History for ready reference, Volume 6

by J. N. Larned

Seat of War in the Island of Luzon.
{369}
"The fourth enumeration of those mentioned above showed a
population of 5,985,123 in 1887, and the totals both for the
group as a whole and for the fifty odd provinces tend to
confirm and to be confirmed by the civil count of 1877. This
number, however, represents only the nominally Catholic or
tribute-paying population. To it must be added the Mohammedan
or heathen tribes set down by clerical authorities as about
600,000. Perhaps the highest authority in this field,
Professor Blumentritt, is confident that this number does not
include all the independent tribes, but only those in the
mountains who have a special arrangement freeing them from all
the dues of the subject tribes. On the whole, therefore, Prof.
H. Wagner is inclined to estimate these omissions of
independent or non-Christian tribes at about 1,000,000 and the
population of the group at about 7,000,000. This result is
indorsed by the latest German authority, Hübner's
Geographisch-Statistische Tabellen for 1898, which gives the
population as
5,985,124 + 1,000,000 = 6,985,124, as follows:
Spanish Estimated number
census. not counted.
Luzon and adjacent islands 3,443,000 150,000
Mindoro and Masbate 126,000 100,000
Visayas Archipelago 2,181,000 200,000
Mindanao 209,000 400,000
Calamianes and Palawan 22,000 50,000
Jolo (Sulu) Islands 4,000 100,000
Total 5,985,000 1,000,000
"Personally I am disposed to suspect that this number,
although called by Professor Wagner an outside estimate, is
below rather than above the truth. In favor of this position
it may be urged that Professor Wagner's estimate makes no
allowance either for the natural increase of population,
1887-1898, or for the fact that the first careful census of
densely populated regions, like India and Japan, usually
reveals a larger population than had been previously
estimated. This analogy might reasonably be applied to Luzon
and the Visayas."
United States, 56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 171, pages 4-7.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS:
The native inhabitants.
"The inhabitants of the Philippines belong to three sharply
distinct races—the Negrito race, the Indonesian race, and the
Malayan race. It is universally conceded that the Negritos of
to-day are the disappearing remnants of a people which once
populated the entire archipelago. They are, physically,
weaklings of low stature, with black skin, closely-curling
hair, flat noses, thick lips, and large, clumsy feet. In the
matter of intelligence they stand at or near the bottom of the
human series, and they are believed to be incapable of any
considerable degree of civilization or advancement. Centuries
ago they were driven from the coast regions into the wilder
interior portions of the islands by Malay invaders, and from
that day to this they have steadily lost ground in the
struggle for existence, until but a few scattered and
numerically insignificant groups of them remain. … It is
believed that not more than 25,000 of them exist in the entire
archipelago, and the race seems doomed to early extinction. …
"So far as is at present known, the Philippine tribes
belonging to the Indonesian race are confined to the great
island of Mindanao, the surface of which constitutes about
one-third of the total land area of the archipelago. … The
Philippine representatives of this race are physically
superior not only to the Negritos, but to the more numerous
Malayan peoples as well. They are tall and well developed,
with high foreheads, aquiline noses, wavy hair, and often with
abundant beards. The color of their skins is quite light. Many
of them are very clever and intelligent. None of the tribes
have been Christianized. Some of them have grown extremely
fierce and warlike as a result of their long struggle with
hostile Malayan peoples. Others, more happy in their
surroundings, are pacific and industrious.
"The great majority of the inhabitants of the Philippines are
of Malayan extraction, although the race is not found pure in
any of the islands, but is everywhere more or less modified
through intermarriage with Chinese, Indonesians, Negritos,
Arabs, and, to a limited extent, Spaniards and other
Europeans. The individuals belonging to these Malayan tribes
are of medium size, with straight black hair. As a rule the
men are beardless, and when they have a beard it is usually
straggling, and appears late in life. The skin is brown and
distinctly darker than that of the Indonesians, although very
much lighter than that of the Negritos. The nose is short and
frequently considerably flattened. The representatives of
these three races are divided into numerous tribes, which
often differ very greatly in language, manners, customs, and
laws, as well as in degree of civilization. …
"Any estimate of the total population must manifestly depend
on the number of inhabitants assigned to the various wild
tribes, of which there are no less than 69. For the purposes
of this report the commission has adopted as the total figure
8,000,000, considering this a conservative estimate. Baranera,
whose figures are believed to be carefully prepared, places
the total at 9,000,000. The extent of territory occupied in
whole or in part by each of the more important civilized
tribes can be estimated with a greater degree of accuracy, and
is approximately as follows: Visayans (occupying 28,100 square
miles) 2,601,600; Tagalogs (15,380 sq. miles) 1,663,900;
Bicols (6,900 sq. miles) 518,100; Ilocanos (6,170 sq. miles)
441,700; Pangasinaus (1,950 sq. miles) 365,500; Pampangas
(1,950 sq. miles) 337,900; Moros (12,860 sq. miles) 268,000;
Cagayans(11,500 sq. miles) 166,300. All of these peoples,
although ignorant and illiterate, are possessed of a
considerable degree of civilization, and, with the exception
of the Mohammedan Moros, are Christianized."
Philippine Commission,
Report, January 31, 1900, volume 1, pages 11-15.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1896-1898.
The Katipunan and the rising against Spanish rule.
Appearance of Aguinaldo as a leader.
Dr. José Rizal.
The Treaty of Biac-na-bato.
Departure of Aguinaldo and his return with
the American forces.
The Philippine Islands, discovered in 1521 by Magellan (or
Maghallanes or Magalhaes), and occupied by the Spaniards in
1565, seems, for a long period, to have interested that people
more as a missionary than as a commercial field. Indeed, the
doings of the church and of the religious orders, and the
acceptance of Roman teachings of Christianity by the greater
part of the native population, make up the essential history
of the Philippines until quite recent times. If the islands
had offered gold mines, or pearl fisheries, or spice forests
to their European discoverers, the story would certainly have
been different. As it was, the Spaniards were not moved to
much eagerness in exploiting such resources of commerce as
they found; and so, through fortunate circumstances, the
natives were made converts instead of slaves.
{370}
By missionaries, more than by soldiers, they were subdued; by
the church, more than by the Spanish state, they were ruled.
It is certain that there were great corruptions and
oppressions in the government, and it follows that a large
share of responsibility for them rests on those who controlled
the affairs of the church. For the past hundred years, at
least, the more spirited part of the native population has
been restive under the misrule and its burdens, and frequent
attempts at insurrection have been made. Such an outbreak in
1872 was suppressed and punished with a vengefulness, in
executions and banishment, which rankled ever afterwards in
the hearts of the people.
A secret society, called the "Katipunan," or League, was then
formed, which became a revolutionary organization, and from
which sprang the most serious of Filipino rebellions, in 1896.
The province of Cavite was the center of revolt, and it was
there that Emilio Aguinaldo, then the schoolmaster at Silan,
came into prominence as a leader. Mr. John Foreman, who was in
the Philippines at the time of the insurrection, states that
Aguinaldo was personally humane, but fearful atrocities were
committed in the first months of the rising by some of the
insurgents of his band. One captured priest, according to Mr.
Foreman's account, "was cut up piecemeal; another was
saturated with petroleum and set on fire; and a third was
bathed in oil and fried on a bamboo spit run through the
length of his body." The Spaniards, on their side, were
equally inhuman in their treatment of captured rebels and
"suspects." Says Mr. Foreman: "About 600 suspects were
confined in the dungeons of Fort Santiago at the mouth of the
Pasig River. Then occurred a frightful tragedy. The dungeons
are below water-mark at high tide; the river filtered in
through the crevices in the ancient masonry; thus twice a day
these unfortunates were up to their waists or necks in water,
according to the height of the men. The Spanish sergeant on
duty threw his rug over the only light and ventilating shaft,
and, in a couple of days, carts were seen by many citizens
carrying away the dead, calculated to number 70. Provincial
governors and parish priests seemed to regard it as a duty to
supply the capital with batches of 'suspects' from their
localities. In Vigan, where nothing had occurred, many of the
heads of the best families and monied men were arrested and
brought to Manila in a steamer. They were bound hand and foot,
and carried like packages of merchandise in the hold. I
happened to be on the quay when the steamer discharged her
living freight, with chains and hooks to haul up and swing out
the bodies like bales of hemp. …
"Thousands of peaceful natives were treated with a ferocity
which would have shocked all Europe. … Within three months of
the outbreak, hundreds of the richest natives and half-castes
in Manila were imprisoned for a few days and released
conditionally"—the condition being a payment of ransom,
sometimes said to be as high as $40,000. But General Blanco,
the then Governor-General, was not vigorous enough in his
measures to satisfy the all-powerful clerical party in the
islands, and he was replaced by General Polaveja, who received
large reinforcements from Spain, and who succeeded in breaking
the strength of the rebellion to a great extent. But the
character of Polaveja's administration is thus described by
Mr. Foreman: "Apart from the circumstances of legitimate
warfare, in which probably neither party was more merciful
than the other, he initiated a system of striking terror into
the non-combatant population by barbarous tortures and
wholesale executions. … Men were escorted to the prisons by
pure caprice and subjected to horrible maltreatment. Many of
them were liberated in the course of a few days, declared
innocent, but maimed for life and forever unable to get a
living. … The only apparent object in all this was to
disseminate broadcast living examples of Spanish vengeance."
The most notable victim at this period was Dr. José Rizal, a
physician, highly educated in Europe, distinguished as an
oculist, and the author of certain novels in which the
condition of things in his native country was set forth. On
his return to the Islands, Dr. Rizal incurred the enmity of
the friars by opposing them, and was pursued by their
hostility. From 1893 to 1896 he was kept in banishment,
closely watched, at a small town in the island of Mindanao.
Then he sought and obtained permission to go to Cuba in the
medical staff of the Spanish army; but, just as he arrived at
Manila, on his way to Spain, the insurrection of 1896 broke
out, and though he was suffered to depart, his enemies pursued
him with accusations of complicity in the rising and caused
him to be brought back. Says Mr. Foreman, who was an
eye-witness of what occurred: "Not a few of us who saw the
vessel leave wished him 'God speed.' But the clerical party
were eager for his extermination. … The lay authorities always
had to yield to the monks, and history herein repeated itself.
Dr. Rizal was cabled for to answer certain accusations, and so
on his landing in the Peninsula he was incarcerated in the
celebrated fortress of Montjuich (the scene of so many
horrors), pending his re-shipment by the returning steamer. He
reached Manila as a state prisoner in the Colon, isolated from
all but his jailors. It was materially impossible for him to
have taken any part in the rebellion, whatever his sympathies
may have been." Nevertheless, he was tried by court-martial
for sedition and rebellion, condemned and shot; and his memory
is cherished in the islands as that of a martyred patriot.
"The decree of execution was one of Polaveja's foulest acts."
Having scotched but not killed the insurrection, Polaveja went
home, with broken health, in the spring of 1897, and was
succeeded by General Primo de Rivera, who, after some months
of continued warfare, opened negotiations with Aguinaldo, the
recognized leader of the revolt. The result was a treaty,
known as the "Pacto de Biac-na-bato, signed December 14. By
this treaty "the rebels undertook to deliver up their arms and
ammunition of all kinds to the Spaniards; to evacuate the
places held by them; to conclude an armistice for three years
for the application and development of the reforms to be
introduced by the other part, and not to conspire against
Spanish sovereignty in the Islands, nor aid or abet any
movement calculated to counteract the reforms.
{371}
Emilio Aguinaldo and 34 other leaders undertook to quit the
Philippine Islands, and not to return to them until so
authorised by the Spanish Government. On behalf of the Spanish
Government it was agreed to pay, through the medium of Pedro
A. Paterno, to the rebels the sum of $1,000,000, and to the
families who had sustained loss by reason of the war $700,000,
in instalments and conditionally,"—the condition being that no
renewal of rebellion or conspiracy occur. Aguinaldo and other
chiefs of the insurrection left the Islands, accordingly; but
they are said to have been utterly duped. One instalment, only
($400,000), of the promised money was ever paid; the promised
reforms were not carried out, and persecution of those who had
been in sympathy with the rising was renewed.
J. Foreman,
The Philippine Islands,
chapter 26 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
"Aguinaldo and his associates went to Hongkong and Singapore.
A portion of the money, $400,000, was deposited in banks at
Hongkong, and a lawsuit soon arose between Aguinaldo and one
of his subordinate chiefs named Artacho, which is interesting
on account of the very honorable position taken by Aguinaldo.
Artacho sued for a division of the money among the insurgents
according to rank. Aguinaldo claimed that the money was a
trust fund, and was to remain on deposit until it was seen
whether the Spaniards would carry out their promised reforms,
and if they failed to do so, it was to be used to defray the
expenses of a new insurrection. The suit was settled out of
court by paying Artacho $5,000. No steps have been taken to
introduce the reforms, more than 2,000 insurgents, who had
been deported to Fernando Po and other places, are still in
confinement, and Aguinaldo is now using the money to carry on
the operations of the present insurrection."
F. V. Greene,
Memorandum concerning the Situation in the Philippines,
August 30, 1898 (Treaty of Peace and Accompanying Papers:
55th Congress, 3d Session,
Senate Document Number 62, part 1, page 421.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1897.
Refusal of United States Government to negotiate
with the insurgent republic.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (April-May).
Circumstances in which Aguinaldo was brought to
Manila to co-operate with American forces.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-MAY: PHILIPPINES).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (April-July).
Destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.
Blockade and siege of the city.
Co-operation of insurgents under Aguinaldo.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JULY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (May-August).
Conduct of English and German naval officers at Manila.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (MAY-AUGUST).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (July-August).
Correspondence between the American commander and Aguinaldo.
This is fully given (showing the relations between the
American and Filipino forces, before the capture of Manila),
in the general account of the Spanish-American War.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PHILIPPINES).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (July-September).
American capture of Manila.
Relations with the Filipino insurgents.
General Merritt's report.
Aguinaldo declared President of the Philippine Republic.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August).
Suspension of hostilities between the United States and Spain.
Manila held by the former pending the conclusion
of a treaty of peace.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August).
Losses of the American army during the war with Spain.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (JUNE).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1898 (August-December).
The state of things following the occupation of Manila
by American forces.
Growing distrust and unfriendliness of the Tagalos.
General Otis's report.
Of the state of things which followed the departure of General
Merritt, August 30, General Otis, who succeeded him in
command, reported subsequently as follows:
"Until October 14 [1898], the United States troops in the
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.
"Perhaps the most deep-seated cause of Filipino insurrection
against Spanish authority was this unchecked growth of
ignorant, cruel, and oppressive ecclesiasticism. It was this
which weighed most heavily upon the people. It made the mere
question of gaining a livelihood difficult, but especially did
it strangle intellectual and moral growth. It not only
oppressed the Filipinos, but it overawed and dominated the
Spanish authorities. It was the power of the mendicant orders
which drove out the just Condé de Caspe, and later the
well-disposed and clement Blanco, which stimulated and
supported the frightful atrocities of the cruel Polavieja
during the revolution of 1896. Archbishop Nozaleda, a Spanish
monk of the Dominican order, was a leader in urging wholesale
and often wholly unjustifiable arrests, which were succeeded
by the torture and execution of hundreds of persons. It is
difficult for a mind reared in the freedom and culture of
modern Europe, or still freer America, to realize the horrible
excesses and actual mediæval cruelties which were committed in
the prisons of Manila and elsewhere in the islands upon Filipino
insurgents, or those accused of being in league with them,
during the revolution of 1896. The actual story of these
things as it is unfolded, not only from Filipino sources, but
from the Spanish archives of Manila, is like a scene evoked
from the long-buried and forgotten past in the middle ages.
