The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-17
WHAT If o4GUlNALDO
SHOULD BE CAPTURED?
atus Of tie Filipino Leader Under International and Military
Lau,-Couh Be Legally Executed

1s77-7s were hanged and their followers
we're removed to Indian territory. Thus
It will be seen that our treatment OF rebel
lious Indians would offer q variety OF pre-
cedents.
That Aguinaldo should be by all means
deported. l. advised by an ethnolosist.
who says that the famous Filipinos hold
upon his followers ID combination Of
hero-worship and that generation for the
shaman or medicine man which civilized
men can little appreciate. The policy Of
the Mexican government, this authority
added. in its punishment Of Indian rebels,
is to deport them to distant parts of Mex
leo and keep them under surveillance until
they are thoroughly reconciled to their
new surroundings. The Serbs. the alleged
cannibal Indians OF Mexico, who killed the
traveller Robinson few years ago. on IT,
buron island. were deported SO far away
from their old homes that they never
could return.
European powers prefer deportation OF
their rebellious subjects to hanging them
as traitors. The French, for instance
after deposinE the rehellious native queen
OF Madagascar, in 1897, deported her to tho
island Of Reunion. Two thousand particl-
pants In the native uprising in British
Bechuanaland, South Africa, were deported
by England In 1897 to Cape Colony, and
indentured to farmers for a period OF I'VE
years. Similarly in Samoa, Malietoa, aft
er having been deposed by the German
government in 1887, was deported first to
German New Guinea, afterward to the
Cameroons, in Africa, and finally, in 1885,
to Hamburg. before being restored to his
.kingship the following year.
should Aguinaldo, after being allowed to
return to the Philippines, and after the
establishment Of a civil government there.
renew his attempt to inclte rebellion, his
case would be disposed Of before civil
court. Such a tribunal would, in passing
sentence. be governed by the act Of 1862
which provides that treason against the
United States should be punishable by
death, imprisonment for not less than ave
years or a fine Of not less than $4,000 and
that It should render the guilty person In
capable of holding public office under our
government. Under this law would be
punished any rebellious subject in any Of
our new possessions. or upon the continent
under civil government.
Aaron Burr, who figured in the first not
able treason trial held in our civil courts.
when tried for attempting to separate
states from the Union, was brought to JUS
tice while the old act of 1880 held good
This act made death the sole punishment
for treason.
Military commissions not governed by
statute, but organized under war power
were HTst Drought into vogue by Gen.
Scott, during the Mexican war. During
the civil war they tried great variety
of charges. including "inciting rebellion"
and publicly expressed hostility to the
United States government and sympathy
with the enemy"
The most famous military commission
which ever sat in this country was that
which tried the conspirators against Presi-
dent Lincoln. Jefferson Davis, 1t will be
remembered, was never tried After hav-
ing been imprisoned for two years without
trial, he was set at liberty.-John Elfreth
Watkins. jr., in st. Louis Globe Democrat.