July 18th, is the date of the letter to the War Department in which General Anderson states that the establishment of a provisional government by us will probably mean a conflict with the insurgents. This was equivalent to saying that they will probably be ready to fight whenever we assert the “absolute and supreme” authority that the President’s instructions had directed to be asserted by the army as soon as it should arrive in the Philippines. Yet in the fall of 1899, President McKinley said he “never dreamed” that Aguinaldo’s “little band” would oppose our rule to the extent of war against it. It would have been more accurate if the martyred Christian gentleman who used those words had said he “always hoped” they would not, instead of “never dreamed” they would. This letter of July 18th, informs the Department:
Aguinaldo has declared himself dictator and self-appointed president. He has declared martial law and promulgated a minute method of procedure under it.
July 19th, General Anderson sends Major (now Major-General) J. F. Bell, to Aguinaldo, and asks of him a number of favors, such as any soldier may properly ask of an ally, for example, permission to see his military maps, etc., and that Aguinaldo “place at his [Bell’s] disposal any information you may have on the above subjects, and also give him [Bell] a letter or pass addressed to your subordinates which will authorize them to furnish him any information they can * * * and to facilitate his passage along the lines, upon a reconnaissance around Manila, on which I propose to send him.”[20] All of which Aguinaldo did.
Military training is very keen on honor. Talk about what the French call foi d’officier,—the “word of an officer”! Did ever a letter from one soldier to another more completely commit the faith and honor of his government, to recognition of the existence of an alliance? “In 122 years we have established no colonies,” he had told Aguinaldo. “It looks like we are about to go into the colonizing business,” he had, in effect, said to Admiral Dewey, about the same time.
July 21st, General Anderson writes the Adjutant-General of the army as follows:
Since I last wrote, Aguinaldo has put in operation an elaborate system of military government. * * * It may seem strange that I have made no formal protest against his proclamation as dictator, his declaration of martial law, etc. I wrote such a protest but did not publish it at Admiral Dewey’s request.[21]
When he wrote this letter, General Anderson was evidently beginning to have some compunctions about the trouble he now saw ahead. He was a veteran of the Civil War, whose gallantry had then been proven on many a field against an enemy compared with whom these people would be a picnic. But things did not look to the grim old hero like there was going to be a square deal. So he put this in the letter:
I submit, with all deference, that we have heretofore underrated the natives. They are not ignorant savage tribes, but have a civilization of their own, and although insignificant in appearance are fierce fighters and for a tropical people they are industrious. A small detail of natives will do more work than a regiment of volunteers.
Of course, this slam at “volunteers” was a bit rough. But the battle-scarred veteran’s sense of fair play was getting on his nerves. He foresaw the coming conflict, and though he did not shirk it, he did not relish it. He understood the “game,” and it seemed to him the cards were stacked, to meet the necessity of demonstrating that forcible annexation, instead of being criminal aggression, was merely Trade Expansion, and that his government was right then irrevocably committing itself, without any knowledge of, or acquaintance with, the Filipinos, to the assumption that they were incapable of running a government of their own.