Indeed, the only intelligible interpretation of events which
cast shame on the name of Spanish authority and Spanish
Christianity is found by reflecting that affairs in the
Philippines, just previous to the battle of Manila, were
controlled by ideas and forces which existed generally in
Europe previous to the Reformation,—ideas which slowly
retreated before the dawn of the new learning and the
liberation of the individual conscience."
H. Welsh,
The Other Man's Country,
chapter 1 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company).
{397}
In the other view there is an appeal to results which cannot
easily be divested of force. They are set forth in the
following:
"The ideals of civilization for the Spanish missionary priests
in the Philippines were substantially the same as those of
Bacon and Raleigh, of the founders of New England and the
founders of New York. In the mind of all, a civilized people
was one which lived under settled laws by steady labor, which
was more or less acquainted with the material progress made
amongst the races of Europe, and, as all would say, which was
Christian. The Spanish friars undertook the task of giving
such a civilization to the Malays of the Philippines, and no
other body of men of any race or any faith have accomplished
what they have done. A task of somewhat similar kind has been
attempted by others in our own day in the name of Christian
civilization but not the Catholic Church. Hawaii has been
under control of missionaries from New England for
seventy-five years more completely than the Philippines were
ever under that of the Spanish friars. The native kings
adopted the new creed and enforced its adoption on their
subjects by vigorous corporal punishments. The missionaries
were abundantly supplied with such resources of civilization
as money could buy, and they have grown wealthy on their
mission; but what has been the fate of the natives? They have
dwindled in numbers to a fourth of what they were when Messrs.
Bingham and Thurston entered their islands, their lands have
been taken by strangers, their government overthrown by brute
force, and the scanty remnant has dropped the religion imposed
on them. In the Philippines in a hundred and forty years a
million of Catholic natives has grown seven fold. In Hawaii
under missioners of the world's manufacture a hundred and
forty thousand of the same race has shrunk to thirty-eight
thousand. Have the promises of the Spanish friars or those of
the American ministers been the most truthfully kept? The
actual condition of the Catholic population formed by the work
of the religious orders should not be judged by the excesses
which have marked the present revolution. Many old Christian
nations have gone through similar experiences. It would be as
unreasonable to judge the Christianity of France by the Reign
of Terror as to condemn the Filipino population for the
atrocities sanctioned by Aguinaldo. The mass of the country
population has taken no part in these deeds of blood which are
the work of a small number of political adventurers and
aspirants for office by any means. Until lately revolutionary
disturbance was unknown in the Philippines. During three
centuries there was only one serious Indian rebellion, that of
Silan, in the province of Illocos, at the time of the English
invasion. The Spanish military force was always too small to
hold the islands had there been any real disaffection to the
Government. The whole force at Manila in the present war, as
given by General Otis, was only fifty-six hundred, and about
as many more represented the entire Spanish force among a
population of seven millions.
"The disposition of the Catholic Filipinos is essentially law
abiding. One of the friars lately driven from the islands by
the revolution assured the writer that in Panay, an island
with a population of half a million, a murder did not occur
more often than once or twice in a year. In our own country
last year the proportion was more than fifty times as great.
There is no forced labor as in the Dutch Indian colonies to
compel the native Filipinos to work, yet they support
themselves in content without any of the famines so common in
India under the boasted rule of civilized England. A sure
evidence of material prosperity is the growth of the
population, and of its religion a fair test is the proportion
of Catholic marriages, baptisms and religious interments to
the whole number. The proportion of marriages in 1806 to the
population among the natives administered by the friars was
one to every hundred and twenty, which is higher than England,
Germany, or any European country. The number of baptisms
exceeded the deaths by more than two and a half per cent, a
greater proportion than in our own land. Compare this with
Hawaii and one feels what a farce is the promise of increased
prosperity held out by the American Press as the result of the
expulsion of the Spanish friars. It is not easy to compare
accurately the intellectual development of the Catholic
Filipinos with American or European standards. The ideals of
civilization of the Catholic missioners were different from
those popular with English statesmen and their American
admirers. The friars did not believe that the accumulation of
wealth was the end of civilization, but the support of a large
population in fair comfort. There are no trusts and few
millionaires in the islands, but their population is six times
greater than that of California after fifty years of American
government. The test so often applied of reading and writing
among the population finds the Filipinos fairly up to the
standard of Europe at least. Of highly educated men the
proportion is not so large as in Europe, but it is not
inconsiderable, and neither in science nor in literature are
the descendants of the Malay pirates unrepresented in their
remote islands. The native languages have developed no
important literature of their own, but they have a fair supply
of translations from Spanish works in history, poetry, and
philosophy. In that they are superior to the Hindoo of British
India, though spoken by nearly a hundred millions. These are
facts that throw a strange light on the real meaning of
civilization as planted by the Spanish friars among a
barbarian race. Compare them with the fate of the Indian races
on our own territory and say what benefit the Filipinos may
expect from the advent of 'Anglo-Saxon' civilization."
Bryan J. Clinch
(American Catholic Quarterly Review,
volume 24, page 15).
These opposing views are suggestive of the seriousness of the
problem which the subject offers to the new authority in the
Philippines. The American Commission now studying such
problems in those islands has presented its first views
concerning the Spanish friars in a lengthy report, written by
Judge Taft, and transmitted to Washington as part of the
general report of the Commission, bearing date November 30,
1900. The passages quoted below contain what is most essential
in the interesting document:
"Ordinarily, the Government of the United States and its
servants have little or no concern with religious societies or
corporations and their members. With us, the Church is so
completely separated from the State that it is difficult to
imagine cases in which the policy of a Church in the selection
of its ministers and the assignment of them to duty can be
regarded as of political moment, or as a proper subject of
comment in the report of a public officer.
{398}
In the pacification of the Philippines by our Government,
however, it is impossible to ignore the very great part which
such a question plays. Excepting the Moros, who are Moslems,
and the wild tribes, who are pagans, the Philippine people
belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The total number of
Catholic souls shown by the Church registry in 1898 was
6,559,998. To care for these in that year there were in the
archipelago 746 regular parishes, 105 mission parishes and 116
missions, or 967 in all. Of the regular parishes all save 150
were administered by Spanish monks of the Dominican,
Augustinian, or Franciscan orders. Natives were not admitted
to these orders. There were two kinds of Augustinians in these
islands, the shod and the unshod. The latter are called
Recolletos, and are merely an offshoot from the original order
of St. Augustine.
"By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain, all the
Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Franciscans acting
as parish priests were driven from their parishes to take
refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned,
and were not all released until by the advance of the American
troops it became impossible for the insurgents to retain them.
Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 1896, only 472 remain.
The remainder were either killed or died, returned to Spain,
or went to China or South America. There were also in the
islands engaged in missions and missionary parishes, 42
Jesuits, 16 Capuchins, and six Benedictines, and while many of
these left their missions because of disturbed conditions they
do not seem to have been assaulted or imprisoned for any
length of time. In addition to the members of the monastic
orders, there were 150 native secular clergymen in charge of
small parishes who were not disturbed. There were also many
native priests in the larger parishes who assisted the friar
curates and they have remained, and they have been and are
acting as parish priests. The burning political question,
discussion of which strongly agitates the people of the
Philippines, is whether the members of the four great orders
of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and the Recolletos
shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by
the revolution. Colloquially the term 'friars' includes the
members of these four orders. The Jesuits, Capuchins,
Benedictines, and the Paulists, of whom there are a few
teachers here, have done only mission work or teaching, and
have not aroused the hostility existing against the four large
orders to which we are now about to refer. …
"The truth is that the whole government of Spain in these
islands rested on the friars. To use the expression of the
Provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were 'the pedestal,
or foundation, of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands,'
which being removed, 'the whole structure would topple over.'
… Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there
until superannuation. He was, therefore, a constant political
factor for a generation. The same was true of the Archbishop
and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in
the island were here for not longer than four years, and more
often for a less period. The friars, priests, and bishops,
therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well
organized political force in the islands which dominated
policies. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a
course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was
invariably shortened by monastic influence. Of the four great
orders, one, the Franciscans, is not permitted to own
property, except convents and schools. This is not true of the
other three. They own some valuable business property in
Manila, and have large amounts of money to lend. But the chief
property of these orders is in agricultural land. The total
amount owned by the three orders in the Philippines is
approximately 403,000 acres. Of this 121,000 acres is in the
Province of Cavité alone. The whole is distributed as follows:
Cavité, Province of Luzon, 121,747 acres; Laguna, Province of
Luzon, 62,172 acres; Manila, Province of Luzon, 50,145;
Bulacan, Province of Luzon, 39,341; Morong, Province of Luzon,
4,940; Bataan, Province of Luzon, 1,000; Cagayan, Province of
Luzon, 49,400; Island of Cebu, 16,413; Island of Mindoro,
58,455. Total, 403,713. …
"It cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power
which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil
officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for
belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression,
of narrowing restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for
which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal
functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as
they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil
and political control. The revolutions against Spain's
sovereignty began as movements against the friars. … Having in
view these circumstances, the statement of the bishops and friars
that the mass of the people in these islands, except only a
few of the leading men of each town and the native clergy, are
friendly to them cannot be accepted as accurate. All the evidence
derived from every source but the friars themselves shows
clearly that the feeling of hatred for the friars is well nigh
universal and permeates all classes. In the provinces of
Cavité, Laguna, and Bulacan, as well as in the country
districts of Manila, the political feeling against the friars
has in it also an element of agrarianism. For generations the
friars have been lords of these immense manors, upon which,
since 1880, they have paid no taxes, while every 'hombre'
living on them paid his cedula, worked out a road tax, and, if
he were in business of any kind, paid his industrial impost. …
"In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that
the people should regard the return of the friars to their
parishes as a return to the conditions existing before the
revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate
that under the sovereignty of the United States the position
of the friar as curate would be different from that under
Spain. This is not a religious question, though it concerns
the selection of religious ministers for religious
communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church. …
The depth of their feeling against the friars may be measured
by the fact that it exists against those who until two years
ago administered the sacraments of the Church upon which they
feel so great dependence and for which they have so profound a
respect. The feeling against the friars is solely political.
The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman
Catholic religion any save those who are to them the
embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful.
{399}
If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the
same police protection which the American Government is bound
to extend to any other Spanish subjects in these islands, the
people will regard it as the act of that Government. They have
so long been used to have every phase of their conduct regulated
by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will
be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the
friars as curates with their old, all-absorbing functions. It
is likely to have the same effect on them that the return of
General Weyler under an American Commission as Governor of
Cuba would have had on the people of that island.
"Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these
islands may therefore properly have the liveliest concern in a
matter which, though on its surface only ecclesiastical, is,
in the most important phase of it, political, and fraught with
the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of
the country, in which it is their duty to set up civil
government. … It is suggested that the friars, if they
returned, would uphold American sovereignty and be efficient
instruments in securing peace and good order, whereas the
native priests who now fill the parishes are, many of them,
active insurgent agents or in strong sympathy with the cause.
It is probably true that a considerable number of the Filipino
priests are hostile to American sovereignty, largely because
they fear that the Catholic Church will deem it necessary, on
the restoration of complete peace, to bring back the friars or
to elevate the moral tone of the priesthood by introducing
priests from America or elsewhere. But it is certain that the
enmity among the people against the American Government caused
by the return of the friars would far outweigh the advantage
of efforts to secure and preserve the allegiance of the people
to American Sovereignty which might be made by priests who are
still subjects of a monarchy with which the American
Government has been lately at war, and who have not the
slightest sympathy with the political principles of civil
liberty which the American Government represents.
"We have set forth the facts upon this important issue because
we do not think they ought to be or can be ignored. We
earnestly hope that those who control the policy of the
Catholic Church in these islands with the same sagacity and
prevision which characterize all its important policies, will
see that it would be most unfortunate for the Philippine
Islands, for the Catholic Church and for the American
Government to attempt to send back the friars, and that some
other solution of the difficulties should be found. … The
friars have large property interests in these islands which
the United States Government is bound by treaty obligations
and by the law of its being to protect. It is natural and
proper that the friars should feel a desire to remain where so
much of their treasure is. … It would avoid some very
troublesome agrarian disturbances between the friars and their
quondam tenants if the Insular Government could buy these
large haciendas of the friars, and sell them out in small
holdings to the present tenants, who, forgiven for the rent
due during the two years of war, would recognize the title of
the Government without demur, and gladly accept an
opportunity, by payment of the price in small instalments, to
become absolute owners of that which they and their ancestors
have so long cultivated. With the many other calls upon the
insular treasury a large financial operation like this could
probably not be conducted to a successful issue without the
aid of the United States Government, either by a direct loan
or by a guaranty of bonds to be issued for the purpose. The
bonds or loans could be met gradually from the revenues of the
islands, while the proceeds of the land, which would sell
readily, could be used to constitute a school fund. This
object, if declared, would make the plan most popular, because
the desire for education by the Filipinos of all tribes is
very strong, and gives encouraging promise of the future
mental development of a now uneducated and ignorant people.
The provincials of the orders were understood in their
evidence to intimate a willingness on the part of the orders
to sell their agricultural holdings if a satisfactory price
should be paid. What such a price would be we are unable
without further investigation to state. If an agreement could
not be reached it is probable, though upon this we express no
definite opinion, that there would be ground in the
circumstances for a resort to condemnation proceedings."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901.
Act of the United States Congress increasing army and
authorizing the enlistment of native troops.
Rejection of the proviso of Senator Hoar.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (February-March).
Congressional grant of military, civil and judicial
powers for the government of the Islands to persons whom the
President may appoint.
The so-called "Spooner Amendment."
During the first session of the 56th Congress the following
bill was introduced in the U. S. Senate by Mr. Spooner, of
Wisconsin, but received no action:
"Be it enacted, etc., That when all insurrection against the
sovereignty and authority of the United States in the
Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, shall
have been completely suppressed by the military and naval
forces of the United States, all military, civil, and judicial
powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the
President of the United States shall direct for maintaining
and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."
Half the following session of Congress passed before any
disposition to take the action proposed by Senator Spooner was
shown. Then the matter was brought to notice and pressed by
the following communication to the Secretary of War, from the
Commission in the Philippines:
"If you approve, ask transmission to proper Senators and
Representatives of following: Passage of Spooner bill at
present session greatly needed to secure best result from
improving conditions. Until its passage no purely central
civil government can be established, no public franchises of
any kind granted, and no substantial investment of private
capital in internal improvements possible." This was repeated
soon afterwards more urgently by cable in the message
following:
{400}
"Sale of public lands and allowance of mining claims
impossible until Spooner bill. Hundreds of American miners on
ground awaiting law to perfect claims. More coming. Good
element in pacification. Urgently recommend amendment Spooner
bill so that its operation be not postponed until complete
suppression of all insurrection, but only until in President's
judgment civil government may be safely established."
