The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-02-07
SOMETHING OF AGUINALDO.

SOMETHING OF AGUINALDO.
Senator's have compared Aguinaldo with
the famous Simon Bolivar, 'fthe Washington
of South America" and newspapers and
magazines have published articles which
make him an emancipation and a man of
genius. so that people may be entirely misin-
formed regarding the manner of man the in
surgent chief is and what ne has accom-
plished.
1t is of no consequence in considering
Aguinaldo that he is a half-breed-part
Spanish and part Indian. He is a young
man who secured a good education. but he
was unknown until about two years ago.,
when he became conspicuous as the leader
of the Filipinos' revolt against Spain in one
of the districts of Luzon. That insurrection
began late in the summer of 1886 and was
directed against the Spanish religious orders,
which ruled the peasantry with an iron
hand. The revolt swiftly spread through
several provinces, so that in January, 1897,
the insurgents had 5000 men under arms.
BY that time. however, Spain had reinforced
her army, which was under capable officers.
TIL result was that before the end of 1897
the revolt had been subdued, partly by force
and partly by diplomacy. Aguinaldo and
twenty other leaders accepted a large sum
of money from Spain and left the islands.
The friends of these half voluntary eXiles
say that the money paid them by Spain was
compensation for their property confiscated
or destroyed. Others, however, insisted that
these leaders had taken gifts to betray their
comrades and sacrifice the cause of the
revolutionists. However this may be, it is
%undeniable that while Aguinaldo was living
comfortably in Singapore and other British
colonial towns, SpaiR was visiting an awful
vengeance upon Aguinaldo's followers,
whom he had left behind. In the history Of
Spanish cruelty there is scarcely a more
bloody chapter than has been written re-
garding the Imprisonment, torture and exc
cution of the followers of Aguinaldo in the
Philippines during the summer of 1897 and
the winter of 1s97-9S.
To sum up, the instruction in which
Aguinaldo bore a conspicuous part lasted
less than a year and a half and ended in
absolute failure. He and his immediate asso-
ciates had been bought off by Spain and had
gone to foreign lands. From that time, the
close of 1897, until the war between the
United States and Spain became imminent,
the sovereignty of Spain was not challenged
in the Philippines. The certainty Of war
with the United States caused a revolt to
break out in the spring of 1898 in the north
ern province of Luzon. The impression pre-
walls that Aguinaldo was it's instigator and
leader. Such was not the case. He was
several hundred miles away, in Hong-Kong.
He was in Hons-Hong until after Admiral
Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet in
Manila bay. thus crushing the sea power
which enabled Spain to hold the scattered
ISLANDS in subsection. He did not reach
Manila until taken there on the revenue cut
ter McCulloch on her second trip, several
days after the memorable victory Of Admiral
Dewey, and after the insurgents had won
victories and closed in on Manila. Don
Maxine Cortes, who is now in Washington
as a member of the delegation from Manila,
has described the insurgent leader as fol-
lows:
Aguinaldo is himself a person of lower
aAAAA AO
knowledge Of how governmental affairs
should be conducted. He is the creature of
circumstances, having placed himself at the
head of a revolutionary movement at the
time when the people were ripe for it, and in
spite of the fact that he had once sold out
to the SpaniardS, he was nevertheless re-
ceived with open arms upon his return and
placed himself at the front in favor of re-
voting against Spain, which was popular
with the people,. In this manner he pushed
himself to the head of the revolutionary
movement. But this government the people
cannot trust. We do not know what Aguin-
aldo IS going to do next. His lieutenant
general is a Chinaman. with no education,
and is scarcely able to speak the Spanish
language. and this is to a large extent the
character of the men with whom he has
surrounded himself.
And his is the man who has been called
the George Washington of the Philippines
in the United States Senate, and whose
name is linked with those of Napoleon
Bonaparte, Disraeli, Gladstone and Bis
marck in the Review Of Reviews-no Ameri-
can of modern times having reached the
eminence to be included in the list which
includes Aguinaldo.