And State Papers 207 



Commission, Judge Taft being made Governor, and 

 I having had the honor myself to appoint General 

 Wright as Vice-Governor. During the critical pe 

 riod when the insurrection was ending and the time 

 was one of transition between a state of war and a 

 state of peace, at the time that I issued a proclama 

 tion declaring that the state of war was over and that 

 the civil government was now in complete command, 

 General Wright served as Governor of the archi 

 pelago. The progress of the islands both in mate 

 rial well-being and as regards order and justice un 

 der the administration of Governor Wright and his 

 colleagues has been astounding. 



There is no question as to our not having gone 

 far enough and fast enough in granting self-govern 

 ment to the Filipinos; the only possible danger has 

 been lest we should go faster and further than was 

 in the interest of the Filipinos themselves. Each 

 Filipino at the present day is guaranteed his life, 

 his liberty, and the chance to pursue happiness as 

 he wishes, so Jong as he does not harm his fellows, 

 in a way which the islands have never known before 

 during all their recorded history. There are bands 

 of ladrones, of brigands, still in existence. Now and 

 then they may show sporadic increase. This will 

 be due occasionally to disaffection with some of the 

 things that our government does which are best 

 for example, the effort to quarantine against the 

 plague and to enforce necessary sanitary precautions, 

 gently and tactfully though it was made, produced 

 violent hostility among some of the more ignorant 