The request of the Philippine Commission, endorsed by the
Secretary of War, was communicated to Congress by the
President, who said in doing so: "I earnestly recommend
legislation under which the government of the islands may have
authority to assist in their peaceful industrial development."
Thereupon the subject was taken up in Congress, not as
formulated in Senator Spooner's bill of the previous session,
but in the form of an amendment to the Army Appropriation
Bill, then pending in the Senate. The amendment, as submitted
to discussion in the Senate on the 25th of February, 1901, was
in the following terms:
"All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern
the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaties
concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, and at
Washington on the 7th day of November, 1900, shall, until
otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and
persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President
of the United States shall direct, for the establishment of
civil government and for maintaining and protecting the
inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their
liberty, property, and religion: Provided, That all franchises
granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation
of the right to alter, amend, or repeal the same. Until a
permanent government shall have been established in said
archipelago full reports shall be made to Congress, on or
before the first day of each regular session, of all
legislative acts and proceedings of the temporary government
instituted under the provisions hereof, and full reports of
the acts and doings of said government and as to the condition
of the archipelago and its people shall be made to the
President, including all information which may be useful to
the Congress in providing for a more permanent government."
Strenuous opposition was made, firstly to the hasty grafting
of so profoundly important a measure of legislation on an
appropriation bill, and secondly to the measure itself, as
being a delegation of powers to the President which did
violence to the Constitution and to all the precedents and
principles of the American government, and also as having
objects which would not only do flagrant wrong to the people
of the Philippine Islands, but bring dishonor on those of the
United States. The military authority already exercised by the
President in the Philippines sufficed fully, it was contended,
for every purpose of temporary or provisional government
there, except in its lack of ability to grant franchises and
to dispose of the public lands. Hence it was freely charged
that the controlling influences which pressed this measure on
the government came from capitalists and speculators who were
reaching after valuable franchises, mining rights and land
grants in the archipelago. Said Senator Daniel in the debate:
"So far as any legislation which looks forward to the opening
of the way to civil government may be involved to the
softening of the conditions which exist, to the amelioration
of the distresses which are upon the Philippine people, I
would give most cheerful acquiescence. But because we desire
to do these things in a good spirit, in a resolute and
patriotic spirit, let us not permit the provocation of
difficult conditions to lead us into enacting any kind of
provision of law that is not necessary to these ends. Let us
not undertake to give to the President of the United States
any power of disposing of the permanent assets of the
Philippine people; let us not put him in the attitude of being
a franchise giver or a franchise seller or a franchise lessor.
The franchises of those islands—their rivers, their ferries,
their streets, their roads, the thousand and one privileges
which are granted by public authority—are as important and as
valuable to that people and as permanently associated with
their happiness and their prosperity as are their fields or
their mines or their fisheries or anything else which belongs
to their country. … It is true there is the reservation of the
right to alter, amend, or repeal, but while that is legally
broad enough for any remedial legislation whatsoever to
follow, we know that practically it is of very small
consequence. If capital goes in and invests itself in
improvements which are in themselves of a permanent nature, if
railroads are constructed, telegraph lines run, telephones
established, ferries built, steamers and boats, gas
establishments, electrical establishments—if those things are
disposed of, the man who once gets in will never be gotten
out. In all such affairs possession is nine points of the law
before they get into court, where it is generally made the
tenth."
Senator Hoar called attention "to the fact that the report of
the Taft commission urges that power be given to sell the
public lands at once, as it is necessary for their
development, and a large amount of capital is there now
clamoring to be invested," and he remarked: "So I suppose that
one of the chief purposes of this is that the public lands in
the Philippine Islands may be sold before the people of the
islands have any chance whatever to have a voice in their
sale." He then quoted the following passages from the report
of the Taft commission:
"The commission has received a sufficient number of
applications for the purchase of public land to know that
large amounts of American capital are only awaiting the
opportunity to invest in the rich agricultural field which may
here be developed. In view of the decision that the military
government has no power to part with the public land belonging
to the United States, and that the power rests alone in
Congress, it becomes very essential, to assist the development
of these islands and their prosperity, that Congressional
authority be vested in the government of the islands to adopt
a proper public-land system, and to sell the land upon proper
terms. There should, of course, be restrictions preventing the
acquisition of too large quantities by any individual or
corporation, but those restrictions should only be imposed
after giving due weight to the circumstances that capital can
not be secured for the development of the islands unless the
investment may be sufficiently great to justify the
expenditure of large amounts for expensive machinery and
equipments.
{401}
Especially is this true in the cultivation of sugar land. …

Restricted powers of a military government referred to in
discussing the public lands are also 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." "In other words," said Senator Hoar, "the
leading, principal, bald proposal on which this amendment
rests is that before those 10,000,000 people are allowed any
share in their own government whatever their property is to be
sold by Americans to Americans in large quantities, as on the
whole the best means of pacification—that the best way to
pacify a man is to have one foreign authority to sell his
property and another to buy it." An amendment to the
amendment, offered by Senator Bacon, reserving to Congress the
right to annul any grant or concession made, or any law
enacted, by any governmental authority created under the
powers proposed to be conferred on the President; another
offered, by Senator Vest, providing that "no judgment, order,
nor act by any of said officials so appointed shall conflict
with the Constitution and laws of the United States," and
still others of somewhat kindred aims, were voted down; but
the influence of Senator Hoar prevailed with the Senate so far
as to induce its acceptance of the following important
modification of the so-called "Spooner Amendment":
"Provided, That no sale or lease or other disposition of the
public land, or the timber thereon, or the mining rights
therein, shall be made: And provided further, That no
franchise shall be granted which is not approved by the
President of the United States, and is not, in his judgment,
clearly necessary for the immediate government of the islands
and indispensable for the interests of the people thereof, and
which can not, without great public mischief, be postponed
until the establishment of a permanent civil government, and
all such franchises shall terminate one year after the
establishment of such civil government."
With this proviso added, the "Spooner amendment" was adopted
by the Senate on the 26th of February (yeas 45, nays 27, not
voting 16), and agreed to by the House on the 1st of March
(yeas 161, nays 136, not voting 56).
Congressional Record,
February 25-March 1, 1901.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March).
Organization of provincial governments.
Establishment of a department of public education.
Proposed tariff.
Date fixed for cessation of military regime.
On the 3d of March, the President of the Philippine
Commission, Judge Taft, addressed a cable despatch to the U.
S. Secretary of War in which he reported: "Commission has last
three weeks organized five provincial governments—Pampanga,
Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan, Bataan—last two are Tagalog
provinces. Attended each provincial capital in a body; met by
appointment Presidentes, Councillors, and principal men of
towns; explained provisions general provincial act and special
bill for particular province and invited discussion natives
present of both bills. Conventions thus held very
satisfactory; amendments suggested, considered, special bills
enacted, appointments followed. … In three large provinces
natives appointed provisional Governors. In Bataan, on
petition, eight out of nine towns, volunteer officer
appointed. In Tarlac feeling between loyal factions required
appointment American. … In compliance with urgent native
invitations leave March 11 for south to organize provinces
Tayabas, Romblon, Iloilo, Capiz, Zamboanga, such others are
ready. Returning shall organize Zambales, Union, Cagayan,
Ilocos Norte. Military Governor has recommended organization
Batangas, Cavité, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, but shall delay action
as to these until return from northern and southern trips."
On the 18th of March it was announced from Washington that a
number of recent Acts of the Philippine Commission had been
received at the War Department, among them one which
establishes a general department of public instruction, with a
central office at Manila, under the direction of a general
superintendent, to be appointed by the commission, at a salary
of $6,000 a year. "Schools are to be established in every
pueblo in the archipelago where practicable, and those already
established shall be reorganized where necessary. There are to
be ten school divisions in the archipelago, each with a
division superintendent, and there is to be a superior
advisory board, composed of the general superintendent and
four members to be appointed by the Philippine Commission, to
consider the general subject of education in the islands and
make regulations. The English language, as soon as
practicable, shall be made the basis of all public
instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until
replaced by trained teachers. Authority is given to the general
superintendent to obtain from the United States 1,000 trained
teachers, at salaries of not less than $75 nor more than $100
a month, the exact salary to be fixed according to the
efficiency of the teacher. The act provides that no teacher or
other person "shall teach or criticise the doctrines of any
church, religious sect or denomination or shall attempt to
influence the pupils for or against any church or religious
sect in any public school." Violation of this section is made
punishable by summary dismissal from the public service. It is
provided, however, that it may be lawful for the priest or
minister of the pueblo where the school is situated to teach
religion for half an hour three times a week in the school
building to pupils whose parents desire it. But if any priest,
minister or religious teacher use this opportunity "for the
purpose of arousing disloyalty to the United States or of
discouraging the attendance of pupils or interfering with the
discipline of schools," the division superintendent may forbid
such offending priest from entering the school building
thereafter. The act also provides for a normal school at
Manila for the education of natives in the science of
teaching. It appropriates $400,000 for school buildings,
$220,000 for text books and other supplies for the current
calendar year, $25,000 for the normal school, $15,000 for the
organization and maintenance of a trade school in Manila and
the same amount for a school of agriculture.
{402}
The new tariff for the Islands, which the Commission had been
long engaged in framing, was submitted, in March, to the
government at Washington for approval. "In his letter of
transmittal Judge Taft says that the proposed bill follows
largely the classification of the Cuban tariff, 'but has been
considerably expanded by the introduction of articles
requiring special treatment here by reason of different
surroundings and greater distance from the markets.' Judge
Taft says also that the disposition of the business interests
of the islands is to accept any tariff the commission
proposes, provided only that the duties are specific and not
ad valorem. The question of revenue was kept steadily in view
in the preparation of the schedules, but it was not the only
consideration. Raw materials of Philippine industries, tools,
implements and machinery of production, materials of
transportation, the producers and transmitters of power and
food products are taxed as lightly as possible. … Export
duties are levied on only six articles—hemp, indigo, rice,
sugar, cocoanuts, fresh or as copra, and tobacco. The free
list admits natural mineral waters, trees, shoots and plants,
gold, copper and silver ores, fresh fruits, garden produce,
eggs, milk, ice and fresh meat, except poultry and game. There
is also a list of articles conditionally free of duty. The
importation of explosives is prohibited, but that of firearms
is not."
It is announced from Washington that "Judge Taft and General
MacArthur have agreed upon July 1 as the date for the
establishment of civil government in the Philippines. The
military regime in the islands will therefore cease on June
30, when General Chaffee will relieve General MacArthur of the
command, and Governor Taft will be inaugurated the next day
with considerable ceremony."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March-April).
Capture of Aguinaldo.
His oath of allegiance to the United States.
His address to his countrymen, counselling peace.
A stratagem, executed with great daring by General Funston of
the American forces, accomplished the capture of the Filipino
leader, Aguinaldo, on the 23d of March. From intercepted
correspondence, it had been learned that Aguinaldo, then
occupying his headquarters at Palanan, Isabela Province, was
expecting to be joined by some riflemen, whom his brother had
been ordered to send to him from central Luzon. On this,
General Funston conceived the plan of equipping a number of
native troops who should pass themselves off as the expected
reinforcements, several American officers going with them
ostensibly as prisoners, the hope being that Aguinaldo might
thus be reached and taken by surprise. General MacArthur
approved the scheme, and it was carried out with success. The
party was made up of 78 Macabebe scouts, four Tagalogs who had
formerly been officers in the insurgent army, and General
Funston, Captain Newton, Lieutenants Hazzard and Mitchel, who
acted the part of prisoners. They were taken by gunboat from
Cavite to a point above Baler, whence they made their way on
foot, sending a message in advance that the expected
reinforcements were on the way and had captured some prisoners
en route. The following brief narrative of what occurred
subsequently is taken from a newspaper account of the
expedition:
"For six days the expedition marched over an exceedingly
difficult country, covering 90 miles. When the men reached a
point eight miles from Aguinaldo's camp they were almost
exhausted from lack of food and the fatigue of the march. They
stopped at this place and sent a message to Aguinaldo,
requesting him to send food to them. The ruse thus far had
worked with the greatest success, and on March 22d, when
Aguinaldo sent provisions, it was seen that he did not have
the slightest suspicion. With the food he sent word that the
Americans were not wanted in his camp, but instructing their
supposed captors to treat them kindly. On March 23d the march
was resumed, the Macabebe officers starting an hour ahead of
the main body of the expedition. The 'prisoners,' under guard,
followed them. When the party arrived at Aguinaldo's camp a
bodyguard of 50 riflemen was paraded, and the officers were
received at Aguinaldo's house, which was situated on the
Palanan River. After some conversation with him, in which they
gave the alleged details of their suppositious engagement with
an American force, they made excuses and quietly left the
house. They at once gave orders in an undertone for the
Macabebes to get in position and fire on the bodyguard. The
order was obeyed with the greatest rapidity, and three volleys
were delivered. The insurgents were panic-stricken by the
sudden turn in affairs, and they broke and ran in
consternation. Two of them, however, were killed and eighteen
wounded. Simultaneously with the delivery of the volleys the
American officers rushed into Aguinaldo's house. Major
Alhambra, one of Aguinaldo's staff, had been shot in the face.
He, however, was determined not to be captured and he jumped
from a window into the river and disappeared. Two captains and
four lieutenants made their escape in a similar manner.
Aguinaldo, Colonel Villa, his chief of staff, and Santiago
Barcelona, the insurgent treasurer, did not have time to make
an attempt to get away before General Funston and the others
were upon them, demanding their surrender. Seeing that the
situation was hopeless, they gave themselves up. Aguinaldo was
furious at having been caught, but later he became
philosophical and declared that the ruse by which he had been
captured was the only one which would have proved successful
if the Americans had tried for 20 years. One of the Macabebes
was wounded. The party stayed two days at the camp and then
marched overland to the coast, where the Vicksburg, whose
arrival was excellently timed, picked them up and brought them
back to Manila."
On the 2d of April, a despatch from General MacArthur to the
War Department announced that Aguinaldo, on the advice of
Chief Justice Arellano, had taken the following oath of
allegiance to the United States: "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; 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 the said islands, and
will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence
with or give intelligence to an enemy of the United States,
nor will I abet, harbor or protect such enemy; that I impose
upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental
reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God."
