[13] The following telegram was sent to the cabinet by the director of diplomacy, Manila:—
“December 21, 1898, P.M.
“Missed the train on account of government business. Beg of you to pardon my absence, and bear in mind my suggestion to look up an easy method of abolishing the law imposing a tax of 100 to 5000 pesos on foreigners, as not only unjust but impolitic at this time, when we seek the sympathy of the powers. I represent to the cabinet that such step is very urgent, because I have ascertained that members of the chamber of commerce have reported this tax to their respective governments in order to formulate a protest.”—P. I. R., 849.
Chapter XXXV
Some Results of American Rule
Having set forth at length what seem to me the more essential facts relative to the American occupation of the Philippines and the results of American rule, supporting my statements by a rather free use of documents chiefly drawn from the Insurgent records, I will briefly summarize some of the more important points which I have endeavoured to establish, lest my readers should not see the forest for the trees.
Independence was never promised to Aguinaldo or to any other Filipino leader by any officer of the United States, nor was there ever any effort to deceive the Filipinos by arousing false hopes that it was to be conceded.
The Insurgent force never coöperated with that of the United States. The two had a common enemy and that was practically all that they did have in common. Each proceeded against that enemy in its own way. Each ignored requests of the other relative to the manner in which it should proceed. The Insurgent officers planned from the outset to utilize United States soldiers in bringing about the termination of Spanish sovereignty in the Philippines, and then to attack them if practicable and necessary in order to oust the United States from the islands. If not, they planned to consider asking us for a protectorate or for annexation.
The temporary government established by Aguinaldo and his associates was not, in any sense of the word, a republic, nor was it established with the consent of the people. It was a military oligarchy pure and simple, imposed on the people by armed men and maintained, especially during its latter days, by terrorism and by the very free use of murder as a governmental agency. The conditions which arose under it were shocking in the extreme. Property rights were not respected; human life was cheap indeed; persons aggrieved had no redress, and there was hardly a semblance of a system for the administration of justice.