Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-16

the people of the United States into
the support of policy which aims tC
destroy not only their respect and rev.
erence for the opinions OF the fathers
but the root and source of their early
belief in the fundamental principles o.
republican government. The argu
ments of those who defend the wal
are mere evasions. They do not touct
the essential questions. Is the wal
right? Is it in harmony with the prin.
ciples and policies that we have adopt.
ed as al once the most just and the
best suited to promote the welfare Of
the nation?
Among the many irrelevant false.
hoods with which the imperialists are
seeking to divert the attention Of the
people from the vicious character OF
the administration foreign policy
and the acts of atrocious tyranny tC
which that policy has led we find
l. The charge that the Filipino chief
Aguinaldo, sold his people for Spanish
gold.
In answer to this. it may be said
that the American consul general al
Hongkong, (Rounsevelle wildman),
under date of July IS, 1898. affirns that
this charge is false. l quote from his
letter..
tempt to blacken the name of Aguinal
do and his cabinet on account OF the
questionable terms of their surrender
to the Spanish forces year ago this
month 1t has been said they sold
their country for gold; but this has
been conclusively disproved, not OILY
/ by their own statements, but by the
/ speech of the late Governor General
Reverb in the Spanish senate. June II,
1885,"
! A War of Conquest.
The principle of self-govern n1ent,
however, is wholly independent of
Aguinaldo. He may have been as false
as Benedict Arnold, and yet the cause
of the Filipino people may be as just
as that of our Revolutionary forefath-
ers. His conduct, whether right or
wrong, certainly can not justify US in
discarding the political tenets to which
we have now held consistently for
be suggested, too, that Aguinaldo is
not by any means the only prominent
man whose character has been as
sailed and whose motives have been
( imDugned by personal and political
enemies. There is one automatic truth
also which should be remembered in
| this connection, to-wit: 1t can be no
greater offense morally to sell people
for Spanish gold than to buy people
with American gold, as we attempted
to do at Paris. If wrong to sell, it
must be wrong to buy.
2. 1t is affirmed by the imperialists
that the Filipino forces rendered no
assistance to the American army in
the capture of Manila.
General Whittier, who was not only
present at the capture of Manila, but
had abundant opportunity to obtain
reliable information with respect to
occurrences in the immediate vicinity
of that city, in speaking of the serv-
ices of the Filipinos in driving the
Spaniards from Caveite, 20 odd miles
to the defenses of Manila said: (See
Senate Document 62. page 1897 "All
the success was on the natives side,
and the Spaniards surrendered be-
tween 1000 and 5000 men armed,
plenty of ammunition, and in good
latter may be that their enemy was in
small bands; but they never captured
one of these. and the small bands
drove them to their walls"
The effect of this courage, activity
and vigilance on the part of the Fill
pino army was to render the city Of
Manila untenable, and hence it was
that without even a serious effort on
the part Of the Spanisrds in the way
of defense, it was surrendered to the
American forces.
3. The charge is made that the Fill
pinos are responsible for beginning the
war now in progress.
Up to the time of the capture of
Manila, the American forces and the
Filipino army were on terms of the
utmost friendliness. Aguinaldo. to use
his own words, "had absolute conf
dence in the history and traditions of
a nation which struggled for its inde-
pendence and for the abolition of slav-
cry" AS to what occurred subsequent
to this time to develop bitterness of
feeling between those who should al
ways have continued friendly, l can
not do better than present the state
ment of Rev. Clay MacCauley, Re
publican in politics. Union soldier
during the civil war, for a time an
inmate of Libby prison, and now a
missionary of Tokyo, Japan. Mr.. Mac
Cauley spent some time at Manila in
January. In a letter to the Boston
Transcript under date of June he
says:
Obeyed Washington's Mandate.
Apparently, from the downfall of
Manila, the principle that guided the
American administration was that the
only party to treat with in the settle
ment of the Philippine problem was
Spain; that the Filipinos should be
wholly passive to American dictation,
or suffer such consequences as are
meted out to rebels. During
the summer and autumn the Filipinos
yielded position after position in front
OF Manila to our regiments. Gradu-
ally line of American soldiers was
drawn around the captured city. The
Filipinos were left outside our mill
tary circuit, as an army once our
allies" but at last become only an
embarrassing crowd supplanted, re-
pulsed and, as soldiers, ignored. This
changed relation of the two forces was
not the result, so l was told, of the
wishes of our own soldiers.
The American officers had but
obeyed commands sent them from
Washington. One of my friends de-
clared, These people seem to have no
existence of their own, so far as Wash
ington is concerned. No one there
seems to care bit for what they think
or wish Was it any wonder then
that as the Fflipinos were again and
again ordered TO fall back as they
saw the American inclosure of Manila !
completed; as they saw the American /!
fleet and army increase week after |
week; and as they were made to under |
stand more fully their exclusion from |
social and official intercourse with !
their former friends, they began to look |
upon the doings of the Americans as
aggressive against themselves, and as
an assumption of political |
sovereignty over them? Naturally /
their protests against the repeated de- |
mands made upon them to fall back
began to arouse them to antagonism
They insisted upon their rights as our
allies, and as the people of the Phil |