{403}
On the 19th of April, Aguinaldo issued the following address
to his countrymen: "I believe I am not in error in presuming
that the unhappy fate to which my adverse fortune has led me
is not a surprise to those who have been familiar with the
progress of the war. The lessons taught with a full meaning,
and which have recently come to my knowledge, suggest with
irresistible force that a complete termination of hostilities
and lasting peace are not only desirable, but absolutely
essential to the welfare of the Philippine Islands. The
Filipinos have never been dismayed at their weakness, nor have
they faltered in following the path pointed out by their
fortitude and courage. The time has come, however, in which
they find their advance along this path to be impeded by an
irresistible force, which, while it restrains them, yet
enlightens their minds and opens to them another course,
presenting them the cause of peace. This cause has been
joyfully embraced by the majority of my fellow countrymen who
already have united around the glorious sovereign banner of
the United States. In this banner they repose their trust and
believe that under its protection the Filipino people will
attain all those promised liberties which they are beginning
to enjoy. The country has declared unmistakably in favor of
peace. So be it. There has been enough blood, enough tears and
enough desolation. This wish cannot be ignored by the men
still in arms, if they are animated by a desire to serve our
noble people, which has thus clearly manifested its will. So
do I respect this will, now that it is known to me. After
mature deliberation, I resolutely proclaim to the world that I
cannot refuse to heed the voice of a people longing for peace,
nor the lamentations of thousands of families yearning to see
their dear ones enjoying the liberty and the promised
generosity of the great American Nation. By acknowledging and
accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the
Philippine Archipelago, as I now do, and without any
reservation whatsoever, I believe that I am serving thee, my
beloved country. May happiness be thine."
PHŒNICIANS, The:
Modified estimates of their influence upon early
European civilization.
See (in this volume)
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
PILLAGER INDIAN OUTBREAK.
See (in this volume)
INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
PLAGUE, The Bubonic.
For years the plague has "continued to breed in various inner
parts of Asia, and in 1894, coming from the Chinese province
of Yunnan, it invaded Canton, taking there 60,000 victims in a
few weeks. Thence it spread to Hong Kong, reached next year
the island of Haïnan and Macao, invaded Formosa in 1896, and
in the autumn of the same year appeared at Bombay. In the big
city of India it found all necessary conditions for breeding,
unchecked, for several months in succession: famine,
overcrowding, and the absence of all preventive measures; and
from Bombay it was carried by rail and road, to different
parts of India. … Happily enough, the plague is no longer the
mysterious, revengeful being which it used to be for our
ancestors. Its cause and modes of propagation are well known.
It is an infectious disease with a short period of incubation.
From four to six days after infection takes place, a sudden
loss of forces—often a full prostration, accompanied by a high
fever-sets in. A bubo appears, and soon grows to the size of
an egg. Death soon follows. If not—there is a chance of slow
and painful recovery; but that chance is very small, because
even under the best conditions of nursing, the mortality is
seldom less than four out of each five cases of illness. As to
the means of propagation of the plague, they are many. The
poison may infect a wound or a scratch; it may be ingested in
food; it may be simply inhaled. Dust from an infected house
was sufficient to infect healthy rats; and when healthy rats
were shut up in one cage with unhealthy ones, all caught the
disease and died. Already in 1881 Netten Redcliffe and Dr.
Pichon indicated that before the plague attacks men it
destroys mice and rats. This was fully confirmed in 1894 by
the Japanese and French bacteriologists Kitasato and Yersin,
at Hong Kong, and by Dr. Rennie, of the Chinese Customs, at
Canton. Masses of dead rats were seen in the streets of the
infested parts of Hong Kong, and the keeper of the west gates
of Canton collected and buried 24,000 of these animals. Dr.
Rennie also pointed out that among those inhabitants of Canton
who lived in boats on the river there were no cases of plague,
except a few imported from town, so that even rich Cantonese
took to living in boats; and he explained the immunity of the
boat-dwellers by the absence of infection through rats. The
worst is, however, that swine, and even goats and buffaloes,
snakes and jackals, are attacked by the plague. …
"As soon as the plague broke out at Hong Kong, the great
Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato and the French doctor Yersin,
who is well known for his work with Roux on the serum
treatment of diphtheria, were already on the spot. Yersin
obtained from the English authorities permission to erect a
small straw hut in the yard of the chief hospital, and there
he began his researches. Both Kitasato and Yersin had no
difficulty in ascertaining that the plague buboes teemed with
special bacteria, which had the shape of tiny microscopic
sticklets, thickened at their ends. To isolate these bacteria,
to cultivate them in artificial media, and to ascertain the
deadly effects of these cultures upon animals, was soon done
by such masters in bacteriology as Kitasato and Yersin. The
cause of the plague was thus discovered. It was evident that
infected rats and swine—especially swine with the Chinese, who
keep them in their houses—were spreading the disease, in
addition to men themselves. The same bacteria teemed in the
dead animals. As to men, the discharges from their buboes, and
even, in many cases, their expectorations, were full of plague
bacteria. Besides, Yersin soon noticed that in his
'laboratory,' where he was dissecting animals killed by the
plague, the flies died in numbers. He found that they were
infested with the same bacteria, and carried them about:
inoculations of bacteria obtained from the flies at once
provoked the plague in guinea-pigs. Ants, gnats, and other
insects may evidently spread infection in the same way, while
in and round the infested houses the soil is impregnated with
the same bacteria. As soon as the pest microbe became known,
experiments were begun, at the Paris Institut Pasteur, for
finding the means to combat it; and in July 1895 Yersin,
Calmette, and Borel could already announce that some very
promising results had been obtained."
P. Kropotkin,
Recent Science
(Nineteenth Century, July, 1897).
{404}
Of the first appearance of the plague in India, at Bombay, and
the early stages of its spread in that country, the Viceroy,
Lord Elgin, made the following report to the Secretary of
State for India, on the 27th of January, 1897: "The first
official intimation of the outbreak which reached us was in a
telegram from the Government of Bombay, dated the 29th
September 1896. The disease was then reported to be of a mild
type, and at first it showed no tendency to increase. …
Throughout the months of October and November the disease made
little or no progress, and the number of deaths reported a day
averaged nine. Early in December there was a marked increase,
and the number of deaths reported daily from the 2nd to the
23rd (inclusive) was about 32. From the 24th December onwards
there was another marked increase, and the number of deaths
reported from that date to the 14th January (inclusive)
averaged about 51. The next week shows a further increase, the
reported number of deaths averaging 74 a day. The total number
of deaths reported during October was 276; during November,
268; during December, 1,160; and from the 1st to the 25th
January, 1,444. The total number of deaths reported from the
beginning of the outbreak thus amounts to 3,148. We have
reason to fear that all deaths from the plague have not been
reported as such, and that the true mortality from the disease
is higher than is shown by the above figures. … For a
considerable time, except for a few imported cases in some
towns in Gujarat, the outbreak was confined to Bombay itself,
but on the 23rd of December we learnt from the Government of
Bombay that the plague had broken out in Karachi. … The total
number of deaths that have been reported in Karachi, from the
beginning of the outbreak up to the 24th January, is 608. It
will be observed that the disease has been very malignant in
Karachi, and that almost all the cases reported have been
fatal. As soon as the Surgeon General with the Government of
Bombay reported to that Government that he had seen cases of a
mild type of bubonic plague in the city, preventive measures
were adopted and a Committee of medical experts were appointed
to report on the disease and the situation. The Municipal
Corporation have from the outset required the infected
quarters to undergo a thorough and systematic cleaning and
disinfection; and they have also pushed on vigorously other
sanitary measures, such as the improvement of house
connections and the construction of surface drains in quarters
where the drainage was defective. A house-to-house visitation
by medical officers has also been instituted. The Corporation
have sanctioned liberal measures towards these ends, and the
executive officers have displayed great energy in carrying
them out. … We have informed the Government of Bombay that we
consider it necessary that the plan of removing all persons
from infected houses, and thoroughly cleansing and
disinfecting the buildings, should be carried out, and we have
asked His Excellency in Council, if he agrees, to report the
measures that are adopted to bring the plan into general
effect."
To the above suggestion that all persons be removed from
infected houses, the government of Bombay replied, on the 12th
of February: "His Excellency is advised that, to give full
effect to such a proposal, at the lowest computation, 30,000
persons belonging to different races, castes, and creeds would
need to be provided with temporary dwellings. There is no site
within the limits of the Bombay municipality which would
accommodate a tenth of this number. Great difficulty has
attended all attempts at the segregation of healthy inmates of
infected houses hitherto made, and very limited success bas
been achieved. From the beginning of the outbreak of this
disease it has been found that the native inhabitants of the
city are very reluctant to leave their houses or to allow any
member of their family afflicted with the disease to be taken
away. Indeed, their dread of the disease itself appears to be
hardly so powerful as their horror of being removed from their
houses. Ignorance and superstition prevent them from
discerning either that removal to a hospital is good for the
sick or removal [from] infected dwellings good for the
healthy, and they are far more easily moved by fear of the
municipal and police authorities than by any realisation of
the benefits that will accrue from a sensible course of
action. It is estimated that not less than 300,000 persons
have already fled from Bombay, moved so to do, not only by
fear of the plague, but quite as much, if not more, by an
unfounded and unreasonable fear of what might happen to them
at the hands of the police and municipal authorities were they
to remain."
Contending with such obstacles to the use of the most
effective measures for checking the spread of the disease, the
authorities at Bombay and elsewhere, who seem to have worked
with energy, saw little to encourage their efforts for some
time. In a second report to the Secretary of State for India,
made February 10, Lord Elgin was compelled to write: "We much
regret that we are unable to report that the plague shows any
signs of abating. In both Bombay and Karachi there has been an
increase in the daily number of seizures and deaths since the
beginning of the current month." But, a month later, on the
10th of March, the Viceroy reported that "the position of
affairs in Bombay is distinctly better. There has been a
decrease in the reported number of plague seizures and deaths,
and the total daily mortality from all causes shows a marked
diminution. During the week ending the 22nd February, the
average daily number of seizures and deaths was 115 and 117,
respectively; during the following week the daily average fell
to 107 and 99, whilst during the period March 2nd to March 8th
it has been 99 and 84. … Persons are now returning to the
quarters of Bombay, which are comparatively free from plague,
from the more infected outlying suburbs, and the Government of
Bombay have therefore found it necessary to watch persons
entering as well as those leaving Bombay. In the suburbs of
Kurla, Bandora, and Bhiwandi the plague continues to be
severe. Outside Bombay in the Presidency proper the number of
indigenous cases has increased, and the disease shows a
tendency to spread, especially in the Thana and Surat
districts. … Outside Karachi the plague shows no tendency to
spread in Sind, and Sukkur is the only other place from which
indigenous cases have been reported."
Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications
(Papers by Command: C.-8386, 1897; and C.-8511, 1897).
{405}
From that time there appears to have been a nearly steady
subsidence of the disease until the following September, when
it showed renewed virulence at Poona, and began to be newly
spread, invading districts in the Punjab and elsewhere outside
of the Bombay Presidency. By the middle of November Poona was
substantially empty of inhabitants, except those stricken with
the disease and those who bravely cared for the sick and dying.
In December there was a fresh outbreak in Bombay, which soon
became more deadly than that of the previous winter and
spring. By the beginning of February, 1898, and through March,
the deaths from plague alone in Bombay had risen above a
thousand a week. Then another subsidence occurred, followed by
another recrudescence of the disease in August, and another
decline in October. But the variations in other districts were
not uniform with those in Bombay. At the end of 1898, the
total of mortality from plague in all the afflicted districts
of India, reckoning from the beginning, was believed to exceed
100,000, including 70,000 in the Bombay Presidency and Sind
(28,000 in the city of Bombay), and 2,000 in the Punjab. In
Calcutta there had been but 150 deaths. Although the measures
taken for checking the spread of the pestilence were far less
stringent than they would have been among people more capable
of understanding what they meant and what their importance
was, they alarmed the religious jealousies of both the Hindus
and the Mohammedans, and were resisted and resented with
dangerous fury at a number of times. At Poona, in June, 1897,
two British officials were murdered by young Brahmins, who had
been excited to the deed by native journals, the language of
which was so violent that the government found it necessary to
prosecute several for sedition. At Bombay, in March, 1898,
when the plague was at its worst, there were very serious
riots, in which a number of Europeans were killed, and troops
were called to the help of the police before the frenzied mob
could be overcome.
Again, in 1899, there was a revival of the disease in India,
especially at Bombay, during the winter, with a decline in
April and fresh virulence in September. At the end of the year
the estimate of total mortality from plague in India since the
beginning was 250,000.
Of the wider spreading of the pestilence during 1900 the
following summary of information is given in the annual report
of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, in connection
with details of quarantine measures: "The Surgeon-General
reports that plague has been more widely distributed during
the year than was ever known in history, and for the first
time obtained lodgment in the Western Hemisphere, at Santos,
Brazil, in October, 1899. By this it is not meant that the
disease has been actually more prevalent than before, but that
its points of contact have embraced nearly every civilized
country in the world, though its prompt recognition and
application of modern methods have either entirely prevented
its spread or have caused it to disappear after a short period
of infection. The scientific knowledge of the disease renders
it far less to be dreaded than before, but increase in rapid
communication between different parts of the world facilitates
its transportation. In illustration, the fact is cited that 20
vessels have been reported, arriving at as many principal
seaports in different parts of the world, on which plague was
discovered on arrival or had manifested itself during the
voyage. As heretofore, its chief ravages have been in India,
where preventive measures have been hindered by religious
fanaticism. In India during the year there were 66,294 deaths.
Notable outbreaks of the disease occurred in Kobe and in
Formosa, Japan, at Oporto, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Honolulu,
Sydney, Mauritius, Hongkong, and Glasgow.
"In December, 1899, on account of the apparent spread of this
disease, 12 commissioned officers were detailed by order of
the President for duty in the offices of the United States
consuls at the principal ports in England and on the
Continent. In June, the disease fortunately not having become
as widespread as anticipated, they were recalled, with the
exception of five, who are still retained for the purpose of
furnishing information and for service at any needed point.
Two of those thus retained, when the plague was announced at
Glasgow, Scotland, on August 28, 1900, were immediately sent
to that point and began inspection of vessels for the United
States and also for Canada, by request of that Government,
thus enabling vessels to be entered at ports on this side
without undue restraint. In the laboratory of the Service,
scientific investigations as to the viability of the plague
bacillus and the methods and efficiency of disinfection have
been conducted, and the results, together with excerpts from
all available literature hearing upon the prevention of
plague, have been published in the Public Health Reports,
forming, for this year, a volume containing most complete
information upon this disease. About 700,000 doses of
Haffkine's prophylactic were also prepared in the laboratory
and sent to the United States quarantine officers at home and
abroad, together with large quantities of Yersin's serum,
purchased early in the year from the Pasteur Institute in
Paris. In these two preparations, the one (Haffkine) a
prophylactic and the other (Yersin) both prophylactic and a
cure, the Surgeon-General says that science has effective
methods of combating the spread of this disease."
United States, Secretary of the Treasury,
Annual Report, December 4, 1900.
The "antitoxin, or serum, first prepared by Professor Haffkine
as a plague inoculation, called Haffkine's prophylactic, is
now being used in Bombay and western India with remarkable
results. This prophylactic is prepared by first taking the
plague bacilli, or the young germs, from a person affected
with the plague and cultivating them. These microbes are
killed by artificial means and a high degree of heat. From
these dead germs and their poisonous excrements is produced a
fluid that is believed to have acquired the power, when
injected into the human system, to render the blood immune
from the attack of plague germs and to neutralize their
effect. The injection of such a poison has the effect of an
antitoxin and prevents the system from nourishing plague. A
dead plague germ being inoculated into a person, plague will
not follow. A person after having one attack of the disease is
rarely liable to a second. The person first inoculated is
subject to symptoms of the plague.
