The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 Part 8

He then goes on to describe the inauguration of civil government in Cagayan province. I hope all this will not weary the American reader. It was vividly interesting to me when I read it for the first time thirteen years afterward, in 1911, because it was such unexpected information, so surprising. It will be equally interesting to all other Americans who partic.i.p.ated in putting down the subsequent insurrection and in setting up the Taft civil government in that same valley three years later. I was in that town, for a similar purpose, with Governor Taft in 1901, after a b.l.o.o.d.y war which almost certainly would not have occurred had the Paris Peace Commission known the conditions then existing, just like this, all over Luzon and the Visayan Islands. Of course the Southern Islands were a little slower. But as Luzon goes, so go the rest. The rest of the archipelago is but the tail to the Luzon kite. Luzon contains 4,000,000 of the 8,000,000 people out there, and Manila is to the Filipino people what Paris is to the French and to France. Luzon is about the size of Ohio, and the other six islands that really matter, [138] are in size mere little Connecticuts and Rhode Islands, and in population mere Arizonas or New Mexicos. Describing the ceremonies of the inauguration of civil government in Cagayan, the Wilc.o.x-Sargent report to Admiral Dewey says:

The Presidentes of all the towns in the province were present at the ceremony. * * * Colonel Tirona made a short speech. * * * He then handed the staff of office to the man who had been elected "Jefe Provincial" [Governor of the Province]. This officer also made a speech in which he thanked the military forces * * * and a.s.sured them that the work they had begun would be perpetuated by the people, where every man, woman, and child stood ready to take up arms to defend their newly won liberty and to resist with the last drop of their blood the attempt of any nation whatever to bring them back to their former state of dependence. He then knelt, placed his hand on an open Bible, and took the oath of office. [139]

Does not such language in an official report made by officers of the navy to Admiral Dewey in November, 1898, show an undercurrent of deep feeling at the position the Administration had put Admiral Dewey in with Aguinaldo, when it decided to take the Philippines, and accordingly sent out an army whose generals ignored his protege?

The speech of the provincial governor was followed, says the Wilc.o.x-Sargent report (same page) by speeches from "the other officers who const.i.tute the provincial government, the heads of the three departments--justice, police, and internal revenue. Every town in this province has the same organization." Article III. of Aguinaldo's decree of June 18th, previous, providing an organic law or const.i.tution for his provisional government (see Chapter II., ante) had provided precisely the organization which Wilc.o.x and Sargent thus saw working at Aparri and throughout the Cagayan valley in October, 1898. The importance of all this to the question of how the Filipinos feel toward us to-day, in this year of grace, 1912, and to the element of righteousness there is in that feeling, is too obvious to need comment. Americans interested in business in the Philippines come back to this country from time to time and give out interviews in the papers declaring that the Filipinos do not want independence. What they really mean is that it makes no difference whether they want it or not, they are not going to get it. And it is precisely these Americans, and their business a.s.sociates in the United States, who have gotten through Congress the legislation which enables them to give the Filipino just half of what he got ten years ago for his hemp, and other like legislation, and the Filipinos know it. The gulf in the Philippines between the dominant and the subject race will continue to widen as the years go by, so long as indirect taxation without representation continues to be perpetrated at Washington for the benefit of special interests having a powerful lobby. If the American people themselves are groaning under this very sort of thing, and apparently unable to help themselves, what is the a priori probability as to our voteless and therefore defenceless little brown brother. Like the sheep before the shearer, he is dumb. But to return to our travellers and their journey.

A Norwegian steamer came into port [meaning the harbor of Aparri]

that afternoon, and this seemed our only hope. She was chartered by two Chinamen * * *. At first they refused us permission to embark, and declined to put in at any port on the west coast. No sooner was this related to Colonel Tirona than he sent notice that the ship could not clear without taking us and making a landing where we desired. This argument was convincing.

