
ordinary course of legislative procedure. Its sessions are
open, and its discussion and the proposed measures upon which
it is deliberating are public, while it takes testimony and
receives suggestions from citizens as if it were a legislative
committee. Its first legislative act was the appropriation, on
the 12th of September, of $2,000,000 (Mexican), to be used in
construction and repair of highways and bridges in the
Philippine Islands. The second act, on the same day, was an
appropriation of $5,000 (Mexican) for a survey of a railroad
to the mountains of Benguet, in the island of Luzon. The
proposed railroad, about 45 miles in length, extending from
the Manila and Dagupan road, near the Gulf of Lingayen, to the
interior, will open, at a distance of about 170 miles from
Manila, a high tableland exceedingly healthy, well wooded with
pine and oak, comparatively dry and cool, and where the
mercury is said to range at night in the hottest season of the
year between 50° and 60° F. The value of such a place for the
recuperation of troops and foreign residents will be very
great. The third act of the commission was an appropriation
for the payment of a superintendent of public instruction.
They have secured for that position the services of Frederick
W. Atkinson, recently principal of the high school of
Springfield, Massachusetts, who was selected by the commission
for that purpose before their arrival in Manila.
"Before the 1st of September a board of officers had been
engaged upon the revision of the tariff for the islands in the
light of such criticisms and suggestions as had been made
regarding the old tariff. The commission has considered the
report of this board, and after full public hearings of
business interests in the island has formulated a tariff law
which has been transmitted to the Department. … A
civil-service board has been constituted by the commission
[see, in this volume, CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1900). They
have secured from the United States Civil Service Commission
the experienced and capable services of Mr. Frank M. Kiggins,
and a civil-service law has been enacted by the commission
providing for the application of the merit system to
appointments in the island."
_United States, Secretary of War, Annual Report,
November 30, 1900, pages 25-27._
A report by the Commission, dated November 30, was received at
Washington late in January, 1901. Of the legislative work on
which it entered September 1st, and which, at the time of
reporting, it had prosecuted during three months, the
Commission speaks as follows:
"It adopted the policy of passing no laws, except in cases of
emergency, without publishing them in the daily press after
they had passed a second reading, and giving to the public an
opportunity to come before the Commission and suggest
objections or amendments to the bills. The Commission has
likewise adopted as part of its regular procedure the
submission of all proposed bills to the Military Governor for
his consideration and comment before enactment. We think that
the holding of public sessions furnishes instructive lessons
to the people, as it certainly secures to the Commission a
means of avoiding mistakes. … The Commission has now passed
forty-seven laws of more or less importance. … A municipal
code has been prepared and forwarded to you for the
consideration of one or two critical matters, and has not yet
been adopted, pending your consideration of it. A tariff bill
… has been prepared. … A judicial and civil procedure bill is
nearly completed. The same thing is true of a bill for
provincial government organization. A new internal tax law
must then be considered. The wealth of this country has
largely been in agricultural lands, and they have been
entirely exempt. This enabled the large landowners to escape
any other taxation than the urbana, a tax which was imposed
upon the rental value of city buildings only, and the cedula
tax, which did not in any case exceed $37.50 (Mexican) a
person. We think that a land tax is to be preferred, but of
this there will be found more detailed discussion below. …
"The only legislation thus far undertaken by the Commission
which bears directly on the conduct of municipal affairs in
the city of Manila is a law regulating the sale of spirituous,
malt, vinous or fermented liquors. It is provided that none of
the so-called native 'wines' [said to be concocted by mixing
alcohol with oils and flavoring extracts] shall be sold except
by holders of native wine licenses, and that such holders
shall not be allowed to sell intoxicants of any other sort
whatever. … The selling of native wines to soldiers of the
United States under any circumstances is strictly prohibited,
because the soldiers are inclined to indulge in those
injurious beverages to excess, with disastrous results. … The
Filipino ordinarily uses them moderately, if at all.
Fortunately, he does not, to any considerable extent, frequent
the American saloon. With a view to preventing his being
attracted there, the playing of musical instruments or the
operation of any gambling device, phonograph, slot machine,
billiard or pool table or other form of amusement in saloons,
bars or drinking places is prohibited."
