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31 chapters
Preface
Preface
Pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirit that hath dared On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth So great an object. Henry V. To have gone out to the other side of the world with an army of invasion, and had a part, however small, in the subjugation of a strange people, and then to see a new government set up, and, as an official of that government, watch it work out through a number of years, is an unusual and interesting experience, especially to a lawyer. What seem to me the most valuab
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The American Occupations of the Philippines Chapter I Mr. Pratt’s Serenade
The American Occupations of the Philippines Chapter I Mr. Pratt’s Serenade
Any narrative covering our acquisition of the Philippine Islands must, of course, centre in the outset about Admiral Dewey, and the destruction by him of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on Sunday morning, May 1, 1898. But as the Admiral had brought Aguinaldo down from Hong Kong to Manila after the battle, and landed him on May 19th to start an auxiliary insurrection, which insurrection kept the Spaniards bottled up in Manila on the land side for three and a half months while Dewey did the same b
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Chapter II Dewey and Aguinaldo
Chapter II Dewey and Aguinaldo
The battle of Manila Bay was fought May 1, 1898. Until the thunder of Dewey’s guns reverberated around the world, there was perhaps no part of it the American people knew less about than the Philippine Islands. We have all heard much of what happened after the battle, but comparatively few, probably, have ever had a glimpse at our great sailor while he was there in Hong Kong harbor, getting ready to go to sea to destroy the Spanish armada. Such a glimpse is modestly afforded by the Admiral in hi
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Chapter III Anderson and Aguinaldo
Chapter III Anderson and Aguinaldo
Admiral Dewey contemplated that we should merely remain masters of the situation out where he was until the end of the war. President McKinley set about to effect “the conquest of the Philippine Islands.” The naval victory of Manila Bay having made it certain that at the conclusion of our war against a decadent monarchy we would at last have an adequate coaling station and naval base in the Far East, the sending of troops to the Philippines, in appropriate prosecution of the war, to reduce and c
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Chapter IV Merritt and Aguinaldo
Chapter IV Merritt and Aguinaldo
Early in the spring of 1899, Mr. McKinley sent out the Commission of which President Schurman of Cornell University was Chairman, to try to stop the war. They bent themselves to the task in a spirit as kindly as that in which we know Mr. McKinley himself would have acted. They failed because the war was already on and the Filipinos were bent on fighting for independence to the bitter end. But they learned a good deal about the facts of the earlier situation. Speaking of these in their report to
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Chapter V Otis and Aguinaldo
Chapter V Otis and Aguinaldo
There was some of the parleying and ink, however, that was not wholly wasted. But to properly appreciate it as illustrative of the fortitude and tact which the early Filipino leaders seem to have combined in a remarkable degree, some prefatory data are essential. Aguinaldo’s capital was then at Bacoor, one of the small coast villages you pass through in going by land from Manila to Cavite. From Manila over to Cavite by water is about seven miles, and by land about three or four times that. The c
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Chapter VI The Wilcox-Sargent Trip
Chapter VI The Wilcox-Sargent Trip
In the last chapter, we saw Aguinaldo’s republic formally established at Malolos, September 15th, claiming jurisdiction over all Luzon. In Chapter IV ., entitled “Merritt and Aguinaldo,” we saw the political condition of southern Luzon in August, 1898, and the following months, and verified the correctness of Aguinaldo’s claims as to complete mastery there then. Let us now examine the state of affairs in northern Luzon in the fall of 1898. In Senate Document 196 , 56th Congress, 1st Session, dat
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Chapter VII The Treaty of Paris
Chapter VII The Treaty of Paris
This is a tale of three cities, Paris, Washington, and Manila. Article III. of the Peace Protocol signed at Washington, August 12, 1898, provided: The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a Treaty of Peace which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines. 1 The “Papers relating to the Treaty with Spain” including the telegraphic correspondence between President McKinley and our Peace Commissioners pendi
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Chapter VIII The Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation
Chapter VIII The Benevolent Assimilation Proclamation
From this number General Bell deducts several thousands as having been recaptured by the Spaniards, or bought in. I at once hear some former comrade-in-arms of the Philippine insurrection say: “Oh, no. They couldn’t have had as many as 40,000 guns, or near that.” I thought the same thing when I first read General Bell’s report on the matter. But he removes the doubt thus: “They are being continually sent away to other provinces.” We did not understand Aguinaldo’s movements then. All his troops w
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Chapter IX The Iloilo Fiasco
Chapter IX The Iloilo Fiasco
Cautioning Otis against any clash at Iloilo, Mr. McKinley wired January 9th: “Conflict would be most unfortunate, considering the present. * * * Time given the insurgents cannot injure us, and must weaken and discourage them. They will see our benevolent purpose, etc.” 4 The Iloilo fiasco did indeed furnish to the insurgent cause aid and comfort at the psychologic moment when it most needed encouragement to bring things to a head. It presented a spectacle of vacillation and seeming cowardice whi
