The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-10-27
GREEN DID SAY SO.


Mr. Lentz misrepresented General
Green's account of the fall Of Manila"
as given in the Century Magazine for
April.
Mr.. Lentz stated that Gen. Greene's
account showed trickery and contempt
ible treatment toward our allies. And
any one who will read Greenes ac-
count and who heard Lentz, will see
that he told it correctly. Greene says
General merritt, who was in command,
"had no direct communication with
Aguinaldo" The scheme was to get
the Filipinos to ,ive our troops a fav-
orable position in front of Manila, and
Aguinaldo agreed to do so, provided the
request was made in writing. Green
says: 'I agreed to do so, but in order
to save time would place the troops
early in the morning and send the
written request as soon thereafter as
possible" Green does not say the let
ter was sent.
Here is the evidence that our allies
were treated with contumely and snub-
bed and tricked. and then it was the
troubles began which led to war. Prior
to this there was the best of feeling
and under General Anderson Aguinaldo
was treated with due courtesy as a gen.
eral when he visited our troops, which
he frequently did, for he speaks En-
glish well.
We present General Green's account
as given in the Century Magazine to
show that Mr.. Lentz told it correctly:
General Merritt arrived at Cavite in
the Newport on the afternoon of July
%, and after examining the ground the
following day, promptly decided two
points: first. that the attack would be
made along the shore; and, second,
that it was necessary to get the insur-
gents off to one side so as to give US the
right of way He was very anxious to
avoid any entangling alliances with
Aguinaldo, with whom he had no direct
communication. He therefore sent his
chief of staff, on the afternoon of July |
| %, with a verbal message directing me |
| to persuade the insurgents, If possible, |
to evacuate a portion of their trenches, |
but L was to do this on my own respon- |
sibility, and without intimating that |
had any instructions to this effect from |
him. 1 had previously met General |
Noriel, who commanded the brigade |
of insurgents nearest to the beach, and |
on receiving General 4Ierritt's message
sent an orderly, who spoke Spanish
fluently, to find this general and give
him most polite message that 1 de-
sired to see him on matters of common
interest. At the same time the orderly
was instructed not to come back with
out him. He returned in about an
hour with General Noriel and his young
adjutant general, Arevolas both wear
ing handsome uniforms and equip
ments. 1 explained to him that the an
tique siX-inch columbiad which he had
in his trench was of,an obsolete pattern
and very ineffective against the Span
ish artillery, and that If he would give
up the trenches for about 400 yards
from the beach, 1 would place in them
the fine modern pieces of field artillery
which we had brought and which
would be much more effective against
the Spaniards. He received the idea
favorably, but said he could do moth
ing without consulting Aguinaldo; and
l requested him to do this by telegraph
(Aguinaldo's headquarters being about
eleven miles in the rear), and give me
an answer du-ing the night. He prom
ised to do so. About half past two in
the morning his adjutant general arriv-
ed, having been obliged to ride back
through the rain and mud to Bacoor to
see Aguinaldo, as the answer by tele-
graph was not satisfactory. He said
that Aguinaldo had given his consent,
provided 1 would make the request in
writing. I told him that l had no OBJ
lection to this, but in order to save
time, 1 would post the troops in the
trenches early in the morning, and send
the written request as soon thereafter
as possible. This arrangement was car
ried out, and at eight o'clock in the
morning one battalion of the Eigh-
teenth REGULAR infantry one battalion
of the First Colorado volunteers, and
four guns, two from each of the Utah
light batteries. were at the trenches
nearest to the beach, and these were
surrendered without any protest by the
insurgents"
The presumption t. that General Mer-
ritt was obeying his orders from Wash
ington and it is not possible the schem-
all events. it is fair to presume the
'beesincss" was to utilize the Philip
pines in some way, and they are at it
yet.
Lentz said the Filipinos were in full
possession of the island of Luzon out
side of Manila, and their army lines en-
closed the city, while our army was
outside. The plan was to get place
in the line without recognizing Aguin-
aldo, so that the Spanish commander
would surrender Manila to General
Merritt who wanted the Filipinos ex-
cluded Hence was it that Merritt
would not recognize Aguinaldo and
wrote no letter asking for a place in
the line, as Green promised should be
done. All this shows the trickery, and
l. ~