The report of the Commission urged strongly the establishing
of a purely civil government in the Islands, for reasons thus
stated: "The restricted powers of a military government are
painfully apparent in respect to mining claims and the
organization of railroad, banking and other corporations and
the granting of franchises generally. It is necessary that
there be some body or officer vested with legislative
authority to pass laws which shall afford opportunity to
capital to make investment here. This is the true and most
lasting method of pacification. Now the only corporations here
are of Spanish or English origin with but limited concessions,
and American capital finds itself completely obstructed.
{395}
Such difficulties would all be removed by the passage of the
Spooner bill now pending in both houses.
See below: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
The far reaching effect upon the feeling of the people of
changing the military government to one purely civil, with the
Army as merely auxiliary to the administration of civil law,
cannot be too strongly emphasized. Military methods in
administering quasi-civil government, however successful in
securing efficiency and substantial justice, are necessarily
abrupt and in appearance arbitrary, even when they are those
of the Army of the Republic; and until a civil government is
established here it will be impossible for the people of the
Philippine Islands to realize the full measure of the
difference between a government under American sovereignty and
one under that of Spain."
Another subject of great importance dealt with in the November
report of the Commission was that concerning the employment of
native troops and police, on which it was said: "The question
as to whether native troops and a native constabulary are at
present practicable has received much thought and a careful
investigation by the Commission. … We have sought and obtained
the opinions of a large number of Regular and volunteer officers
of all rank, having their fields of operation in all parts of
the islands, and there appears to be a general consensus of
opinion among them that the time is ripe for these
organizations, and this is also our conclusion. Assuming that
Congress at its next session will provide for an increase of
the Regular Army, it by no means follows that a large part
thereof will, or should, be stationed here permanently.
Considerations of public policy and economy alike forbid such
a programme, nor in our judgment is it necessary.
"While the American soldier is unsurpassed in war, as it is
understood among civilized people, he does not make the best
policeman, especially among a people whose language and
customs are new and strange to him, and in our opinion should
not be put to that use when, as we believe, a better
substitute is at hand. We therefore earnestly urge the
organization of ten regiments of native troops of infantry and
cavalry, the proportion between the two arms of the service to
be fixed by competent military judges. These troops should in
the main be officered by Americans. Certainly this should be
the case as to their field officers and company commanders.
Lieutenants might be Filipinos, judicially selected, and
provision might be made for their promotion in the event of
faithful or distinguished service.
"We further recommend that a comprehensive scheme of police
organization be put in force as rapidly as possible; that it
be separate and distinct from the army, having for its head an
officer of rank and pay commensurate with the importance of
the position, with a sufficient number of assistants and
subordinates to exercise thorough direction and control. This
organization should embrace every township in the islands, and
should be so constituted that the police of several contiguous
townships could be quickly mobilized. The chief officers of
this organization should be Americans, but some of the
subordinate officers should be natives, with proper provision
for their advancement as a reward for loyal and efficient
services. The main duty of the police would, of course, be to
preserve the peace and maintain order in their respective
townships, but occasion would, no doubt, frequently arise when
it would be necessary to utilize the forces of several
townships against large bands of ladrones."
With regard to the organization of municipal government in the
townships (pueblos) of the Islands the report of the
Commission says, in part: "The 'pueblos' of these islands
sometimes include a hundred or more square miles. They are
divided into so-called 'barrios' or wards, which are often
very numerous and widely separated. In order that the
interests of the inhabitants of each ward may be represented
in the Council, on the one hand, and that the body may not
become so numerous as to be unwieldy, on the other, it is
provided that the Councillors shall be few in number (eighteen
to eight, according to the number of inhabitants), and shall
be elected at large; that where the wards are more numerous
than are the Councillors the wards shall be grouped into
districts, and that one Councillor shall be in charge of each
ward or district, with power to appoint a representative from
among the inhabitants of every ward thus assigned to him, so
that he may the more readily keep in touch with conditions in
that portion of the township which it is his duty to supervise
and represent. …
"In order to meet the situation presented by the fact that a
number of the pueblos have not as yet been organized since the
American occupation, while some two hundred and fifty others
are organized under a comparatively simple form of government
and fifty-five under a much more complicated form on which the
new law is based, the course of procedure which must be
followed in order to bring these various towns under the
provisions of the new law has been prescribed in detail, and
every effort has been made to provide against unnecessary
friction in carrying out the change.