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Chapter X Otis and Aguinaldo (Continued)
Chapter X Otis and Aguinaldo (Continued)
We shall not have them (Filipinos enough to conduct a decent government) in 10, 20, or a 100 years, because the Yankees will never acknowledge the aptitude of an “inferior” race to govern the country. Do not dream that when American sovereignty is implanted in the country the American office-holders will give up. Never! If * * * it depends upon them to say whether the Filipinos have sufficient men for the government of the country * * * they will never say it.” Is not the American who pretends t
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Chapter XI Otis and the War
Chapter XI Otis and the War
“The thing is on,” said General Hughes, Provost Marshal of Manila, to General Otis, at Malacañan palace, on the night of February 4, 1899, about half past eight o’clock, as soon as the firing started. 1 He was talking about something which every American in Manila except General Otis had for months frankly recognized as inevitable—the war. On the day of the outbreak of February 4th, General Otis had under his command 838 officers and 20,032 enlisted men, say in round numbers a total of 21,000. O
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Chapter XII Otis and the War (Continued)
Chapter XII Otis and the War (Continued)
The political or governmental problem being now reduced from 3141 islands to eleven, the last three of the nine contained in the above table may also be eliminated as follows: ( See map at end of volume . ) Paragua, the long narrow island seen at the extreme lower left of any map of the archipelago, extending northeast southwest at an angle of about 45°, is practically worthless, being fit for nothing much except a penal colony, for which purpose it is in fact now used. Masbate—easily located on
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Chapter XIII MacArthur and the War
Chapter XIII MacArthur and the War
Some one has said, “Let me write the songs of a people and I care not who makes their laws.” Give me the campaign songs of a war, and I will so write the history of that war that he who runs may read, and, reading, know the truth. The volunteers of 1899 had, most of them, been in the Spanish War of ’98. That struggle had been so brief that, to borrow a phrase of the principal beneficiary of it, Colonel Roosevelt, there had not been “war enough to go ’round.” The Philippine insurrection had alrea
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Chapter XIV The Taft Commission
Chapter XIV The Taft Commission
For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying—Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Jeremiah viii., 11....
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Chapter XV Governor Taft—1901–2
Chapter XV Governor Taft—1901–2
Me miserable! Which way shall I fly? Paradise Lost. Throughout the last year of Governor Taft’s administration in the Philippines, 1903, both he, and the peaceably inclined Filipinos in the disturbed districts, were between the devil and the deep sea. The military handling of the Batangas and Samar disorders of 1901–2 had precipitated in the United States Senate a storm of criticism, at the hands of Senator Bacon and others, which had reminded a public, already satiated with slaughtering a weake
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Chapter XVI Governor Taft, 1903
Chapter XVI Governor Taft, 1903
We will probably never again have a better man at the head of the Philippine Government than William H. Taft. We have no higher type of citizen in the republic to-day than the man now 4 at the head of it. In the Outlook of September 21, 1901, there appeared an article on the Philippines written in the summer previous by Vice-President Roosevelt, entitled “The First Civil Governor,” which began as follows: A year ago a man of wide acquaintance both with American public life and American public me
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Chapter XVII Governor Taft, 1903 (Continued)
Chapter XVII Governor Taft, 1903 (Continued)
I think the foregoing makes sufficiently obvious the inherent impossibility of the American people ever knowing anything about current governmental mistakes in the Philippines, of which there must be some, in time for their judgment to have anything to do with shaping the course of the government out there for which they are responsible. And therefore it shows the inherent unfitness of their governmental machinery to govern the Filipinos so long as they do not change the home form of government
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Chapter XVIII Governor Wright—1904
Chapter XVIII Governor Wright—1904
My heart is heavy with the fate of that unhappy people. Speech of Hon. A. O. Bacon in U. S. Senate. 1 Because the especially cordial relations which existed to the last between Governor Wright and myself 2 are familiar to a number of very dear mutual friends, I deem it due both to them and to myself, in view of the contents of the preceding chapter, to state that I see no reason why, in writing a history of the American Occupation of the Philippines, I should omit or slur the facts which convinc
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Chapter XIX Governor Wright—1905
Chapter XIX Governor Wright—1905
The Americans give out and write in their papers that the Philippine Islands are completely pacified, and that the Filipinos love Americans and their rule. This, doubtless with good motives, is complete and utter humbug, for the country is honeycombed with insurrection and plots; the fighting has never ceased; and the natives loathe the Americans and their theories, saying so openly in their native press and showing their dislike in every possible fashion. Their one idea is to be rid of the U. S
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Chapter XX Governor Ide—1906
Chapter XX Governor Ide—1906