{406}
In vaccination for smallpox
a living germ is dealt with, whereas in plague inoculation
dead seed only are injected. … Inoculation is exceedingly
unpopular among the natives. The government has had great
labor in persuading the Hindoo mind of the efficacy of
Haffkine's prophylactic against plague and at the same time of
its utter harmlessness in every other respect. The Hindoo is
suspicious that the dead germs and their toxic excreta may be
of animal rather than vegetable substance, which would make
the injection of the fluid into their body a religious
offense."
United States Consular Reports,
January, 1900, page 101.
"In the present epidemic, plague-spots are scattered over the
whole face of the globe from Sydney to Santos and Hongkong,
and recently from San Francisco suspicious cases have been
reported. The annual pilgrimage of Moslems to worship at the
shrines of Mecca and Medina is now, as in the past, of all
human agencies, the most active in spreading the pest. … Since
Egypt is nearest, plague first appears there in the seaport
towns, particularly Alexandria. Sanitary conditions have
improved vastly, like economics, under British control; and,
last year, what in other times might have been a devastating
epidemic was limited to relatively a few scattered cases.
Recognizing the danger to themselves, the European powers have
been led to take steps, under the Venice Convention, for their
own protection. An international quarantine, under the control
of the Egyptian Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council, in
which the powers have one vote each and Egypt three, has
established stations at two points on the Red Sea."
American Review of Reviews,
May, 1900.
PLATT AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume)
CUBA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
PLURAL VOTING.
See (in this volume)
BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
PLYMOUTH COLONY:
Return of the manuscript of Bradford's History to
Massachusetts.
See (in this volume)
MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
POET LAUREATE.
To the line of English Poets Laureate (see, in volume 3,
LAUREATE, ENGLISH POETS), there was added on the 1st of
January, 1896, the name of Alfred Austin, succeeding Tennyson,
who died October B, 1892.
POLAND, Russian:
Relaxation of oppressions.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
POLAR EXPLORATION, Arctic and Antarctic:
A chronological record.
Until quite recent years, the antarctic region had had few
explorers. In 1598-9 Dirk Gerritz was carried south by a storm
and found land, probably the South Shetlands, at 64° South
latitude. Capt. Cook made two antarctic voyages, in the second
one reaching latitude 71° 10' South, at longitude 106° 54'
West, sailing entirely around the southern ocean in a high
latitude, and discovering many islands. In a Russian
expedition, 1819-21, Bellinghausen discovered Peter I. Island
and Alexander I. Land. Enderby Land was discovered by John
Biscoe in 1831-2. In 1840-3 the great English expedition under
Captain (afterward Sir) James Ross, in the Erebus and Terror,
discovered and named Victoria Land, and reached latitude 78°
11', February 23, 1842. The continent which Captain Charles
Wilkes claimed to have discovered in 1840 has not been found
by later explorers. In 1874 the Challenger was turned back by
the ice in latitude 66° 43' South.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1892-1893.
Whaling voyage of the Dundee vessels, the Balæna, Active,
Diana and Polar Star, equipped for geographical observation by
the Royal Geographical Society and others interested, carrying
William S. Bruce, C. W. Donald, and W. G. Burn Murdoch.
Accompanied by the Norwegian sealer Jasen, under Captain
Larsen. South Shetlands and Graham Land visited and valuable
observations made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1893-1900.
Scientific exploration of Labrador by A. P. Low.
Operations still in progress.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1894-1895.
Commercial voyage of the Norwegian whaler Antarctic, under
Captain Kristensen, sent by Captain Svend Foyn, fitted out by
H. J. Bull, and carrying the scientist C. E. Borchgrevinck.
The valuable right whale was not found, but large beds of
guano were discovered in Victoria Land, where a landing was
made near Cape Adare.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Peary relief expedition with Lieutenant Robert E.
Peary and his companions. In spite of great difficulties
Lieutenant Peary had again crossed the ice-sheet to
Independence Bay, determined the northern limits of Greenland,
charted 1,000 miles of the west coast, discovered eleven
islands and the famous Iron Mountain (three great meteorites),
and obtained much knowledge of the natives. The purely
scientific results of the expedition are of great value. The
relief expedition was organized by Mrs. Peary.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in Barents Sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Martin Ekroll from Spitzbergen after a winter's
study of the ice conditions there. Convinced that his plan of
reaching the pole by a sledge journey had little chance of
success.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Survey of the lower Yenesei River and Obi Bay by Siberian
hydrographic expedition.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Commercial expedition of Captain Wiggins from England to
Golchika, at the mouth of the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian geological expedition to Nova Zembla.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian expedition under the geologist Bogdanovich to the Sea
of Okhotsk and Kamchatka.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895-1896.
Two scientific voyages of the Danish cruiser Ingolf
in the seas west and east of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Summer expedition of naturalists and college students to the
northern coast of Labrador.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Attempt of Lieutenant Peary to remove the great meteorite
discovered by him at Cape York, Greenland. After dislodging it
he was compelled by the ice to leave it. Small parties from
Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and one under Mr. George Bartlett, left by Peary at different
points to make scientific observations and collections,
returned with him.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hydrographical survey of the Danish waters of Greenland and
Iceland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hansen sent to Siberia to look for traces of Nansen.
{407}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Return of Dr. Nansen from voyage begun in 1893. After skirting
the coast of Siberia almost to the Lena delta, the Fram was
enclosed by the ice and drifted with it north and northwest.
On March 14, 1895, in 84° 4' North latitude, 102° East
longitude, Nansen and Johansen left the Fram and pushed
northward with dogs and sledges across an ice floe till they
reached latitude 86° 13.6', at about 95° West longitude, on
April 8, within 261 statute miles of the pole. With great
difficulty they made their way to Franz Josef Land, where they
wintered, and in June met explorer Jackson. Returning on the
Jackson supply steamer Windward, they reached Vardö August 13.
The Fram drifted to latitude 85° 57' North, 66° East
longitude, then southwestward, reaching Tromsoë August 20,
1896. Nansen demonstrated the existence of a polar sea of
great depth, comparatively warm below the surface, apparently
with few islands; though he did not find the trans-polar
current he sought.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Spitzbergen crossed for the first time, by Sir W. Martin
Conway and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Many parties visit the northern coast of Norway and Nova
Zembla to view the total eclipse of the sun, August 8-9.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Expedition sent by Russian Hydrographic Department to find
site for a sealers' refuge in Nova Zembla. Bielusha Bay, on
the southwest coast, chosen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition sent by Canadian government to investigate Hudson
Bay and Strait as a route to Central Canada. Passage found to
be navigable for at least sixteen weeks each summer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Seventh Peary expedition to Greenland. Accompanied by parties
for scientific research. Preliminary arrangements made with
the Eskimos for the expedition of 1898, and food-stations
established. Relics of Greeley's expedition found on Cape
Sabine, and the great meteorite at Cape York brought away at
last.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Second expedition of Sir Martin Conway for the exploration of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
A summer resort established on west coast of Spitzbergen, with
regular steamer service for tourists during July and August.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Arnold Pike and Sir Savile Crossley among the
islands east of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in the Laura in
the Kara Sea and along the east coast of Nova Zembla, for the
purpose of studying the natural history of the region.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition of F. W. L. Popham with a fleet of steamers through
Yugor Straits to the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Hydrological and commercial expedition, comprising seven
steamers, under Rear-Admiral Makaroff, sent by the Russian
government to the north Siberian sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Balloon voyage of Salamon August Andrée and two companions,
Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Fraenkel, starting from Danes' Island,
north of Spitzbergen, in the hope of being carried to the
pole. Four buoys from the balloon have been found. The first,
found in Norway in June, 1899, and containing a note from
Andrée, was thrown out eight hours after his departure. The
"north pole buoy," to be dropped when the pole was passed, was
found empty on the north side of King Charles Island,
north-east of Spitzbergen, September 11, 1899. A third buoy,
also empty, was found on the west coast of Iceland July 17,
1900. Another, reported from Norway, August 31, 1900,
contained a note showing that the buoy was thrown out at 10 P.
M., July 11, 1897, at an altitude of 250 metres (820 feet),
moving North 45 East, with splendid weather. Many search
expeditions, some equipped at great expense, have returned
unsuccessful. In spite of many rumors nothing definite is
known of the fate of any of the party. One message from Andrée
was brought back by a carrier pigeon. It was dated July 13,
12.30 P. M., in latitude 82° 2', longitude 12° 5' East, and
stated that the balloon was moving eastward.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
New islands on the southern coast of Franz Josef Land
discovered by Captain Robertson of the Dundee whaler Balæna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Return of Jackson-Harmsworth expedition from three years'
exploration of Franz Josef Land and the region north of it.
Franz Josef Land was resolved into a group of islands and
almost entire]y mapped. Small parties journeying northward
over the ice, establishing depots of supplies, the most
northern in latitude 81° 21', discovered and named Victoria
Sea, the most northern open sea in the world.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Anglo-Australasian antarctic conference in London.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Journey of Andrew J. Stone through the Canadian Rockies, down
Mackenzie River and along the arctic coast, in search of rare
mammals and information concerning the native tribes. Mr.
Stone often had only one companion. He traveled rapidly, in
one period of five months covering 3,000 miles of arctic coast
and mountains, between 70° and 72° North latitude and between
117½° and 140° West longitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Belgian antarctic expedition under Captain Adrien de Gerlache
to lands south of America. Sailed from Antwerp to explore and
chart coast line, expecting to leave party to winter at Cape
Adare and explore interior. Near Alexander I. Land the Belgica
caught in the ice pack and held for a year, drifting as far
south as latitude 71° 36', in longitude 87° 39' West. Finally
released by the cutting of a canal through the ice. This
dreary winter the first spent by men far enough south to lose
sight of the sun. The continent found to be mountainous,
glaciated, and without land animals except a few insects,
though sea fowl abounded. One flowering grass, and a few
mosses, rock lichens, and fresh-water algæ constitute the
flora. Some 500 miles of coast chartered.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Dr. K. J. V. Steenstrup to Greenland to study
the glaciers of Disko island.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Completion by Dr. Thoroddsen of his systematic exploration of
Iceland, begun in 1881.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Spitzbergen circumnavigated and surveyed by Dr. A. G.
Nathorst. Coast mapped and important scientific observations
made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Pendulum observations made in Spitzbergen by Professor J. H.
Gore, with instruments of the United States Coast and Geodetic
Survey, for the determination of the force of gravity in that
latitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Cruise of Prince Albert of Monaco, on coast of Spitzbergen,
for the purpose of making scientific observations.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Some claim to Spitzbergen made by Russia. Never before claimed
by any nation.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
German arctic expedition under Theodor Lerner to the islands
east of Spitzbergen, for scientific purposes and to obtain
news of Andrée if possible.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Andrée search expedition under J. Stadling sent to the Lena
delta, the mouth of the Yenesei and the islands of New Siberia
by the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society.
{408}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Conference on antarctic exploration held in the rooms of
the Royal Society, London, February 24.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Reconnoitring expedition by Danish party under Lieutenant G.
C. Amdrup, to east coast of Greenland. Coast explored and
mapped from Angmagsalik, 65¾ North latitude, to 67° 22'.
Remains of a small extinct Eskimo settlement found.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Second attempt by Walter Wellman to reach the north pole.
Wintered in Franz Josef Land, establishing an outpost, called
Fort McKinley, in latitude 81° North. In February Mr. Wellman,
with three companions, started northward and seemed likely to
succeed in their undertaking, but a serious accident befalling
Mr. Wellman, and an icequake destroying many dogs and sledges,
a hurried return to headquarters was necessary. Here important
scientific observations were made. The 82d parallel was
reached by the explorer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
German expedition for deep-sea exploration in antarctic
waters, in charge of Professor Carl Chun, on the Valdivia.
Southern ocean found to be of great depth.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1900.
British antarctic expedition under Borchgrevinck to Victoria
Land; the funds provided by Sir George Newnes. Latitude 78°
50' South reached, and the present position of the southern
magnetic pole determined.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Carefully planned expedition of Lieutenant Peary, purposing to
advance toward the pole by west coast of Greenland,
establishing food stations and depending upon picked Eskimos
for co-operation with his small party. In the last dash for
the pole, supply sledges to be sent back as emptied, and the
returning explorer, with two companions only, to be met by a
relief party of Eskimos. The Windward was presented by Mr.
Harmsworth for this expedition. Lieutenant Peary was disabled
for several weeks in 1898-9 by severe frost-bites, causing the
loss of seven toes. The Greeley records were found at Fort
Conger and sent back by the annual supply vessel. Sextant and
record of the Nares expedition found and sent back; presented
by Lieutenant Peary to the Lords of the Admiralty of Great
Britain and placed in the museum of the Royal Naval College at
Greenwich. Vessel sent to Greenland each summer to carry
supplies and bring back letters, carrying also small parties
of explorers, scientists, university students and hunters, to
be left at various points and picked up by the vessel on its
return.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Captain Sverdrup to northern Greenland
Lieutenant Peary's especial field.
Having planned a polar expedition similar to Peary's he sailed
up the west coast, but the Fram was frozen in near Cape
Sabine. Sverdrup therefore explored the western part of
Ellesmere Land, then sailed again in an attempt to round the
northern coast of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
International conference held at Stockholm in June recommended
a program for hydrographical and biological work in the
northern parts of the Atlantic ocean, the North Sea, the
Baltic, and adjoining seas.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Scientific expedition of Edward Bay, a Dane, to Melville Bay,
Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Swedish expedition under Dr. A. G. Nathorst to search for
Andrée in eastern Greenland. Valuable observations made and
fjord-systems of King Oscar Fjord and Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord
mapped.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Iceland by F. W. W. Howell and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Hydrographic surveys on the coasts of Iceland and the Färoe
Islands by MM. Holm and Hammer in the Danish guard-ship Diana.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Joint Russian and Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, for the
measurement of a degree of the meridian. Owing to the
condition of the ice, the northern and southern surveying
parties unable to connect their work.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Spitzbergen by the Prince of Monaco, with a
scientific staff.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Successful experimental voyage of the Russian Vice-Admiral
Makaroff in his ice-breaking steamer, the Yermak, north of
Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Russian government expedition, to cost £5,400, to explore
northern shores of Siberia to mouths of the Obi and Yenesei.

POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899-1900.