"In view of the disturbed conditions which still prevail in
some parts of the archipelago it has been provided that the
military government should be given control of the appointment
and arming of the municipal police and that in all provinces
where civil provincial government has not been established by
the Commission the duties of the Provincial Governor,
Provincial Treasurer and Provincial 'Fiscal' (prosecuting
attorney) shall be performed by military officers assigned by
the Military Governor for these purposes. It has been further
provided that in these provinces the Military Governor shall
have power through such subordinates as he may designate for
the purpose to inspect and investigate at any time all the
official books and records of the several municipalities, and
to summarily suspend any municipal officer for inefficiency,
misconduct or disloyalty to the United States. If upon
investigation it shall prove that the suspended officer is
guilty, the Military Governor has power to remove him and to
appoint his successor, should he deem such a course necessary
in the interest of public safety. It is thought that where the
necessity still exists for active intervention on the part of
the Military Governor it will ordinarily be desirable to allow
the towns to retain their existing organization until such
time as conditions shall improve; but, should it prove
necessary or desirable in individual instances to put the new
law into operation in such provinces, it is felt that the
above provisions will give to the Military Governor ample
power to deal with any situation which can arise, and he has
expressed his satisfaction with them.
{396}
"There are at the present time a considerable number of
provinces which, in the judgment of the Commission, are ready
for a provincial civil government. It is believed that in the
majority of cases it will be possible to organize all the
municipalities of a province, creating at the same time a
civil provincial government. So soon as civil government is
established in any province, power to remove officials for
inefficiency, misconduct or disloyalty, and, should public
safety demand it, to fill the offices thus made vacant, is
vested in the civil authorities. The law does not apply to the
city of Manila or to the settlements of non-Christian tribes,
because it is believed that in both cases special conditions
require special legislation. The question as to the best
methods of dealing with the non-Christian tribes is one of no
little complexity. The number of these tribes is greatly in
excess of the number of civilized tribes, although the total
number of Mahometans and pagans is much less than the number
of Christianized natives. Still, the non-Christian tribes are
very far from forming an insignificant element of the
population. They differ from each other widely, both in their
present social, moral and intellectual state and in the
readiness with which they adapt themselves to the demands of
modern civilization."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (October).
United States military forces in the Islands.
"At the date of my last annual report there were in the
Philippine Islands 971 officers and 31,344 enlisted men; and
there were en route for service in those islands 546 officers
and 16,553 enlisted men—the latter force being principally in
California. Since that time an additional force ordered to
China was diverted to the Philippine Islands, making a total
of 98,668 men sent to the archipelago. Of this number 15,000
volunteers, first sent to that country in 1898, together with
the sick and disabled, have been returned to the United
States, leaving at the present time in the islands, according
to last report, 2,367 officers and 69,161 enlisted men.
Fifteen hundred men have been left in China to act as a guard
for the American legation in that country and for other
purposes."
_United States, Annual Report of Lieutenant-General
Commanding the Army, October 29, 1900._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1900 (November).
The problem of the Spanish Friars.
Two contradictory representations of their work and influence.
Views and recommendations of the United States Commission.
Of the character, work and influence of the Spanish religious
orders in the Philippine Islands there are two diametrically
opposite accounts given by different writers. Both are
represented in two of the quotations below, and those are
followed by extracts from a report made by the United States
Commission, November 30, 1900, on the subject of the problem
they present to the new government of the Islands. The first
writer is condemnatory. He says:
"The better classes [of the Filipinos] have absorbed much of
Spanish civilization in their three-century-old
apprenticeship. They show extraordinary talent for music. The
church of the mother land of Spain is much in evidence among
them. It brought to them its blessings, but also incidentally
a terrible curse. The mendicant orders—the Franciscans, the
Dominicans, the Augustinians, no longer poor preachers,
thinking only of serving, blessing, loving men, but grown
rich, domineering, and, in many cases, sadly corrupt in
morals—ate up the land. They added field to field, house to
house, till there was but little space left for the people.
They charged enormous rents to those who to put bread in their
mouths must till their fields. Just such cause for revolt existed
as that which in France aroused the storm of the great
revolution; the people taxed without mercy, the clergy
untaxed, reaping the benefit. Had the Christ-like St. Francis
of Assisi been endowed with the gift of prophetic vision to
see this gross degeneracy of his followers, more than ever
would he have felt the soundness of his intuition which made
him set his face like flint against the acquisition of any
property by his order. His beloved fair Lady of Poverty would
have seemed to him more beautiful than ever. He would have
been horrified with the knowledge of the cruel rapacity of
monks bearing his name, who, nevertheless, grossly oppressed
the Philippine peasantry in rents and taxes,—the very poor
whom St. Francis founded his order to serve.