Colonel Tirona provided them with a letter addressed to Colonel Tino at Vigan, the chief town of the west coast of Luzon and the capital of the province of Ilocos Sur, which province fronts the China Sea. Messrs. Wilc.o.x and Sargent proceeded aboard the Norwegian steamer from Aparri westward, doubling the northwest corner of Luzon, and steaming thence due south to the nearest port. Vigan was the Filipino military headquarters of the western half of northern Luzon, just as Aparri was at the same time of the eastern half. On the west coast the travellers were treated always courteously, but with considerable suspicion. The explanation is easy. That region is in closer touch with Manila, and with what is going on and may be learned at the capital, than is the Cagayan valley which our tourists had just left. They bade the commanding officer at Vigan good-bye, November 13, 1898. Pa.s.sing south through Namacpacan (which the command I was with took a year or so later), they came to San Fernando de Union, some twenty miles farther south along the coast road. Here they met Colonel Tino and presented their letter from Tirona. He gave them a dinner, of course. How a Filipino does love to entertain, and make you enjoy yourself! Talk about your "true Southern hospitality"! You get it there. "Speeches were made, and great things promised by the Philippine republic in the near future" says Mr. Wilc.o.x. After the dinner and speech-making came the inevitable dance. After that Colonel Tino started them off on their journey southward toward Manila duly provided with carriages. Pa.s.sing Aringay on November 18, 1898 [140] our travellers finally reached Dagupan, the northern terminus of the Manila-Dagupan Railway, and there took a train for Manila, 120 miles away.

In his report covering the fall of 1898, General Otis always scoldingly says of the Filipinos that in all the parleyings of his commissioners with Aguinaldo's commissioners before the outbreak, the latter never did know what they really wanted. The truth was they believed the Americans were going to do with them exactly as every other white race they knew of had done with every other brown race they knew of, but they did not tell General Otis so. Mr. Wilc.o.x, a more friendly witness of that same period states their position thus at page twenty of the report to Admiral Dewey: "They desire the protection of the United States at sea, but fear any interference on land." "On one point they seemed united, viz., that whatever our government may have done for them, it had not gained the right to annex them," adding, in relation to the physical preparations to make good this contention, in the event of war, "The Philippine Government has an organized force in every province we visited."

The whole tone of the Wilc.o.x-Sargent report and the subsequent Wilc.o.x book is an implied reiteration, after intimate, extended, and friendly contact with the people of all Luzon north of the Pasig River, of Admiral Dewey's telegram sent to the Navy Department, June 23, 1898: "The people are far superior in intelligence and capacity for self-government to the people of Cuba and I am familiar with both races." In fact Messrs. Wilc.o.x and Sargent do not raise the question of "capacity for self-government" at all, any more than Commodore Perry did when similarly welcomed in 1854 by the j.a.panese.

CHAPTER VII

THE TREATY OF PARIS

No man can serve two masters.

Matthew vi., 24.

Confine the Empire within those limits which nature seems to have fixed as its natural bulwarks and boundaries.

Augustus Caesar's Will.

This is a tale of three cities, Paris, Washington, and Manila.

Article III. of the Peace Protocol signed at Washington, August 12, 1898, provided:

The United States will occupy and hold the city, bay, and harbor of Manila, pending the conclusion of a Treaty of Peace which shall determine the control, disposition, and government of the Philippines. [141]

The "Papers relating to the Treaty with Spain" including the telegraphic correspondence between President McKinley and our Peace Commissioners pending the negotiations, were sent to the Senate, January 30, 1899, just one week before the final vote on the treaty, but the injunction of secrecy was not removed until January 31, 1901--after the presidential election of 1900. They then were published as Senate Doc.u.ment 148, 56th Congress, 2d Session. It was not until then that the veil was lifted. The instructions to the Peace Commissioners were dated September 16, 1898. The Commissioners were: William R. Day, of Ohio, Republican, just previously Secretary of State, now (1912) a.s.sociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; Whitelaw Reid, Republican, then editor of the New York Tribune, now Amba.s.sador to Great Britain, and three members of the United States Senate, Cushman K. Davis, of Minnesota, William P. Frye, of Maine, Republicans, and George Gray, of Delaware, Democrat. Senator Davis died in 1900, and Senator Frye in 1911. Senator Gray has been, since 1899, and is now, United States Circuit Judge for the 3d Judicial District. Among other things, the President's instructions to the Commissioners said:

It is my earnest wish that the United States in making peace should follow the same high rule of conduct which guided it in facing war. * * * The l.u.s.tre and the moral strength attaching to a cause which can be confidently rested upon the considerate judgment of the world should not under any illusion of the hour be dimmed by ulterior designs which might tempt us * * * into an adventurous departure on untried paths.

By elaborate rhetorical gradations, the instructions finally get down to this:

Incidental to our tenure in the Philippines is the commercial opportunity. * * * The United States cannot accept less than the cession in full right and sovereignty of the island of Luzon.

