The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912. James H. Blount
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Cuban instructions were therefore frankly and promptly published in General Orders No. 101 by the War Department, July 18, 1898, five days after they were received from the President, and were then translated into Spanish and spread broadcast over Santiago province without unnecessary delay. I remember poring over a Spanish copy of General Orders 101, at Santiago de Cuba, shortly after the fall of that city, which copy was one of many already posted about that city by direction of General Wood. The words “the powers of the military occupant are absolute and supreme and operate immediately upon the political condition of the inhabitants” never disturbed the Cuban leaders in the least, because they were read in the light of the disclaimer contained in the declaration of war. On the other hand, the proclamation which the military commander in the Philippines was enjoined by his instructions to publish “immediately upon his arrival in the islands,” which arrival occurred July 25th, was not so published until after we had taken Manila, August 13th, and then it copied only the glittering generalities of the instructions themselves, such as the part assuring the people that we had not come to make war on them and that vested rights would be respected, but it carefully omitted the words about the powers of the military occupant being absolute and supreme, because when the army arrived it found a native government that had already issued its declaration of independence, was making wonderful progress against the common enemy, and was able to put up a right good fight against us also, in case we should deny them independence.9
General Anderson arrived in Manila Bay, June 30, 1898, with about 2500 men, and when General Merritt arrived, July 25th, we had about 10,000 all told, while the Filipinos had half again that many, and there were 12,000 Spanish soldiers in Manila. General Anderson had not been long camped on the bayshore, under cover of the Navy’s guns and in the neighborhood of Aguinaldo’s headquarters, before he understood the whole situation clearly and wrote the War Department as follows:
Since reading the President’s instructions to General Merritt, I think I should state to you that the establishment of a provisional government on our part will probably bring us in conflict with insurgents.
This letter is dated July 18, 1898.10
When General Anderson arrived in the islands on June 30th, the Washington Government was still wrestling with the angel of its announced creed about “Forcible Annexation” being “criminal aggression,” and Mr. McKinley had to get both that angel’s shoulders on the mat and put him out of business before he could get his own consent to giving any instructions to his generals which might sanction their killing people for objecting to forcible annexation. Hence his early anxiety to avoid a rupture with the Filipino leaders. The first stage of this wrestling coincides in point of time with General Anderson’s tenure as the ranking military officer commanding our forces in the Philippines, which was from June 30th until the date of General Merritt’s arrival, July 25th. As already made plain, the President’s instructions for the guidance of the military commander were entirely free from any land-grabbing suggestion. On the other hand, when General Anderson left San Francisco for Manila, May 25th, there was already talk in the United States about retaining the Islands, if they were captured, for he so informed Admiral Dewey in the first interview they had after the transports which brought his command cast anchor near our squadron in Manila Bay on the last day of June. “I was the first to tell Admiral Dewey,” says he, in the North American Review for February, 1900, “that there was any disposition on the part of the American people to hold the Philippines, if they were captured. The current opinion was setting that way when the expeditionary force left San Francisco, but this the Admiral had no reason to surmise.”
Relegated by the circumstances to his own discretion as to how he should act until Washington knew its mind, General Anderson’s attitude in the outset represented a “peace-at-any-price” policy, suffused with benevolent pride at championing the cause of the oppressed, but secretly knowing from the beginning that it might become necessary later to slaughter said “oppressed,” should they seriously object to a change of masters.
“On July 1st,” says General Anderson, in the North American Review article above quoted, “I called on Aguinaldo with Admiral Dewey.” Of the Admiral’s dealings with the insurgent chief prior to this time, the General says in this same article:
“Whether Admiral Dewey and Consuls Pratt, Wildman, and Williams did or did not give Aguinaldo assurances that a Filipino government would be recognized, the Filipinos certainly thought so, probably inferring this from their acts rather than from their statements.” This last quoted passage was read to Admiral Dewey by a member of the Senate Committee in 1902, along with other parts of the magazine article cited, and he was asked to comment on the same. He said:
“These are General Anderson’s statements. They are very interesting, indeed; I am here to make my own statements.”
He had stated that he never did specifically promise Aguinaldo independence, and the questioner was trying to show that his acts had amounted to assurances and therefore had committed the Government to giving the Filipinos their independence. Then Senator Patterson began another question, and had gotten as far as “I want to know whether your views—” when out came this, as of a sailor-man clearing decks for action:
“I do not like your questions a bit. I did not like them yesterday and I do not like them to-day.” So the Admiral’s feelings were respected and the question was not pressed. There is no doubt at all that in the Philippines in the summer of 1898 the army turned the back of its hand to Aguinaldo as soon as it got there and baldly repudiated what the navy had done in the way of befriending the Filipinos. But both had acted under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy—the President. The Admiral’s sensitiveness on the subject ought to have been respected. And it was.
By the time Admiral Dewey and General Anderson decided to call on “Don Emilio,” the day after the General’s arrival, the unexpected intimations which the latter brought, as to the Washington programme for the Philippine revolutionists being different from that as to Cuba, had begun to get in its work on the former. Not being a politician, the gallant Admiral was there ready and able to carry out any orders his government might send him, whenever the politicians should decide what they wanted to do. But in the absence of orders, he began to trim his sails a bit, so as to be prepared for whatever might be the policy. Accordingly, before he and the General started out to pay their call on “Don Emilio Aguinaldo y Famy, President of the Revolutionary Government of the Philippines and General in Chief of its Army”—as he had styled himself in his proclamation of June 23d—the Admiral said, “Do not take your sword or put on your uniform, but just put on your blouse. Do not go with any ceremony.” And says he, in telling this, “We went in that way.”11 The reason of thus avoiding too much ceremony toward our “ally” claiming to represent an existing government which had lately declared its independence, is explained by an expression of the Admiral’s concerning said Declaration of Independence itself: “That was my idea, not taking it seriously.” At that same hearing the Admiral explained with much genuine feeling that from the day of the naval battle of May 1st until the arrival of the army “these great questions” were coming up constantly and he simply met them as they arose by acting on his best judgment on the spot at the time. But what a terrible mistake it was not to take that Declaration of Independence of June 23d, seriously, backed as it was by an army of 15,000 men flushed with victory, and under the absolute control of the author of the Declaration! Of course the Declaration had been published to the army. Could its author have checked them by repudiating it even if he had wanted to? As Aguinaldo himself expressed what would happen in such a contingency, “They would fail to recognize me as the interpreter of their aspirations and would punish me as a traitor, replacing me by another more careful of his own honor and dignity.”12
This Dewey-Anderson call on Aguinaldo was on July 1st. Admiral Dewey now began to foresee that the Washington programme was going to put him in an awkward position. So he began to take Aguinaldo more