PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



695 



land there on May 19, 1898, in order that he 

 might organize an army for the purpose of weak- 

 ening the Spanish power of military defense; yet 

 no alliance of any kind was entered into with 

 him by Admiral Dewey, nor was any promise of 

 independence made to him then or at any time. 

 When the Filipino insurgents began to attack the 

 .Spaniards their numbers were rapidly augmented 

 by the militia, who had been given arms by the 

 Spaniards to fight the Americans, all of whom 

 now revolted and joined the rebels. The revolu- 

 tionary forces rapidly made themselves masters 

 of the whole island of Luzon, capturing all the 

 Spanish garrisons and making captives of Span- 

 ish civilians and friars, excepting those that es- 

 caped to Manila, where the Spanish garrison re- 

 mained quiet, closely invested by the intrenched 

 line of insurgents, among whose officers were 

 engineers and tacticians' of the best European 

 schools. All the Filipinos who had served in 

 the Spanish army joined Aguinaldo's army, and 

 these had already been taught to build shell-proof 

 intrenchments, the trenches 5 feet deep, the para- 

 pets an equal height above the ground, all bat- 

 tened with walls of bamboo. On the arrival of the 

 first detachment of American troops under Gen. 

 Anderson Aguinaldo was requested to evacuate 

 Cavite. When he did so he issued a proclama- 

 tion promising independence to the Philippine 

 people in the name of the United States Govern- 

 ment. He had already declared himself pro- 

 visional President of the Philippine Republic and 

 Dictator, and had appointed a civil cabinet. The 

 landing of American troops at Paranaque on July 

 15 would have been prevented by the revolution- 

 ary leader if he had had arms, and he determined 

 to wait for the fall of Manila, enter the city with 

 the American troops, secure the arms of the Span- 

 ish soldiers, and then force the Americans to 

 evacuate the island. Meanwhile he incited the 

 natives to hate the Americans and to place all 

 possible obstacles in their way. When Gen. 

 Greene camped on the shore before Manila and 

 Gen. Merritt, avoiding all official communications 

 with Aguinaldo, let him know that he wanted 

 his front clear, the insurgents moved aside, though 

 not without a fresh diplomatic effort of Agui- 

 naldo to be recognized as an ally and head of a 

 <7e facto Government. 



The commander of the Spanish garrison and the 

 American commander had a tacit understanding 

 that the Filipinos should not be allowed to sack 

 the doomed city. Hence the town was surren- 

 dered quickly after the attack began, before the 

 Filipinos had begun to move, and the American 

 troops rushed in and occupied every point of in- 

 gress and aided the Spanish soldiers in repelling 

 the belated advance upon their intrenchments. 

 Aguinaldo claimed the right to occupy the city 

 and establish his headquarters in the palace of 

 the captain general. He demanded possession of 

 the church treasures, part of the captured public 

 moneys, and the arms of the Spanish prisoners 

 as his share of the spoils. When his demands 

 were refused the feeling between the Americans 

 and the insurgents became more strained, and all 

 kinds of abuses were practiced by the insurgent 

 troops, who committed assaults and robberies, 

 and under the order of Gen. Pio del Pilar, the 

 organizer and chief of the insurrection previous 

 to the arrival of Aguinaldo, they kidnaped na- 

 tives who were friendly to the Americans, and 

 either killed them or carried them off into the 

 mountains. 



The terrorism practiced for the purpose of pre- 

 venting affiliation with the Americans not only 

 operated on the ignorant masses, but closed the 



mouths of the intelligent, and the anti-American 

 feeling was fed by the venal native newspapers. 

 Sandico, one of the most ambitious of the revo- 

 lutionary politicians, organized people's clubs in 

 Manila and the neighboring towns and villages 

 the secret object of which was to foster hostility 

 to Americans and cultivate national aspirations 

 among the Tagals. The influence of these clubs 

 was far reaching, and from their membership was 

 recruited later the local militia, which was to 

 attack the Americans from within Manila when 

 the regular insurgent troops should begin an at- 

 tack outside. The Filipino Congress decreed that 

 every male above the age of eighteen and not in 

 the Government service should serve in the revo- 

 lutionary army. Meanwhile every blacksmith in 

 Manila was kept busy forging bolos. 



The conduct of the insurgent troops became so 

 threatening and insolent that Gen. Merritt, whose 

 force was very small compared with them, ordered 

 their forces back. They complied in sullen anger, 

 and Aguinaldo removed his seat of Government 

 from Bacoor to Malolos, where the so-called Fili- 

 pino Congress was convened. An open rupture 

 with the Americans was not desired, because an 

 American protectorate was deemed necessary for 

 the oligarchy in republican guise which the half- 

 breed Tagal politicians desired to set up. The 

 future of the Philippines was still under discus- 

 sion in the Peace Conference at Paris, and the 

 leading Filipinos, fearing that the United States 

 would withdraw from the islands, asked Agui- 

 naldo to forward a letter to President McKinley 

 praying him not to abandon the Filipinos, and 

 asking him to define the form of government that 

 he wished to establish. The Filipino Cabinet and 

 many members of the Congress united in this re- 

 quest, but Aguinaldo kept back the letter on 

 various pretexts. His ambition grew with the 

 growth of the army. He endeavored to get Con- 

 gress to transfer to him the power of declaring 

 war, and urged an issue of bonds sufficient to 

 provide $1,000,000 for the purchase of arms and 

 ammunition. 



Aguinaldo and the military party had a plan 

 for expelling the small American army by a 

 single stroke. Gen. Pio del Pilar was to direct 

 the rising in the city of the 10,000 militia, armed 

 for the most part with bolos, which was to be 

 simultaneous with a general attack of the in- 

 vesting army. No definite date was fixed, because 

 it was desired that the first overt act of hos- 

 tility should come from the Americans, so as to 

 give the revolutionary Government a better stand- 

 ing in the eyes of foreigners. Whenever such 

 act should occur the signal for an advance all 

 along the line would be given by the sending up 

 of rockets. Hence persistent attempts were made 

 to provoke the American soldiers to fire. The 

 insurgents were insolent to the sentries, and made 

 continuous efforts to push them back and ad- 

 vance their own lines farther into the city. Dur- 

 ing this long and trying period of insult and 

 abuse heaped upon the American soldiers con- 

 stant submission was the only means of avoiding 

 an open rupture. The Filipinos came to believe 

 that the Americans were cowards, and boasted 

 openly that they were afraid of them. The com- 

 manding general with great tact and patience 

 held his troops in check. At last he made a 

 final effort to preserve the peace by appointing 

 a commission to confer with a similar body ap- 

 pointed by the commander in chief of the revolu- 

 tionary army and arrive at a mutual understand- 

 ing of the intent, purposes, aims, and desires of 

 the Filipino people and of the people of the United 

 States. The Filipino commissioners were either 