Though already noticed, we venture, in this connection, again to recall that in the month previous (August, 1898) a gentleman high in the councils of the Administration [142] declared in one of the great reviews of the period: "We see with sudden clearness that some of the most revered of our political maxims have outlived their force." Among these "revered maxims" thus suddenly fossilized by his ipse dixit, Mr. Vanderlip exuberantly includes the teachings of "Washington's Farewell Address and the later crystallization of its main thought by President Monroe"--the Monroe Doctrine, adding that in lieu of these "A new mainspring * * * has become the directing force * * *

the mainspring of commercialism."

As permanent chairman of the Philadelphia convention which renominated Mr. McKinley for the Presidency thereafter, in 1900, Senator Lodge, speaking of the issues raised by the Treaty of Paris, said: "We make no hypocritical pretence of being interested in the Philippines solely on account of others. We believe in Trade Expansion."

"Philanthropy and five per cent. go hand in hand," said Mr. Vanderlip's Chief, Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, about the same time. Such was the temper of the times when the treaty was made.

The first meeting with the Spanish Commissioners took place at Paris, October 1st. The opening event of the meeting, the initial move of the Spaniards, is extremely interesting in the light of subsequent events, especially in connection with the Iloilo Fiasco, hereinafter described (Chapter IX.).

"Spanish communication represents," says Judge Day's cablegram to the President, [143] "that status quo has been altered and continues to be altered to the prejudice of Spain by Tagalo rebels, whom it describes as an auxiliary force to the regular American troops."

Even diplomacy, in a conciliatory communication limited to the obvious, called the Filipinos our allies.

The Spanish initial move was more immediately prompted by the fact that in point of absolute astronomical time Manila, though captured when it was morning of August 13th there, was captured when it was evening of August 12th, at Washington, and the protocol was signed at Washington in the evening of August 12th. While this point was material, because we had captured $900,000 in cash in the Spanish treasury at Manila and much other property, the t.i.tle to which, under the laws of war between civilized nations, depended on just what time it was captured, the matter was finally swallowed up and lost sight of in the agreement to give Spain a lump $20,000,000 for the archipelago. But the initial move had other aspects. In the event we should take the Philippines off her hands, Spain was going to insist that we should get back from the Filipinos, our "allies," and restore to her all the Spaniards they captured after August 12th. She knew that in all probability if we bought the Islands we would be buying an insurrection, and she was "taking care of her own" at our expense.

The next feature of the proceedings ent.i.tled to attention in a bird's-eye view like this, concerns the question whether we should take only Luzon, or the whole archipelago. President McKinley cabled Admiral Dewey on August 13th, the day after the protocol was signed, asking as to "the desirability of the several islands," "coal and other mineral deposits," and "in a naval and commercial sense which (of the several islands) would be most advantageous." [144] Admiral Dewey had replied, of course, that Luzon was "the most desirable,"

but volunteered no advice. He did state, "No coal of good quality can be procured in the Philippine Islands," which is still true. Allusion is made to this telegram in the proceedings, but no copy of it is there set forth. On October 4th, our Commissioners wired President McKinley suggesting that he cable out to the Admiral and ask him "whether it would be better * * * to retain Luzon * * * or the whole group." Mr. McKinley answered that he had asked Admiral Dewey before General Merritt left Manila to give the latter his views in writing "on general question of Philippines," and that "his report is in your hands in response to both questions." But the commission replied that Admiral Dewey had sent only a copy of a report of General Francis V. Greene's and nothing else. There is no record of any further advice or opinion from Admiral Dewey on the point except that in General Otis's Report (p. 67) we get glimpses of a telegram that has never yet, apparently, been published, sent by Dewey to Washington early in December, 1898, suggesting that we "interfere as little as possible in the internal affairs of the Islands." No; Admiral Dewey must be acquitted of having ever counselled the McKinley Administration to buy the Philippines.

On October 7th the Commission telegraphed Washington that General Merritt attaches much weight to the opinion of the Belgian Consul at Manila, M. Andre, and that "Consul says United States must take all or nothing"; that "if southern islands remained with Spain they would be in constant revolt, and United States would have a second Cuba"; that "Spanish government would not improve," and "would still protect monks in their extortion."

To this advice there was absolutely no answer. It was a case of "all or nothing," and it had already become a case of "all" when on September 16th previous Mr. McKinley signed his original instructions to the Commission stating "The United States cannot accept less than Luzon."

