El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-29
PAGS 9 AND II.

children show aptltuue III iearhihS Eng
fish. Spanish is spoken by small frac-
tion of people. and in a few years the
medium of communication in the courts,
nublic Offices and between different tribes
will he English. Creation of central gov
eminent within IS months, under which
substantially all rights described In the
hill of rights in the federal constitution
are to be secured to the people of the
Philippines. will bring to them content
ment. prosperity, educaeion anu po
enlightenment"
This shows to my countrymen what
has been and is being done to bring the
benefits of liberty and good government
to these wards of the nation.
Every effort has been directed TO their
peace and prosperity, their advancement
and well being, not for our aggrandlze-
ment nor for pride Of might, not TOE
trade or commerce, not for exploitation,
but for humanity and civilization ana
for the protection of the vast majority
of the population, who welcome our SOW
ereignty against the designing minority,
whose first demand after the surrender
of Manila by the Spanish army was to
enter the city that they might loot it and
destroy those not in sympathy with their
selfish and treacherous designs.
Nobody who will avail himself of the
facts will longer hold that there was any
surgents or that any promise of indie
pendence was made to them. Long be-
fore their leader had reached Manila
they had resolved IL the commander OF
the American navy would give them arms
with which to fight the Spanish army
they would later turn upon us, which
they did murderOusly and without the
shadow of cause or justification. There
may be those without the means of full
information who believe that we were in
alliance with the insurgents and that
we assured them that they should have
independence. To such let me repeat the
facts. On the 26th of May, 1898. Ad-
miral Dewey was instructed by me to
make no alliance with any party or fac
ton in the Philippines that would incur
ability to maintain their cause in the
future. and he replied under date of June
6, 1898: Have acted according to spirit
of departments instructions from the be-
ginning, and / have entered into no al
lance with the insurgents or with any
faction. This squadron can reduce the
defenses of Manila at any moment, but
1t is considered useless until the arrival
of sufficient United States forces to re-
tain possession"
Dewey Said No Alliance Existed.
In the report of tie first Philippine
commission, submitted on Nov. 2, 1899,
Admiral Dewey, one of its members,
said. mo alliance of any kind was en-
tered into with Aguinaldo, nor was any
promise Of independence made to him ut
any time"
General Merritt arrived in the Philip
pines on July %, 1898. and dispatch
from Admiral Dewey to the government
at Washington said: Merritt arrived
yesterday Situation is most critical at
Manila The Spanish may surrender at
any moment. Merritt's most difficult
problem will he how to deal with the in
surgents under Aguinaldo. who have be-
come aggressive and even threatening
toward orr army" Here is revealed the
spirit of the insurgents as early as July,
1898, before the protocol was signed,
while we were still engaged in active
war with Spain. Even then the insur-
gents We're threatening our army.
On Aug. 13 Manila was captured, and
of this and subsequent events the Philip
pine commission says: When the city
of Manila WIS taken, Aug Ii, the Fill
piEos took no part in the attack. but
came following in with a view to lootiRS
the city and We're only prevented from
doing so by our forces preventing them
from entering. AEuinaldo claimed that
he had the right to occupy the city. ne
demanded of General Merritt the palace
of Malacanan for himself and the cession
of all the churches of Manila, also that
SpaniaTds as SpoilS of war should be
given up. and above all that he should
be given the arms of the Spanish prison.
ers. All these demands were refused"
Generals Merritt, Greene and Ander-
son, who were in command at the be-
ginning Of our occupation and until the
surrender of Manila, state that there
was no alliance with the insurgents and
no promise to them of independence. On
Aug. IL. 1898. General Merritt was in
structed that there must he no joint oc-
cupation of Manila with the insurgents
General Anderson under date of Feb 10.
1899, says that he was present at the
interview between Admiral Dewey and
the insurgent leader and that in this in
terview Admiral Dewey made no prom
ises whatever. He adds: He (Agui-
naldo) asked me if my government was
going to recognize his government
answered that I was there simply in a
military capacity, that 1 could not ac-
knowledge his government because l had
no authority to do so.'
The Only Course Open.
Would not our adversaries have sent
Dewey'S feet to Manila to capture and
destroy the Spanish sea power there. or,
dispatching it there would they have
withdrawn it after the destruction Of the
Spanish fleet, and if the latter, whittier
would they have directed it to sail?
Where could it have gone? What port
in the orient was open TO it? Do our
adversaries condemn the expedition I'M
der the command Of General Merritt to
strengthen Dewey in the distant ocean
and assist in our triumph over Spain.
with which nation we were at war? Was
1t not our highest duty to strike Spain at
every vulnerable point. that the war
might be successfully concluded at thu.
earliest practicable moment?