Arctic expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi. His ship, the
Stella Polare, was left at Crown Prince Rudolf Land during the
winter. The Duke became incapacitated by a fall and by the loss
of two joints from the fingers of his left hand, incurably
frost-bitten; but a small party under Captain Cagni pushed
northward till provisions were exhausted. Nansen's record was
beaten, the Italian party reaching latitude 86° 33', at about
56° East longitude. No land was found north or northwest of
Spitzbergen. Three men were lost from Cagni's party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Exploration of Ellesmere Land, Greenland, by Dr. Robert Stein,
of the United States Geological Survey, Dr. Leopold Kann of
Cornell, and Samuel Warmbath of Harvard, who took passage in
the Peary supply ship Diana, trusting to chance for conveyance
home. Their totally inadequate outfit was generously augmented
by Peary's friends of the Diana. Dr. Kann returned in 1900,
leaving Dr. Stein.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Seward peninsula, the most westward extension of Alaska,
explored and surveyed by five government expeditions.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of the interior of northern Labrador by a party
from Harvard University. Soundings along the coast by schooner
Brave.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Second Danish expedition under Lieutenant Amdrup to east
Greenland, completing the work of 1898-9 by mapping the coast
between 67° 20' North and Cape Gladstone, about 70° North, and
making valuable scientific collections.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish expedition, under Gustav Kolthoff, to eastern
Greenland, for study of the arctic fauna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish scientific expedition of Professor G. Kolthoff to
Spitzbergen and Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of Spitzbergen by a Russian expedition under
Knipovich.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Russian expedition to east coast of Nova Zembla by Lieutenant
Borissoff to complete survey of the islands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Dr. Nansen's expedition under the leadership of Dr. J. Hjort,
for the physical and biological examination of the sea between
Norway, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
German expedition, under Captain Bade, to explore East
Spitzbergen, King Charles' Land and Franz Josef Land, and to
look for traces of Andrée.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Attempt of a German, Captain Bauendahl, to reach the north
pole, leaving his vessel in the ice north of Spitzbergen and
traveling over the ice with provisions for two years, weighing
ten tons.
{409}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Scientific expedition of Baron E. von Toll to the unexplored
Sannikoff Land, sighted in 1805 from the northern coast
islands of New Siberia. Preceded by a party which established
food depots at various places months before.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Three exploring parties sent to Alaska by the United States
Geological Survey.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Expedition sent by the Duke of the Abruzzi to Franz Josef Land
to search for the three men lost from his party in 1900.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
North polar expedition under Mr. Evelyn B. Baldwin of the
United States Weather Bureau; splendidly equipped by Mr.
William Ziegler of New York. Mr. Baldwin, who has had arctic
experience with Lieutenant Peary and Mr. Wellman, will
probably proceed by way of Franz Josef Land.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Several expeditions to co-operate in exploration of the
antarctic region and to reach the south pole if possible. The
British expedition, long striven for by the Royal Geographical
Society and the Royal Society and made possible by L. W.
Longstaff's contribution of £25,000, to be under the command
of Captain Robert Scott and to explore the Victoria (90°-180°
East) and Ross (180°-90° West) quadrants,—in the main the
region south of the Pacific. The Weddell (90° West-0°,
Greenwich) and Enderby (0°-90 East) quadrants assigned to the
finely equipped German expedition, under Drygalski, which will
first explore south of the Indian Ocean. The Swedish expedition
under Dr. Nordenskïold to explore the lands south of America.
A private Scottish expedition under William S. Bruce to
explore the Weddell Sea region south of the Atlantic Ocean. An
Argentine expedition to visit the South Shetlands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Captain J. E. Bernier of Quebec, on
Nansen's principle, with a specially built vessel, to sail
through Bering Strait, coast Siberia to longitude 170° or 165°
East, then enter the ice. Sledging parties to push toward the
pole, marking the route with hollow signal poles (of aluminum)
packed with records and provisions, and maintaining
communication with the ship by wireless telegraphy. This is
one of two plans which he lays before the Canadian government.
The other contemplates a movement, with dogs and reindeers,
from Franz Josef Land, coming back to Spitzbergen, taking 12
or 14 men, all scientists.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Herr Annschütz-Kämpfe, of Munich, to
the north pole, in a submarine boat capable of carrying five
men and remaining under water for fifteen hours at a time.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
As this goes to press (April, 1901), a national antarctic
expedition is being fitted out, jointly, by the Royal
Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Great Britain,
assisted by a subsidy of £45,000 from the British government.
A steamer named the "Discovery," built especially for the
expedition, at Dundee, was launched in March, and is being
equipped with remarkable completeness. Special arrangements,
says "The Times," will be made for magnetic work, while
meteorology, geology and biology will be well cared for. "The
staff of navigating officers and of scientific specialists has
been carefully selected, and under Commander Robert Scott. R.
N., who will be in command of the expedition, their work, we
may be sure, will be so well organized that nothing of
importance will be neglected. There will be five navigating
officers, three of them belonging to the Royal Navy and two
others to the Royal Naval Reserve, while the special
scientific staff, including the two medical officers, will be
of equal strength. … Captain Scott is at present investigating
the question of the utility of balloons."
POLISH PARTY, in Austria.
See (in this volume)
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.
POONA, The Plague at.
See (in this volume)
PLAGUE.
POPE LEO XIII.
See (in this volume)
PAPACY.
POPULATION:
Of Europe and countries peopled from Europe.
See (in this volume)
NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
POPULIST PARTY, The.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER);
and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1894.
Capture by Japanese.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1895.
Trans-Siberian Railway.
Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume)
RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1898.
Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume)
CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
----------PORTO RICO: Start--------

Map of Porto Rico.
PORTO RICO:
Area and Population.
In the testimony given, January 13, 1900, before the United
States Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico,
General George W. Davis, Military Governor of Porto Rico, gave
the following information: "The island of Puerto Rico has an area
of about 3,600 square miles, according to the best information
that now exists, but that area has to be verified, and it is
doubted if the area is quite so large. It has a population of
about a million, perhaps—certainly one of the most densely
populated areas of 3,000 or 4,000 square miles on the face of
the earth, approximating the density of population of Belgium,
I think, and considerably greater than that of any of our
thickly settled agricultural regions in the United States. New
England has about 200 to the square mile while Puerto Rico has
nearly 300. The inhabitants are mostly of Spanish
origin—emigrants from Spain during the last 400 years and
their descendants. There is a large representation from the
Canary Islands and the Balearic group in the Mediterranean, a
large number of Corsicans and their descendants, and
consequently they are French subjects, a few Germans, a few
English, and very few Americans before the occupation; a few
Venezuelans, a few from Santo Domingo, and a few Cubans, but
the most of the population is Spanish. Included in that
million are about 300,000 negroes and mulattoes, approximately
a little more than that number.
{410}
About one-third of the entire population is of the negro or
mixed race, what would be called in the United States
'colored' people. Of pure-blood negroes there are about
70,000, the remainder mulattoes, and all speaking Spanish, and
largely the slaves liberated in 1874. The number of slaves
liberated at that time was considerably less than the number
of negroes in Puerto Rico, the number being only about 30,000,
for whom some $11,000,000 was paid the owners. That statement
gives a fair idea of the character of the population as
respects numbers and race." Several small adjacent islands are
regarded as belonging to Porto Rico and were included in the
cession to the United States. One of these, named Viequez,
about 15 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide, is very fertile,
and has about 7,000 inhabitants. On another, called Culebra,
there are some 600 or 700 people. The remaining islands are
smaller and unimportant.
56th Congress, 1st Session,
Senate Document Number 147, pages 1-2.
PORTO RICO:
The government as it was under Spanish rule.
"The civil government of the island was the Governor-General,
and the Governor-General was the civil government. All power
was lodged in his hands and he was accountable only to Madrid.
He was at once the executive, the legislative, and the judicial
head. As Captain-General, he had chief command of the military
forces, and made such disposition of them as he chose; as
Governor-General, he conducted civil affairs, whether insular
or municipal, according to his own pleasure. … If, as
occasionally happened, he was a wise and good man, seeking the
welfare of the people rather than his own personal enrichment
or the advancement of his political friends, there was less
cause for complaint from the people, who were completely
ignored. As the position was one of great power and of large
opportunities for pecuniary profit, it not infrequently went
to those who were prepared to exploit it in their own
interests. …
"The system of autonomy, which was proclaimed November 25,
1897 [see, in this volume, CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER)], was
never fully installed. The war intervened, and the provincial
legislature, which was its most important feature, was
dissolved when Sampson's fleet appeared, and the
Governor-General conducted the government practically on the
old plan, except that the ministry, as provided by the
autonomistic law, was retained, as follows: Secretary of
government or of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary
of the fomento or interior, including public works, public
instruction, public lands, mines, etc., agriculture and
commerce, and secretary of justice and worship. The last three
secretaries were subordinate to the secretary of government,
through whom all orders from the Governor-General and all
communications to or from him must pass. The autonomist law
allowed the secretaries or ministers to be members of one or
the other of the two legislative chambers. The
Governor-General with his council constituted the executive
power. No act of his was valid unless approved by one of the
secretaries, and the secretaries could issue no order which he
had not countersigned. He had the power to convoke or dissolve
the chambers, to refer objectionable bills to Madrid for
approval or disapproval, and to appoint or remove the
secretaries. All matters of a diplomatic character were in his
hands exclusively, and, constituted by the Pope patronato
real, he was the head of the church in the island and
practical director of ecclesiastical affairs. The legislature
consisted of two chambers, the council and the house of
representatives. The council was composed of fourteen members,
eight of whom were elected, and six appointed by the Crown;
the house of representatives of one representative for each
25,000 inhabitants, elected by the people. The liberality of
this law is further indicated by the fact that it gave the
right of suffrage to all males of 25 years of age and over.
The two chambers were empowered to legislate on all insular
questions, such as the estimates, which must be adopted by the
Cortes at Madrid, public instruction, public works,
sanitation, charities, etc. It will be seen that the reforms
granted by this autonomistic decree were large in the letter,
taking powers which the Governor-General had exercised
unquestioned and giving them to the people, who had never been
allowed to participate in the government of their own country.
Whether it would have proved liberal in practical operation is
not so certain. The Government invariably discriminated
against Porto Ricans in favor of Spaniards, and it is also to
be remembered that Spanish laws as written and Spanish laws as
administered are not always identical."
H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages. 15-16.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (May).
American bombardment of forts at San Juan.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-August).
American conquest of.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-December).
Suspension of hostilities.
Cession to the United States.
See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (August-July).
Popular feeling in the Island on the American occupation.
Welcome to the Stars and Stripes.
Expectations and desires of the people.
Their character.
Extent of illiteracy.
The Peones.
"All classes of natives of the island welcomed the American
Army, American occupation, and American methods, and accepted
without hesitation the Stars and Stripes in place of the red
and yellow bars. They had not been disloyal to the old flag;
but it had come to represent to them, particularly during the
present century, in which a class feeling developed between
the insular and the peninsular Spaniard, partiality and
oppression. In the short war, some of the natives occupying
official positions made demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown
of Spain, as was perfectly natural, but they were among the
first to submit to American rule when the protocol promised
cession of the island to the United States. On the other hand,
as the commissioner is informed, a Porto Rican who had hoped
and prayed for American intervention for fifty years enrolled
himself as a Spanish citizen some months after the war was
concluded, and his hopes had been realized. Porto Ricans
generally complained that the former Government discriminated
in favor of the Spaniard, who, in the distribution of the
offices, was preferred to the native, and who, aided by the
powerful influence of the authorities, prospered in business
as banker, merchant, manufacturer, or agriculturist. They also
insist that the internal improvement of the island was
neglected; that agriculture bore more than its share of the
burden of taxation; that the assessments were very inequitable
and unequal; that education was not fostered, and that in
general the welfare of the people was not the first concern of
their rulers.
{411}
"They expect under American sovereignty that the wrongs of
centuries will be righted; that they will have an honest and
efficient government; the largest measure of liberty as
citizens of the great Republic under the Constitution; home
rule as provided by the Territorial system; free access to the
markets of the United States and no customs duties on goods
coming from our ports; a school system modeled after that of
the United States; the adoption of the English language in due
time and the general adaptation to the island of all those
institutions which have contributed to the prosperity,
progress, and happiness of the American people. The largest
and most representative gathering, since American occupation,
was held in San Juan, October 30, 1898, without distinction of
party or class with the object of consultation and formulation of
a programme for the future. In brief, the propositions of the
congress as submitted to the commissioner for presentation to
the President of the United States were these: Immediate
termination of military and inauguration of civil government;
establishment of the Territorial system, with laws common to
other Territories of the Union; a legislature in two branches;
suffrage for all male citizens of 21 years of age or over, the
right to be surrendered at the end of the first two years by
those who do not then know how to read and write; judicial
reform; introduction of the jury system; autonomy for
municipal governments; taxation on the basis of valuation;
free and reciprocal commerce with the ports of the United
States; aid for agriculture; obligatory and universal
education; trade schools; savings banks. This programme of
reforms seems to have very general support, although there is
a difference of opinion on certain points. Many Porto Ricans
urged the commissioner to represent them as desiring that the
military regime be made as short as possible, not because the
military governors were in any way objectionable or their rule
oppressive, but because the civil status of the island should
be fixed with no unnecessary delay. There was no other opinion
except among foreign subjects, many of whom thought that the
people were not yet ready for self-government, and that the
firm hand of military power would be needed for probably two
years. …
"If the desire to assume the burdens of local self-government
may be taken as indicating some degree of capacity for
self-government, the people of Porto Rico certainly have the
desire. They may be poor, but they are proud and sensitive,
and would be bitterly disappointed if they found that they had
been delivered from an oppressive yoke to be put under a
tutelage which proclaimed their inferiority. Apart from such
qualifications as general education and experience constitute,
the commissioner has no hesitation in affirming that the
people have good claims to be considered capable of
self-government. Education and experience, although too high
a value can hardly be set upon them, do not necessarily make
good citizens. … The unswerving loyalty of Porto Rico to the
Crown of Spain, as demonstrated by the truth of history, is no
small claim to the confidence and trust of the United States.
The people were obedient under circumstances which provoked
revolt after revolt in other Spanish colonies. The habit of
obedience is strong among them. Their respect for law is
another notable characteristic. They are not turbulent or
violent. Riots are almost unknown in the island; so is
organized resistance to law; brigandage flourished only for a
brief period after the war and its object was revenge rather
than rapine. They are not a criminal people. The more violent
crimes are by no means common. Burglary is almost unknown.
There are many cases of homicide, but the number in proportion
to population is not as large as in the United States.
Thievery is the most common crime, and petty cases make up a
large part of this list of offenses. The people as a whole are
a moral, law-abiding class, mild in disposition, easy to
govern, and possess the possibilities of developing a high
type of citizenship."
H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages 55-57.
