Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1899-04-25
OUR CANDIDATE IN 1900
Historic Facts.

inquiry OF the Secretary OF Inc navy,
dated June IA, 1898, and requesting
full report of "any conferences, re-
lations, or cooperation, military or
otherwise, which you dewey have
had with Aguinaldo." The response of
Admiral Dewey sent by dispatch boat
to Hongkong and from there cabled
on June 9th, or seven weeks before
the capture of Manila, was as follows:
SECRETARY OF NAVY, Washington.
Receipt of telegram of June 14th is
acknowledged. Aguinaldo, insurgent
leader, with thirteen of his staff, ar
rived May 10th, by permission, on
Nanshan. Established self Cavite,
outside arsenal, under the protection
Of our guns, and organized his army.
l have had several conferences with
him, generally of personal nature.
Consistently have refrained from
assisting him in any way with the
force under my command. and on
several occasions have declined re-
quests that 1 should dos SO, telling
him the squadron could not act until
the arrival of the United States
troops. At the same time l have
given him to understand that l COLI
slider insurgents as friends, being OPP
posed to common enemy. He has
gone to attend meeting of insurgent
leaders for the purpose of forming a
civil government.
Aguinaldo has acted Independently
of the squadron, but has kept me adj
vised of his progress which has been
wonderful. have allowed to pass
by water recruits, arms and ammu.
milton, and to take such Spanish arms
and ammunition from the arsenal as
he needed. Have advised frequently
to conduct the war humanely, which
he has done invariably. My relations
with him are cordial, but am not in
his confidence. The United States
has not been bound in any way to
assist insurgents by any act Of prom
1ses, and he is not, to my knowledge,
committed to assist us. believe he
expects to capture Manila without
my assistance, but doubt ability,
they not yet having many guns. In
my opinion, these people are far su-
perior In their intelligence and more
capable of self-government than the
natives Of Cuba, and I am familiar
with both races.
DEWEY.
Thus in the concise words of one in
whom the whole American people
have confidence is the story of our
relations with Aguinaldo up to the
last of June detailed. And surely it
was with no standardization and
people incapable of self government
that Dewey thought he had to deal.
On the contrary he recognized he was
dealing with leader gifted in many
ways and people capable of many
things. He paints no such picture of
Aguinaldo and his followers as have
our imperialists, he paints them in
bright hues not dark as has been the
wont of the annexationists, though
why these latter have chosen to
make out those whom they would
annex as the blacklist of characters is
an interesting question. For how
does the blackening of the character
OF the F1lipinos make their annexing
more desirable2 1t would seem to ue
that while in the annexing business
the annexing of a submissive, tract.
able and easily ruled people would be
much preferable to the annexing OF
an ungrateful, treacherous, incon.
slant set over whom guard must con.
stantly be kept. Yet it is as the latter
that Filipinos have been studiously
painted. ALI their bad traits have
been exaggerated, all their good quail.
tiles slurred over. The only expla-
nation of such course on the part
OF the annexationists, a running down
OF the people they would have us
annex, a running down of the goods
they would have US buy, is that they
have felt that the great body of oul
people are not in sympathy with
them but naturally sympathize with
the aspirationsof the Filipinos. There.
fore the first aim of the annexation.
lists is to chill these latter sympathies
by painting the Filipinos as quite un.
worthy of sympathy.
When Admiral Dewey sent the
above dispatch there were no Ameri.
can troops in the Philippines. The
first detachment under command of
General Anderson did not arrive
until June Both, three days after the
sending of the afore-quoted dispatch
from Hong Kong. And landing in
Cavite General Anderson lost no time
In putting himself in communication
with Aguinaldo whose forces had
blocked up the Spanish in Manila.
On the 4th of July, anniversary Of
the Great Republics natal day,
General Anderson wrote:
Senior Don EMILIO AGUINALDo,
Commanding Philippine forces, Cavite
Luzon.
GENERAL: have the honor to in.
form you that the United States of
America, whose land forces l have the
honor to command in this vicinity.
being at war with the Kingdom Of
Spain, has entire sympathy and most
friendly sentiments for the native
people Of the Philippine Islands.
For these reasons desire to have
the most amicable relations with you,