The Forrest City times., 1899-10-27

| struggling for liberty and who like inc | Cubans, are, and of right ought to be in-
 dependent but merely as 'dscontented l and rebellious subjects of Spain who if we occupied their country in conseuuence | of the war would have to yield us due | 'obedience.' And other officers of our gov ernment were instructed not to make any
 promises to the Filipinos as to the future | But the Filipinos themselves were not so informed. They were left to believe that While hghting in cooperation with the American forces. they were fighting for | their own independence. They could not i imagine that the government of the great l American republic, while boasting of hay
 ing gone to war with Spain under the ban 1 ner of liberation and humanity in behalf 1 of Cuba, was capable of secretly plotting l 10 turn that war into one for the conquest | and subjugation of the Philippines.
 Natives Ordered to Fall Back
 But just that was to happen. As soon | as Manila was taken and we had no fur | ther use for our Filipino allies they were 1 ordered to fall back and back from the l city and suburbs Our military command
 CTS treated the Fiipinos' country as if it were our own. When Aguinaldo sent one l or his de-de-camps to Gen. Merritt with
 a request for an interview Gen Merritt
 was too busy. When our peace negotia- l tions with Spain began and representatives l or the Fflipinos asked for audience to so- 1 licit consideration of the rights and wishes l
 in their faces, in Washington as well as | in Paris. And behind those doors the
 scheme was matched to deprive the Phil | ippine islanders of the independence from 1 foreign rule and to make them the subjects | of another foreign ruler and that foreign
 ruler their late ally, this great republic,
 which had grandly proclaimed to the world l that it's war against Spain was not war l or conquest. but war of liberation and l humanity.
 l frA
 closed to the people of the Philippines. l treaty was made with Spain by the direc- l ton of President Mckinley, which pro- 1 vided for the cession of the Philippine is- 1 lands by Spain to the United States for l the consideration of S20, ,000, GOO It has been 1 said that this sum was not purchase l money, but a compensation for improve ments made by Spain, a 'solatium' to
 sweeten the pill of session. or what not. l But stripped of all cloudy verbiage, 1t was l really purchase money, the sale being made 1 by Spain under duress Thus Spain sold
 and the United States bought what was | called the sovereignty of Spain over the
 Philippine islands and their people.
 1 Now, look at the circumstances under
 which that 'cession' was made. Spain had 1 lost the possession of the country, except
 a few isolated and helpless little garrisons, l most of which were effectively blockaded l by the F'flipinos. The American forces oc- l cupied Cavite and the harbor and city of | Manila and nothing more. The bulk of the l country was occupied and possessed by the 1 people thereof, over whom Spain had in | point of fact. ceased to exercise any sov- l ereignty, the Spanish power having been | driven out or destroyed by the Filipino in- | surrection, while the United States had not | acquired. beyond Cavite and Manila, any l authority of whatever name by military | occupation nor by recognition on the part l of the people Aguinaldo's army surround | ed Manila on the land side. and his govern 1 ment claimed organized control over 15 | provinces. That government was estab- | hshed at Malolos, not far from Manila, and
 a very respectable government it was. Ac- l cordlng to Mir. Barrett, our late minister in l Siam, himself an ardent imperialist, who | had seen it. it had well-organized execu- | tive, divided into several departments, ably conducted, and a popular assembly a con
 gress. which would favorably compare with | the parliament of Japan-an infinitely bet l ter government than the insurrectionary | government of Cuba ever was.
 Mckinley as Dictator.
 This is grim story. Two years ago the | prediction of such possibility would have | been regarded as hideous nightmare-as | the offspring of a diseased imagination
 But to-day it is a true tale-a plain recital | of facts taken from the official records l These things have actually been done in | these last two years by and under the ad- | ministration of William Mckinley. This | is our Philippine war as it stands. It is pre- | tended that We had a right to the possession
 of the Philippines and that self-respect de- | manded us to enforce that right. What l kind of right was it? The right of con- l quest? Had we really acquired that coun- 1 try by armed conquest, which, as Presi- | dent Mckinley has told us, Is, according to | the American code Of morals, criminal? l But if we had thrown aside our code of | morals we had then not conquered more | than the bay and city of Manila. The rest l Of the country was controlled, if by any body, by the Filipinos Or was it the right
 of possession by treaty? I have already l shown that the president ordered the en- | forcement of our sovereignty over the | archipelago long before the treaty had by
 ratification gained legal effect and also
 that. in making that treaty, we had bought 1 something called sovereignty which Spain | had ceased to possess and could therefore
 not sell and deliver.
 | Tt Is also pretended that, whatever our | rights, the Filipinos were the original az 1 gressors in the pending fight and that our l troops found themselves compelled to de- | lend their flag against assault. What are 1 the facts? One evening early in February | last some Filipino soldiers entered the American lines without, however, attack | ing anybody. An American sentry fired. l killing one of the Ffipinos. Then a desul- | tory hring began at the outposts. Ii spread | until 1t assumed the proportions of an ex- | tensiVe engagement in which a large num- | Der of Filipinos were killed. It is we'll | established fact that this engagement | could not have been a premeditated affair | on the part of the Filipinos, as many of | their officers, including Aguinaldo's pr- | Vate secretary were at the time in the the
 aters and cafes of Manila. It is further l well known that the next day Aguinaldo
 sent an officer, Gen. Torres, under a flag l of truce to Gen. Otis to declare that the I fighting had not been authorized by Agui-
 naldo. but had begun accidentally that
 Aguinaldo wished to have it stopped. and | proposed, to that end, the esta ablishment | of a neutral zone between the two armies,
 such might be agreeable to Gen. Otis | whereupon Gen. Otis curtly answered that l the fighting, having once begun. must go
 on to the grim end. Who was it that really
 wanted the fight?
 | But far more important than all this is | the fact that President McKinley's 'benev-
 olent assimilation order, which even be- | fore the ratification of the treaty demand | ed that the Philippine islanders should un- | conditionally surrender to American sov- | ereignty, in default whereof our military
 forces would compel them. was really the | praSfdantfS declarafion of war against ha