"On the 25th day of July, 1899, an election was held in
Adjuntas for municipal officers, and the registration was made
in conformity to General Orders, No. 112, c. s., Headquarters
Department of Puerto Rico. The order imposed the following
qualifications for electors: Men over 21 years old, able to
read and write, or who were taxpayers of record, who had been
actual residents of the island for at least two years, and of
the municipality for six months preceding the date of the
election. The number who proved these qualifications before
the board of registration was 906, out of a population,
according to the census of 1897, of 18,505; that is, less than
5 per cent could vote under the conditions stated. There was
much public interest in this election, and it is believed that
about all who were eligible were registered. This incident
indicated that in the whole island there may be approximately
45,000 who could vote under the conditions of the order above
referred to. The class who can not fulfill these conditions,
say 75 per cent of the males over 21 years of age, are usually
in a state of abject poverty and ignorance, and are assumed to
include one-fifth of the inhabitants. They are of the class
usually called peones. This word in Spanish America, under old
laws, defined a person who owed service to his creditor until
the debt was paid. While those laws are obsolete, the
condition of these poor people remains much as before. So
great is their poverty that they are always in debt to the
proprietors or merchants. They live in huts made of sticks and
poles covered with thatches of palm leaves. A family of a
dozen may be huddled together in one room, often with only a
dirt floor. They have little food worthy of the name and only
the most scanty clothing, while children of less than 7 or 8
years of age are often entirely naked. A few may own a machete
or a hoe, but more have no worldly possessions whatever. Their
food is fruit, and if they are wage-earners, a little rice and
codfish in addition. They are without ambition and see no
incentive to labor beyond the least that will provide the
barest sustenance. All over the island they can be seen to-day
sitting beside their ruined huts, thinking naught of
to-morrow, making no effort to repair and restore their cabins
nor to replant for future food.
{412}
"The remarks of Mr. James Anthony Froude in his work on 'The
English in the West Indies' apply with full force to these
people: 'Morals in the technical sense they have none, but
they can not be said to sin because they have no knowledge of
law, and therefore they can commit no breach of the law. They
are naked and not ashamed. They are married but not parsoned.
The women prefer the looser tie, that they may be able to lose
the man if he treats her unkindly. Yet they are not
licentious. … The system is strange, but it answers. … There
is evil, but there is not the demoralizing effect of evil.
They sin, but they sin only as animals, without shame, because
there is no sense of doing wrong. They eat the forbidden
fruit, but it brings with it no knowledge of the difference
between good and evil. … They are innocently happy in the
unconsciousness of the obligations of morality. They eat,
drink, sleep, and smoke, and do the least in the way of work
they can. They have no ideas of duty, and therefore are not
made uneasy by neglecting it.' Between the negro and the peon
there is no visible difference. It is hard to believe that the
pale, sallow, and often emaciated beings are the descendants
of the conquistadores who carried the flag of Spain to nearly
all of South America, and to one-third of North America."
General George W. Davis,
Report on the Civil Government of Puerto Rico,
September 30, 1899
(Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1293-1294).
"The educated class of Puerto Ricans are as well educated and
accomplished as the educated men of any country. They have had
the benefit of a liberal education, a few in the United
States, a good many in France, and a great many in Madrid and
Habana, where they have passed through the universities. The
lawyers and doctors are all graduates of either the university
in Habana or some university in Spain, with very few exceptions.
The merchants are largely Spanish, many of whom will probably
preserve their nationality under the provision of the Treaty
of Paris which gives them that right. A few may adopt American
citizenship, and ultimately possibly all will, but many of the
merchants who conduct the largest part of the business of
Puerto Rico will retain their Spanish citizenship. There are a
number of merchants who are natives, a few Germans, and a few
English. I do not remember any American merchant in business
there before the occupation. The schools in Puerto Rico
conducted under the Spanish system were few in number. The
amount allotted for education by the insular budget was
something like 300,000 pesos a year, as I now recall the
figures. The teachers were officers of the government, holding
life positions and receiving pensions when superannuated. They
belong to a civil-service class which is not dependent upon
any change of administration, only being removed for cause.
The lawyers, or judges, rather, of the island, occupy a
similar position."
General George W. Davis,
Testimony before Senate Committee.
(56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document. No. 147).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (October-October).
The military government instituted by the United States.
"The government of the island, its various civil institutions,
its codes and its courts, the systems of taxation, etc., have
been modified in very important particulars since the American
occupation began, October 18, 1898. It will be useful, perhaps,
to indicate the more important changes. Under General John R.
Brooke [in command of the Department, October 18 to December
5, 1898] orders were issued declaring
(1) That the political relations of Porto Rico with Spain were
at an end; that provincial and municipal laws were in force in
so far as not incompatible with the changed conditions, and
that they would be enforced substantially as they were before.
(2) Abolishing the use of all stamped paper and stamps of
every kind for documents, public and private.
(3) Exempting all conveyances and contracts from the payment
of royal dues.
(4) Discontinuing the diputacion provincial, and distributing
its duties among the secretaries or ministers.
(5) Directing that appeals should not be sent to the supreme
court in Madrid, but should be heard by the superior court at
San Juan.
(6) Abolishing the subdelegation of pharmacy which gave
degrees to pharmacists.
(7) Making the fisheries free to all.
Appropriations for the support of the church ceased with
American occupation, and the Government lottery was
discontinued.
"Under the military government of General Guy V. Henry
[December 6, 1898 to May 8, 1899], orders were issued:
(l) Appointing military commissions to try cases of arson and
murder which had accumulated in the civil courts.
(2) Closing public offices on Sunday, as far as possible.
(3) Suspending the municipal tax on fresh beef for use of the
Army.
(4) Making Christmas and New Year's holidays.
(5) Forbidding grants or concessions of public or corporate
rights or franchises without the approval of the commanding
general and the Secretary of War.
(6) Abolishing the municipal consumo tax on articles of food,
fuel, and drink, and providing for additional assessments on
the sale of liquors and tobacco.
(7) Separating the collection of customs duties from that of
direct taxes.
(8) Establishing a new system of land taxation, by which
agricultural lands should be taxed according to the several
classes instituted, from 1 peso down to 25 centavos per
cuerda, and levying 50 per cent additional on lands whose
owners reside abroad.
(9) Providing for the free vaccination of the people of the
island.
(10) Prohibiting the exhumation of bodies in the cemeteries,
recognizing the right of priests to control burials in
consecrated grounds, and requiring municipalities to keep
cemeteries in repair.
(11) Reducing notarial fees from $1.88 to $1, from $4.50 to
$1, from $11 to $1, and from $1 to 50 cents, according to
class of document, and canceling others.
(12) Reorganizing the cabinet, so as to make all the
secretaries directly responsible to the governor-general.
(13) Suspending the foreclosure of mortgages on agricultural
property and machinery for one year.
(14) Appointing February 22 a holiday.
(15) Prohibiting the sale of liquor to children under 14 years
of age.
(16) Modifying the civil marriage law.
(17) Declaring that eight hours shall constitute a day's work.
(18) Creating an insular police.
{413}
"Under the military government of General George W. Davis
[May 8, 1899, to May 1, 1900], orders were issued
(1) Modifying the order of
General Henry concerning hours of labor, so as to allow
agreements between employer and employee for longer or shorter
hours.
(2) Naming May 30 as a holiday.
(3) Allowing the writ of habeas corpus to be issued.
(4) Constituting a board of prison control and pardon.
(5) Continuing the observance as a holiday of June 24.
(6) Creating a provisional court on the basis of circuit and
district courts of the United States for the hearing of cases
not falling within the jurisdiction of local insular courts.
(7) Creating a superior board of health for the island.
(8) Reorganizing the bureau of public instruction and the
system of education.
(9) Relieving the judiciary from all control by the department
of justice, discontinuing the office of secretary of justice,
and appointing a solicitor-general.
(10) Abolishing the sale at auction of the privilege of
slaughter of cattle, and making it free.
(11) Reorganizing the judicial system of the island, with a
supreme court in San Juan and district courts in San Juan,
Ponce, Mayaguez, Arecibo, and Humacao, and with modifications
of civil and criminal procedure.
(12) Discontinuing the departments of state, treasury, and
interior, and creating bureaus of state and municipal affairs,
of internal revenue, and of agriculture, to be placed under
the direction of a civil secretary, responsible to the
governor-general, and continuing the bureaus of education and
public works, with an insular board of nine members to advise
the governor-general on matters of public interest referred to
them.
"The reductions in the budget of expenditures have been
extensive. That of 1898-99, adopted in June, 1898, amounted to
$4,781,920, native money. The appropriations for 'general
obligations,' which went to Madrid, $498,502, for the clergy,
$197,945; for the army, $1,252,378; for the navy, $222,668,
making a total of $2,171,493, ceased to be obligations,
leaving $2,610,428 for the fiscal year. A new budget was
adopted for the calendar year 1899, which still further
reduces expenditures, calling only for $1,462,276. This
budget, if carried out, would have involved a reduction from
the proposed budget of 1898-99 of $3,319,644; but a new budget
was formed, as already stated, for 1899-1900, which appears to
call for an increase over this very moderate sum. The revenues
were reduced by the abolition of stamped paper, personal
passports, export duties, royal dues on conveyances, the
lottery system, and other sources of income, amounting, all
told, to less probably than a million of pesos."
H. R. Carroll (Special Commissioner),
Report on Porto Rico, October 6, 1899, pages 53-55.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (August).
Destructive cyclone.
"On the morning of the 7th of August, 1899, the United States
Weather Bureau, through its branch establishment here,
announced the approach of a cyclonic disturbance, and the
danger signal was ordered to be hoisted at substations of the
Bureau at Ponce and Mayaguez. At the same time I directed that
the danger be reported to all commanding officers of posts
throughout the island. There had been no serious or
destructive storm in Puerto Rico since 1867, and the
inhabitants had ceased to feel great concern on account of
tropical tempests. Except at seaports, little heed was given
to the caution, and in some cases the telegraph operators
failed to receive or to promptly deliver the warning messages.
The vortex of the cyclone appears to have traversed the island
throughout its whole length, from about Humacao to Mayaguez,
and its path was a scene of very great devastation. … The gale
struck the island at Humacao about midnight of August 7, and
furiously blew all the rest of that night and well into the
next day, while at Mayaguez the violence was not great until 9
o'clock on the morning of the 8th. But as the latter town was
under the lee of high mountains, it suffered much less than it
would have done had it been higher or not thus protected. Most
of the habitations in the track of the center of the cyclone
were entirely smashed and the débris strewn all over the
country. The full reports of the loss of life bring the number
of deaths up to 2,700. The wind worked dreadful havoc with nearly
everything useful to man. Besides the mortality, which was
appalling, the material damage was almost beyond belief. But
the greatest loss of life resulted, not from the wind, but
from the terrible downfall of rain that immediately followed.
… Added to the horror of the situation there came with the
gale on the southern coast a tidal wave, which submerged large
areas with sea water and swept away what the wind and rain had
spared, in some places completing the destruction. Every river
bed or bottom of a land depression was a roaring torrent. The
wind uprooted myriads of trees, and the rain, entering and
permeating the soil, loosened it, and on steep declivities
resulted in avalanches of earth, mud, and water, covering wide
areas and piling up the debris in the ravines and gorges. … The
material loss to the coffee growers can as yet only be
estimated, but the most conservative figures received place
this year's crop at one-third of the normal. … Regard being
had to the fact that five years must elapse before the coffee
trees and their shade can be replanted and reach a normal
bearing condition, the total loss can not be safely placed
below 25,000,000 pesos for Puerto Rico on account of this
hurricane."
General George W. Davis,
Report (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,
volume 2, pages 1343-1344).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899 (October).
Census of the Island taken under the direction of the
War Department of the United States.
"The population of Porto Rico shown by the schedules of the
present census taken with reference to the date of October 16,
1899, was 953,243. This was about nine-tenths of the
population of Maryland in 1890, the State whose population is
nearest to that of Porto Rico. … If the figures for … earlier
censuses may be accepted, it appears that the population of
Porto Rico has been growing through the last twelve years with
greater rapidity than before since 1860. Its present rate of
increase is about the same as that of Ohio, Tennessee, or the
Carolinas during the decade between 1880 and 1890. … It
appears that the average increase of population in the
interior has been more rapid than that on the coast. If the
figures for the coast cities of San Juan, Ponce, and Mayaguez
had been excluded, the difference would be yet more marked.
The depressed condition of sugar-cane growing in the West
Indies of recent years may have played an important part in
producing this difference, for the growing of sugar cane is
prevalent in the coast plains of Porto Rico.
{414}
"The area of Porto Rico, including the adjacent and dependent
islands of Vieques, Culebra, Mona, and Muertos, has been
measured in connection with this census and found to be 3,606
square miles. But owing to the imperfect surveys on which all
maps of Porto Rico are based there must be a considerable and
indeterminate margin of possible error in any such
measurement. The island is about three times the size of Long
Island, which was in 1890 perhaps the largest insular division
of the United States. It is also slightly greater than the
eastern shore of Maryland (3,461 square miles). … Porto Rico
has 264 persons to a square mile. This density of population
is about the same as in Massachusetts, twice that in New York
State, and thrice that in Ohio. It is more than seven times
that of Cuba and not much less than twice that of Habana
province. …
"The people of Porto Rico are, in the main, a rural community.
There are no large cities in the island, the two largest being
San Juan, which, regarding the entire municipal district as a
city, had a population of 32,048, and Ponce, which with its
port constituted practically one city, with a population of
27,952. These are the only two cities exceeding 25,000
inhabitants. The next city of magnitude is Mayaguez, on the
west coast, with a population of 15,187. The only other city
exceeding 8,000 inhabitants is Arecibo, with a population of
8,008. The total urban population of the island contained in
cities exceeding 8,000 inhabitants each is 83,195, or only 8.7
per cent of the population of the island. This is a much
smaller proportion than in Cuba, where the corresponding
figures are 32.3 per cent, or in the United States, where the
corresponding proportion in 1890 was 29.2 per cent. There are
in Porto Rico 57 cities, each having a population of 1,000 or
more. The total urban population of the island, under this
definition, numbers 203,792, or 21.4 per cent of the total
number of inhabitants of the island. Similar figures for Cuba
show 47.1 per cent of the population of that island."
Census of Porto Rico, Bulletin No.1.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1899-1900.
The question of the tariff treatment of its new Territory
by the United States Government.
Writing in "The Forum," November, 1899, Mr. H. K. Carroll, who
had investigated the conditions in Porto Rico as a Special
Commissioner of the United States government, described the
obligation which, in his view, they imposed on the latter as
follows: "The only free market the Puertorican has for his
products is the island market. All the rest of the world is
closed to him. He cannot even buy in a free market; everything
he buys as well as everything he sells being subject to
duties. This is the penalty of independence; but Puerto Rico
is not, and does not want to be, independent. She wants such
commercial relations with us as Alaska, New Mexico, and
Arizona have, and desires a territorial form of government. I
am of the opinion that we cannot refuse these reasonable
requests without doing great injustice to Puerto Rico. It must
be remembered that we sought Puerto Rico; for Puerto Rico did
not seek us. We wrested her from the sovereignty of Spain,
without asking her if she desired to change her allegiance. We
were of the opinion that she was not justly treated by Spain;
that she was governed in the interests of the mother country
solely; that she was oppressed and overtaxed and denied a
proper measure of home rule; and that in consequence we were
serving the cause of humanity in breaking the chains that
bound her. This was what the Puertoricans thought also. They
welcomed our troops and our control. They were glad to turn
their backs on the history of the past, and begin under the
glorious Republic of the North a new and more prosperous
career. They are disappointed, perhaps unreasonably, that
their new life has not already begun; they are eagerly
expectant. They look to the President to recommend, and to
Congress to adopt, a system of government which will make the
island a Territory, equal in rank and rights and privileges to
existing Territories. They ought not to be disappointed
without the best and strongest of reasons. Three reasons are
mentioned in opposition to the granting of territorial
government to Puerto Rico. First, admission as a Territory
implies ultimate admission to statehood; and statehood for
islands separated as Hawaii and Puerto Rico are by from 1,200
to 2,500 miles from the United States is not to be thought of
for a moment. Second, territorial organization involves the
relinquishment of customs duties; and the cane and tobacco
growers of our West India possession would have free access to
the markets of the United States, and thus come into injurious
competition with our own farmers. Third, the people of Puerto
Rico are not competent for the measure of self-government
which the territorial system provides."
