[32] See Report of Secretary Root for 1902, p. 13.
[33] Just how correct this was will be examined later.
[34] “The people seem to be actuated by the idea that men are never nearer right than when going with their own kith and kin.” War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, p. 61.
[35] General MacArthur’s Annual Report dated October 1, 1900. War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, pp. 61–2.
[36] General MacArthur’s report which we are now quoting from, dated October 1, 1900, was forwarded by the ordinary course of mail, and even if it arrived before the day of the November election, the Secretary of War certainly did not at once place it before the public.
[37] Compare this MacArthur, October 1, 1900, statement with the Taft statements of the same situation between June and November, 1900, as expressed for instance in his November, 1900, report to the Secretary of War thus: “A great majority of the people long for peace and are entirely willing to accept the establishment of a government under the supremacy of the United States. They are, however, restrained by fear. * * * Without this, armed resistance to the United States authority would have long ago ceased. It is a Mafia on a very large scale.” Report, Taft Commission, November 30, 1900, p. 17. This was before Judge Taft met Juan Cailles above mentioned and liked him well enough to make him governor of a province, in spite of his being an “assassin,” in other words a Filipino general who had a few weak-kneed fellows shot for being too friendly with the Americans.
[38] [Chapter XI]., ante.
[39] See War Department Report, 1900, vol. i., pt. 5, pp. 65–6.
[40] As for my share as a soldier in that Philippine Insurrection, admitting, as I now do, that it was a tragedy of errors, the President of the United States would indeed be a very impotent Chief Executive if it were every American’s duty to deliberate as a judge on the Bench before he decided to answer a president’s call for volunteers in an emergency. I am not yet so highly educated as to find no inward response to the sentiment, “Right or wrong, my country.” If this sentiment is not right, no republic can long survive, for the ultimate safety of republics must lie in volunteer soldiery.
[41] Page 93.