The Report of the Philippine Commission for 1906 3 deals at some length with disturbances which occurred in the island of Leyte (area 3000 square miles, population nearly 400,000), beginning in the middle of June. It describes among other things a visit of Governor-General Ide to Tacloban, the capital of Leyte, made in consequence of said disturbances, and conferences held by him there with Major-General Wood, commanding all the United States forces in the Philippines, Brigadier-General Lee, com
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Chapter XXI Governor Smith—1907–9
Chapter XXI Governor Smith—1907–9
Let us examine these amiable liberties thus taken with the facts of history by men of irreproachable private character, briefly analyzing their action. Such an examination and analysis are indispensable to a clear understanding by a great free people whose proudest boast is love of fair play, of whether the Filipino people, or any appreciable fraction of them, have ever in the least consented, or do now in the least consent, to our rule, as the small minority among us interested in keeping the I
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Chapter XXII Governor Forbes—1909–1912
Chapter XXII Governor Forbes—1909–1912
It is a relief to turn from such matters to some of the real substantial good we have done out there to which Governor Forbes has heretofore publicly pointed with just pride. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly for February, 1909, Governor Forbes (then Vice-Governor) said, among other things: We have completed the separation of Church and State, buying out from the religious orders their large agricultural properties, which are now administered by the government for the benefit of the tenants.
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Chapter XXIII “Non-Christian” Worcester
Chapter XXIII “Non-Christian” Worcester
Professor Worcester was originally a professor of zoölogy, or something of that sort, in a western university. In the early nineties he had made a trip to the Philippines, confining himself then mostly to creeping things and quadrupeds—lizards, alligators, pythons, unusual wild beasts, and other forms of animal life of the kind much coveted as specimens by museums and universities. In 1899, just after the Spanish War, he got out a book on the Philippines, and as an American who had been in the P
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Chapter XXIV The Philippine Civil Service
Chapter XXIV The Philippine Civil Service
Then Mr. Fergusson comes to the obvious but apparently unattainable remedy, which he says is to make a Philippine appointment a permanent means of livelihood by providing an effective system of transfers to the Federal service after a reasonable period of service here. * * * Under the present regulations influence must be brought to bear at Washington in order that requisition may be made by the Chief of some bureau there for the services of a clerk desiring to transfer. You see, if a Washington
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Chapter XXV Cost of the Philippines
Chapter XXV Cost of the Philippines
Of course these appalling figures 8 must be taken with a grain of salt. In the first place, the man who furnished them was merely reproducing the general impression of his neighbors as to the diminution of the population of the province. He does not pretend to be dealing with official statistics. On the other hand, all of the yearly reports of the various native provincial officers are, as a general rule, pathetically optimistic. They all seem to think it their duty to present a hopeful view of
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Chapter XXVI Congressional Legislation
Chapter XXVI Congressional Legislation
This also sounds liberal, on first reading, but its object was, and its effect has been, to enable the American Hemp Trust to corner and control the Manila hemp industry. There is but one article of Philippine export which any one in the United States is interested in, that was admitted into the United States free of duty under the Dingley Act. 4 That article is hemp. The object of the law was to favor Americans interested in exporting hemp from Manila to the United States as against Europeans e
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Chapter XXVII The Rights of Man
Chapter XXVII The Rights of Man
I know of no graver responsibility that an American statesman can take upon himself before the bar of history than to deny the right of any given people to self-government. Certainly any man who denies that right at least assumes the burden of proof that they are unfit to attend to their own affairs. Mr. McKinley assumed it without pretending to know anything much about the Filipinos, the motive being that the Islands would be profitable to us. When Mr. Taft went to the Philippines in 1900, he w
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Chapter XXVIII The Road to Autonomy
Chapter XXVIII The Road to Autonomy
He who points out a wrong without being prepared to suggest a remedy presumes upon the patience of his neighbor without good and sufficient cause. Up to this point the wrong has been unfolded, with such ability as was vouchsafed the narrator, “from Genesis to Revelations,” so to speak; also his own attitude as an eye-witness, and its evolution from the Mosaic doctrine of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, to the more Christian doctrines of the New Testament. Let us now consider the remed
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Chapter XXIX The Way Out
Chapter XXIX The Way Out
If the McCall Resolution, or any one of the kindred resolutions, were passed, and complied with by the President of the United States, and accepted by the other Powers, and the Filipinos were helped to organize territorial governments such as Arizona and New Mexico were before they became States, several such territories could form the nucleus about which to begin to build at once, as indicated in the chapter on “The Road to Autonomy.” A number of such territories could be made at once as comple
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Corrections
Corrections
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