The Commission's telegram of October 7th goes on to quote from the Belgian Consul's opinion that "Present rebellion represents only one half of one per cent. of the inhabitants." The Consul was not before them in person. They were quoting from a memorandum submitted by him to General Merritt at Merritt's request, made at Manila and dated August 29th, the day General Merritt sailed away from Manila bound for Paris via the Suez Ca.n.a.l. He had brought the memorandum along with him. From the previous chapters the reader will, of course, understand that Americans and Europeans at Manila in August, 1898, were paying very little attention to Aguinaldo and his claims as to the extent of his authority in the provinces. It is therefore not surprising that M. Andre's memorandum of August 29th should have made the foolish statement, "Present rebellion represents only one half of one per cent. of inhabitants." But it is eternally regrettable that his statement on this point had any weight with the Commissioners, for it was, or by that time at least (October 7th) had become, just about 99 1/2 per cent. wide of the mark. As a matter of fact, by October 7th it would have been more accurate to have said, in lieu of the above, "Present rebellion represents practically whole people." You see, we started an insurrection in May, in October it had become a full grown affair, and in December we bought it. The telegram of October 7th also quoted General Merritt as saying, "Insurgents would be victorious unless Spaniards did better in future than in past,"

and as considering it "feasible for United States to take Luzon and perhaps some adjacent islands and hold them as England does her colonies." These are about the only two sound suggestions General Merritt made to that Commission. In the next breath they quote him as saying, "Natives could not resist 5000 troops." The fact that they did resist more than 120,000 troops, that it took more than that, all told, to put down the insurrection, is sufficient to show how much General Merritt's advice was worth. He was right on two points, as indicated. Both Spanish fleets had been destroyed and Spain had but one left to protect her home coast cities. The death knell of her once proud colonial empire had sounded. Decrepit as she was, she could not possibly have sent any reinforcements to the Philippines. Besides the Filipinos would have "eaten them up." General Merritt's suggestion to "hold them as England does her colonies" was also sensible. In fact that was the only thoroughly honest thing to have done, if we were going to take them at all. England never acts the hypocrite with her colonies. She makes them behave. She does not let native people preach sedition in native newspapers, because of "sentimental bosh" about freedom of the press, until the whole country becomes a smouldering hot-bed of sedition. She has blown offending natives from the cannon's mouth, when deemed necessary to cure them and their country of the desire for independence. If we are going to have colonies at all, we ought to govern them with the upright downright ruthless honesty of the British. It is more merciful in the long run. But we ought not to have colonies at all. For if there is one thing this republic stands for, above all other things, it is the righteousness of aversion to a foreign yoke.

In their telegram of October 7th, [145] the Peace Commissioners, now squarely confronted with the question of forcible annexation, begin to let the Administration down easy. They say:

General Anderson in correspondence with Aguinaldo in June and July seemed to treat him and his forces as allies and native authorities, but subsequently changed his tone. Merritt and Dewey both kept clear of any compromising communications.

A despatch sent by Judge Day certainly comes from high authority. The word "compromising" is therefore important. To say that Admiral Dewey did not treat Aguinaldo as an ally is to raise a mere technical point. But Aguinaldo never did get anything from him in writing. What he got consisted more of deeds than words. And actions speak louder than words. We had an alliance with Aguinaldo, a most "compromising"

alliance and afterwards repudiated it. Admiral Dewey made it and General Merritt repudiated it. Dewey did, without the President's knowledge, exactly what the President and the American people would have had him do at the time. And Merritt did exactly what the President ordered him to do. But between the making of the alliance, and the repudiation of it, the President and the American people changed their minds. I say the American people, because they afterwards ratified all that Mr. McKinley did. You see the bitterness that lies away down in the secret recesses of the hearts of the Filipino people to-day has its source at this point. They had "a gentleman's agreement,"

as it were, with us, not in writing, made at a time when the thought of a colony had never entered our minds. They fought in a common cause with us on the faith of that agreement--drove the Spaniards into Manila in numerous victorious engagements involving much loss of life, on their part, keeping the Dons thereafter bottled up in Manila on the land side while their "ally" Admiral Dewey was doing the same on the sea side. The said Dons were living on horses and rats, and famine was imminent when our troops arrived and began to finish the work of taking the beleaguered city. And then, having changed our minds and decided to annex the islands, we repudiated our "gentleman's agreement," on the idea that the end justified the means. And the end, as it has turned out, did not even justify the means, seeing that the islands have proved a heavy financial liability instead of a profitable a.s.set. Judge Day's telegram to Secretary Hay of October 12th (p. 27) contains this curious and surprising pa.s.sage as to Cuba:

Senator Gray in favor of accepting sovereignty unconditionally * * * that we may thereby avoid future complications with Cubans, claiming sovereignty while we are in process of pacifying island * * * We desire instructions on this point.