Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-14

nor was any promise of INDEPENDENCE
made to him then or at any other time
Philippine Com. report. Vol. L. page III.
Gen. Merritt reached Manila on July
E25 At that time Aguinaldo had de-
voted his entire energies for three
months to recruiting his army. and the
strength of his forces is estimated by
EC;en. Merritt to have been $1,000 men or Z
Whereabouts. Yet Mark Twain. who was
sover in England at the time. and GER i
stainly has not since gone to the records
for information. calmly fixes Aguinaldo'sX
sarmy at 10000.
AS stated before in these columns. they
Esst of Mark Twains conception as to L.
the duty of Admiral Dewey. is that after
Is hiking the Spanish fleet, he should haveX
Isaied away, leaving the Filipino citi- l.
Ethey might prefer.
This assumes, of course. that Aguin- o.
aldo could have captured Manila beyoniS
!an doubt. And yet. two months after&
1.-THE destruction of the Spanish fleetH
Dewey did not believe Agunaldo could
capture Manila without the aid Off
Americans. for on June - he cabled this =
message to our governments:
I believe he (AgunaIdo) expects to-
|c& pture Manila without any resistance IL
hut doubt his ability. they not havingS
many guns.
And st that time. it must be remem-
,he red, Dewey was fully informed as to-
~ of hot no be
1.-THE Filipinos under Aguinaldo.
As late as August 50. General GreeneX
Wrote:
Upon one point all are agreed excerpts
possibly Aguinaldo and his immediateX
ladherents. and that is that no natiyeW
government can maintain itself without
tbs active support and protection of az
!strons foreign sovernment.-Sena doc "
:ument 81.
Mark Twain SAYS:
The Insurgents We're competent toE
II FTP out or starve out the little SpanishE
ssafflson We entered into aN
military alliance with the trusting Fills
spno, and they hemmed in Manila ONT
sthc land side. and by their valuable helm
1the place. with its garrison of 5000 orH
10000 Spaniards, was captured-a thing
which we could not have accomplishedS
lunaided al that time.
Ihat is one of the most remarkable Of
1ail Mark Twain's misstatements. Ac-4
,cofdlns to him. the Filpinos. with few
lSuns as stated by Admiral Dewey.
Ico-operatlon on the part of the Ameri-3
lean fleet, but Dewey's fleet, with then
batteries. could not have captured the
city without the aid of Asuinaldo'sS
band,
Regarding the American land forces
General Merritt, who commanded them.
said:
For these reasons the prepare tions for
the attack on the city We're pressed and2
mill tary operations conducted withouty
reference to the situation Of the insur-
|gent forces. The wisdom of this course
was subsequently fully demonstrated by1
the fact that when the troops of my
command carried the Spanish intrench-H
ments, extending from the sea to the
Pasay road on the extreme SPANISH
right, we We're under no obligations by
plans of mutual attack, toy
turn to the right and clear the front stil>
held against the insurgents, but We're
able to move forward at once and oc-
,cupy the city and suburbs.-(Mes ges1
land documents, Vol. III, page 4O).
In the same volume, page "a, General
Anderson said:
Believing that, however successful hes
insurgents may have been in guerrilla
SWarfare against the Spaniards, theyJ
fcould not carry their lines by assault nr1
sreduce the city by siege, and suspect-S
fling further that a hearty and effactive'
cooperation could not be expected I had,
an independent reconnaissance made.
Now as to the real value of Ayuin )
aldo's assistance, Gerenal Greene says:
The services which Aguinaldo AMI his
gadherents rendered in preparing the way
esfor attack on Manila are. certainly en-
Quilted to consideration, but, after all.
kthey We're small in comparison with