This most reasonable and just view of the duty of the American
people to their new fellow citizens received strong
endorsement from higher official authority in the subsequent
annual report of the Secretary of War, who said: "It is plain
that it is essential to the prosperity of the island that she
should receive substantially the same treatment at our hands
as she received from Spain while a Spanish colony, and that
the markets of the United States should be opened to her as
were the markets of Spain and Cuba before the transfer of
allegiance. Congress has the legal right to regulate the
customs duties between the United States and Porto Rico as it
pleases; but the highest considerations of justice and good
faith demand that we should not disappoint the confident
expectation of sharing in our prosperity with which the people
of Porto Rico so gladly transferred their allegiance to the
United States, and that we should treat the interests of this
people as our own; and I wish most strongly to urge that the
customs duties between Porto Rico and the United States be
removed."
Message and Documents:
Abridgment, 1899-1900, volume 2, page 757.
And, finally, the President of the United States, in his
Message to Congress, December 5, 1899, gave his high authority
to the declaration that this duty of his government to Porto
Rico was "plain": "It must be borne in mind," he said, "that
since the cession Porto Rico has been denied the principal
markets she had long enjoyed and our tariffs have been
continued against her products as when she was under Spanish
sovereignty. The markets of Spain are closed to her products
except upon terms to which the commerce of all nations is
subjected. The island of Cuba, which used to buy her cattle
and tobacco without customs duties, now imposes the same
duties upon these products as from any other country entering
her ports.
{415}
She has therefore lost her free intercourse with Spain and
Cuba, without any compensating benefits in this market. Her
coffee was little known and not in use by our people, and
therefore there was no demand here for this, one of her chief
products. The markets of the United States should be opened up
to her products. Our plain duty is to abolish all customs
tariffs between the United States and Porto Rico and give her
products free access to our markets."
Message and Documents: Abridgment,
volume 1, page 53.
Notwithstanding all which high official acknowledgments and
declarations of obligation and duty, on the part of the
Republic of the United States to the people of the island
which it had wrested from Spain, certain interests in the
former that objected to competition from the latter were able
to secure legislation which deferred the performance of the
"plain duty" required. An Act of Congress which the President
approved on the 12th of April, 1900, "temporarily to provide
revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico and for other
purposes," enacted as follows:
"SECTION 3.
That on and after the passage of this Act all merchandise
coming into the United States from Porto Rico and coming into
Porto Rico from the United States shall be entered at the
several ports of entry upon payment of fifteen per centum of
the duties which are required to be levied, collected, and
paid upon like articles of merchandise imported from foreign
countries; and in addition thereto upon articles of
merchandise of Porto Rican manufacture coming into the United
States and withdrawn for consumption or sale upon payment of a
tax equal to the internal-revenue tax imposed in the United
States upon the like articles of merchandise of domestic
manufacture; such tax to be paid by internal-revenue stamp or
stamps to be purchased and provided by the Commissioner of
Internal Revenue and to be procured from the collector of
internal revenue at or most convenient to the port of entry of
said merchandise in the United States, and to be affixed under
such regulations as the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with
the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, shall
prescribe; and on all articles of merchandise of United States
manufacture coming into Porto Rico in addition to the duty
above provided upon payment of a tax equal in rate and amount
to the internal-revenue tax imposed in Porto Rico upon the
like articles of Porto Rican manufacture: Provided, That on
and after the date when this Act shall take effect, all
merchandise and articles, except coffee, not dutiable under
the tariff laws of the United States, and all merchandise and
articles entered in Porto Rico free of duty under' orders
heretofore made by the Secretary of War, shall be admitted
into the several ports thereof, when imported from the United
States, free of duty, all laws or parts of laws to the
contrary notwithstanding; and whenever the legislative
assembly of Porto Rico shall have enacted and put into
operation a system of local taxation to meet the necessities
of the government of Porto Rico, by this Act established, and
shall by resolution duly passed so notify the President, he
shall make proclamation thereof, and thereupon all tariff
duties on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico shall cease, and from and after such date all such
merchandise and articles shall be entered at the several ports
of entry free of duty; and in no event shall any duties be
collected after the first day of March, nineteen hundred and
two, on merchandise and articles going into Porto Rico from
the United States or coming into the United States from Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 4.
That the duties and taxes collected in Porto Rico in pursuance
of this Act, less the cost of collecting the same, and the
gross amount of all collections of duties and taxes in the
United States upon articles of merchandise coming from Porto
Rico, shall not be covered into the general fund of the
Treasury, but shall be held as a separate fund, and shall be
placed at the disposal of the President to be used for the
government and benefit of Porto Rico until the government of
Porto Rico herein provided for shall have been organized, when
all moneys theretofore collected under the provisions hereof,
then unexpended, shall be transferred to the local treasury of
Porto Rico, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall designate
the several ports and sub-ports of entry in Porto Rico, and
shall make such rules and regulations and appoint such agents
as may be necessary to collect the duties and taxes authorized
to be levied, collected, and paid in Porto Rico by the
provisions of this Act, and he shall fix the compensation and
provide for the payment thereof of all such officers, agents,
and assistants as he may find it necessary to employ to carry
out the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That as soon as
a civil government for Porto Rico shall have been organized in
accordance with the provisions of this Act and notice thereof
shall have been given to the President he shall make
proclamation thereof, and thereafter all collections of duties
and taxes in Porto Rico under the provisions of this Act shall
be paid into the treasury of Porto Rico, to be expended as
required by law for the government and benefit thereof instead
of being paid into the Treasury of the United States."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (April).
Act to provide temporarily for the civil government
of the Island.
The fundamental provisions of the act of the Congress of the
United States to provide temporarily for the civil government
of Porto Rico, which the President approved April 12, 1900,
are the following:
"SECTION 6.
That the capital of Porto Rico shall be at the city of San
Juan and the seat of government shall be maintained there.
"SECTION 7.
That all inhabitants continuing to reside therein who were
Spanish subjects on the eleventh day of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and then resided in Porto Rico, and
their children born subsequent thereto, shall be deemed and
held to be citizens of Porto Rico, and as such entitled to the
protection of the United States, except such as shall have
elected to preserve their allegiance to the Crown of Spain on
or before the eleventh day of April, nineteen hundred, in
accordance with the provisions of the treaty of peace between
the United States and Spain entered into on the eleventh day
of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine; and they, together
with such citizens of the United States as may reside in Porto
Rico, shall constitute a body politic under the name of The
People of Porto Rico, with governmental powers as hereinafter
conferred, and with power to sue and be sued as such.
{416}
"SECTION 8.
That the laws and ordinances of Porto Rico now in force shall
continue in full force and effect, except as altered, amended,
or modified hereinafter, or as altered or modified by military
orders and decrees in force when this Act shall take effect,
and so far as the same are not inconsistent or in conflict
with the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, or the provisions hereof, until altered,
amended, or repealed by the legislative authority hereinafter
provided for Porto Rico or by Act of Congress of the United
States: Provided, That so much of the law which was in force
at the time of cession, April eleventh, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, forbidding the marriage of priests, ministers, or
followers of any faith because of vows they may have taken,
being paragraph four, article eighty-three, chapter three,
civil code, and which was continued by the order of the
secretary of justice of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth,
eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, and promulgated by
Major-General Guy V. Henry, United States Volunteers, is
hereby repealed and annulled, and all persons lawfully married
in Porto Rico shall have all the rights and remedies conferred
by law upon parties to either civil or religious marriages:
And provided further, That paragraph one, article one hundred
and five, section four, divorce, civil code, and paragraph
two, section nineteen, of the order of the minister of justice
of Porto Rico, dated March seventeenth, eighteen hundred and
ninety-nine, and promulgated by Major-General Guy V. Henry,
United States Volunteers, be, and the same hereby are, so
amended as to read: 'Adultery on the part of either the
husband or the wife.' …
"SECTION 14.
That the statutory laws of the United States not locally
inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise
provided, shall have the same force and effect in Porto Rico
as in the United States, except the internal-revenue laws,
which, in view of the provisions of section three, shall not
have force and effect in Porto Rico.
"SECTION 15.
That the legislative authority hereinafter provided shall have
power by due enactment to amend, alter, modify, or repeal any
law or ordinance, civil or criminal, continued in force by
this Act, as it may from time to time see fit.
"SECTION 16.
That all judicial process shall run in the name of 'United
States of America, ss: the President of the United States,'
and all criminal or penal prosecutions in the local courts
shall be conducted in the name and by the authority of 'The
People of Porto Rico'; and all officials authorized by this
Act shall before entering upon the duties of their respective
offices take an oath to support the Constitution of the United
States and the laws of Porto Rico.
"SECTION 17.
That the official title of the chief executive officer shall
be 'The Governor of Porto Rico.' He shall be appointed by the
President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
he shall hold his office for a term of four years and until
his successor is chosen and qualified unless sooner removed by
the President; he shall reside in Porto Rico during his
official incumbency, and shall maintain his office at the seat
of government; he may grant pardons and reprieves, and remit
fines and forfeitures for offenses against the laws of Porto
Rico, and respites for offenses against the laws of the United
States, until the decision of the President can be
ascertained; he shall commission all officers that he may be
authorized to appoint, and may veto any legislation enacted,
as hereinafter provided; he shall be the commander in chief of
the militia, and shall at all times faithfully execute the
laws, and he shall in that behalf have all the powers of
governors of the Territories of the United States that are not
locally inapplicable; and he shall annually, and at such other
times as he may be required, make official report of the
transactions of the government in Porto Rico, through the
Secretary of State, to the President of the United States:
Provided, That the President may, in his discretion, delegate
and assign to him such executive duties and functions as may
in pursuance with law be so delegated and assigned.
"SECTION 18.
That there shall be appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, for the period of four
years, unless sooner removed by the President, a secretary, an
attorney-general, a treasurer, an auditor, a commissioner of
the interior, and a commissioner of education, each of whom
shall reside in Porto Rico during his official incumbency and
have the powers and duties hereinafter provided for them,
respectively, and who, together with five other persons of
good repute, to be also appointed by the President for a like
term of four years, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, shall constitute an executive council, at least five
of whom shall be native inhabitants of Porto Rico, and, in
addition to the legislative duties hereinafter imposed upon
them as a body, shall exercise such powers and perform such
duties as are hereinafter provided for them, respectively, and
who shall have power to employ all necessary deputies and
assistants for the proper discharge of their duties as such
officials and as such executive council. …
"SECTION 27.
That all local legislative powers hereby granted shall be
vested in a legislative assembly which shall consist of two
houses; one the executive council, as hereinbefore
constituted, and the other a house of delegates, to consist of
thirty-five members elected biennially by the qualified voters
as hereinafter provided; and the two houses thus constituted
shall be designated 'The legislative assembly of Porto Rico.'
"SECTION 28.
That for the purposes of such elections Porto Rico shall be
divided by the executive council into seven districts,
composed of contiguous territory and as nearly equal as may be
in population, and each district shall be entitled to five
members of the house of delegates.
SECTION 29.
That the first election for delegates shall be held on such
date and under such regulations as to ballots and voting as
the executive council may prescribe. … At such elections all
citizens of Porto Rico shall be allowed to vote who have been
bona fide residents for one year and who possess the other
qualifications of voters under the laws and military orders in
force on the first day of March, 1900, subject to such
modifications and additional qualifications and such
regulations and restrictions as to registration as may be
prescribed by the executive council. …
{417}
"SECTION 32.
That the legislative authority herein provided shall extend to
all matters of a legislative character not locally inapplicable,
including power to create, consolidate, and reorganize the
municipalities, so far as may be necessary, and to provide and
repeal laws and ordinances therefor; and also the power to
alter, amend, modify, and repeal any and all laws and
ordinances of every character now in force in Porto Rico, or
any municipality or district thereof, not inconsistent with
the provisions hereof: Provided, however, That all grants of
franchises, rights, and privileges or concessions of a public
or quasi-public nature shall be made by the executive council,
with the approval of the governor, and all franchises granted
in Porto Rico shall be reported to Congress, which hereby
reserves the power to annul or modify the same.
"SECTION 33.
That the judicial power shall be vested in the courts and
tribunals of Porto Rico as already established and now in
operation, including municipal courts. …
"SECTION 34.
That Porto Rico shall constitute a judicial district to be
called 'the district of Porto Rico.' The President, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint a
district judge, a district attorney, and a marshal for said
district, each for a term of four years, unless sooner removed
by the President. The district court for said district shall
be called the district court of the United States for Porto
Rico.
"SECTION 35.
That writs of error and appeals from the final decisions of
the supreme court of Porto Rico and the district court of the
United States shall be allowed and may be taken to the Supreme
Court of the United States in the same manner and under the
same regulations and in the same cases as from the supreme
courts of the Territories of the United States. …
"SECTION 39.
That the qualified voters of Porto Rico shall, on the first
Tuesday after the first Monday of November, anno Domini
nineteen hundred, and every two years thereafter, choose a
resident commissioner to the United States, who shall be
entitled to official recognition as such by all Departments,
upon presentation to the Department of State of a certificate
of election of the governor of Porto Rico, and who shall be
entitled to a salary, payable monthly by the United States, at
the rate of five thousand dollars per annum: Provided, That no
person shall be eligible to such election who is not a bona
fide citizen of Porto Rico, who is not thirty years of age,
and who does not read and write the English language.
"SECTION 40.
That a commission, to consist of three members, at least one
of whom shall be a native citizen of Porto Rico, shall be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, to compile and revise the laws of Porto Rico; also
the various codes of procedure and systems of municipal
government now in force, and to frame and report such
legislation as may be necessary to make a simple, harmonious,
and economical government, establish justice and secure its
prompt and efficient administration, inaugurate a general
system of education and public instruction, provide buildings
and funds therefor, equalize and simplify taxation and all the
methods of raising revenue, and make all other provisions that
may be necessary to secure and extend the benefits of a
republican form of government to all the inhabitants of Porto
Rico."
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (May).
Organization of civil government.
Appointment of Governor Allen.
Under the Act to establish civil government in Porto Rico,
Honorable. Charles H. Allen, formerly a representative in
Congress from Massachusetts, and lately Assistant-Secretary of
the Navy, was appointed to the governorship of the island. Mr.
J. H. Hollander, of Maryland, was appointed Treasurer, and Mr.
John R. Garrison, of the District of Columbia, Auditor.
Governor Allen was inducted into office with considerable
ceremony, at San Juan, on the 1st of May.
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1900 (August-October).