The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912. James H. Blount
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For, as the message puts it, in speaking of the taking of the city, “By this the conquest of the Philippine Islands * * * was formally sealed.”
When General Merritt left Manila on August 30th, he proceeded to Paris to appear before the Peace Commission there. His views doubtless had great weight with them on the momentous questions they had to decide. But his views were wholly erroneous, and that they were so is not surprising. As above stated, he did not even meet Aguinaldo, purposely holding himself aloof from him and his leaders. He never did know how deeply they were incensed at being shut out of Manila when the city surrendered. In his report prepared aboard the steamship China, en route for Paris, he says: “Doubtless much dissatisfaction is felt by the rank and file of the insurgents, but * * * I am of the opinion that the leaders will be able to prevent serious disturbances,” etc. (p. 40). If General Merritt had caught the temper of the trenches he would have known better, but he saw nothing of the fighting prior to the final scene, nor did he take the field in person on the day of the combined assault on the city, August 13th, and therefore missed the supreme opportunity to understand how the Filipinos felt. Says General Anderson in his report:
I understood from the general commanding that he would be personally present on the day of battle. * * * On the morning of the 13th, General Babcock came to my headquarters and informed me that the major-general commanding would remain on a despatch boat.30
Indeed, so reduced was Manila, by reason of the long siege conducted by the insurgents, that the assault of August 13th, not only was, but was expected to be, little more than a sham battle. Says Lieutenant-Colonel Pope, chief quartermaster, “On the evening of August 12th an order was sent me to report with two battalions of the Second Oregon Volunteers, under Colonel Summers the next day on the Kwong Hoi to the commanding general on the Newport, as an escort on his entrance into Manila. At the hour named, I reported etc.”31 As soon as Spanish “honor” was satisfied, up went the white flag and General Merritt was duly escorted ashore and into the city, where he received the surrender of the Spanish general.
In the Civil War, General Merritt had received six successive promotions for gallantry, at Gettysburg, Yellow Tavern, Five Forks, etc., and had been with Sheridan at Winchester. So the way he “commanded” the assault on Manila is proof only of the obligations we then owed the Filipinos. They had left very little to be done.
In his account of General Merritt’s original personal disembarkation at Cavite, Mr. Frank Millet acquaints his readers with a Philippine custom we afterwards grew quite familiar with and found quite useful, of keeping your shoes dry in landing from a rowboat on a beach by riding astride the shoulders of some husky native boatman. The boatmen make it a point of special pride not to let their passengers get their feet wet. Mr. Millet tells us that a general in uniform looks neither dignified nor picturesque under such circumstances, and that therefore he will not elaborate on the picture, but that it is suggestive “more of the hilarious than of the heroic.” Presumably when General Merritt went ashore on August 13th, from the despatch boat from which he had been watching the assault on Manila, to receive the surrender of the Spanish general, he followed the same custom of the country he had used on the occasion of his original disembarkation. So that in the taking of Manila, we were probably literally, as well as ethically, like General Mahone of Virginia as he is pictured in a familiar post-bellum negro story, according to which the general met a negro on a steep part of the road to heaven, told him that St. Peter would only admit mounted parties, mounted the negro with the latter’s consent, rode on his back the rest of the toilsome journey to the heavenly gate, dismounted, knocked, and was cordially welcomed by the saint at the sacred portal thus: “Why how d’ ye do, General Mahone; jess tie yoh hoss and come in.”
1 S. D. 208, 1900, p. 13.
2 Ib., p. 40.
3 Report First Philippine Commission, vol. i., p. 172.
4 War Dept. Report, 1899, vol. i., pt. 4. Otis report, p. 13.
5 S. D. 331, 1902, p. 2941.
6 Correspondence Relating to the War with Spain, vol. ii., p. 788.
7 May 19th–July 9th; see General Anderson’s report to the Adjutant-General of the army of July 9, 1898, S. D. 208, p. 6.
8 See Major J. F. Bell’s report to Merritt of August 29, 1898, S. D. 62, p. 379.
9 Clerks.
10 See S. D. 208, pp. 101–2.
11 Senate Document 148, 56th Cong., 2d Sess., 1901, p. 34.
12 S. D. 208, p. 99.
13 Admiral Dewey to Senate Committee, 1902, S. D. 331, 1902, p. 2940.
14 7,635,426. See Philippine Census of 1903, vol. ii., p. 15.
15 3,798,507. See Philippine Census of 1903, vol. ii., p. 125.
16 See Senate Document 62, 1898, p. 379.
17 Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, and Sorsogon.
18 Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Isabela, Cagayan.
19 S. D. 62, p. 380.
20 Diary of Major Simeon Villa, p. 1898, Senate Document 331, pt. 3, 56th Congress, 1st Session, 1902.
21 See Merritt’s Report for 1898, War Dept. Report, 1898, vol. i., pt. 2, p. 40.
22 Expedition to the Philippines, p. 61.
23 “With 10,000 men, we would have had to guard 13,300 Spanish prisoners, and to fight 14,000 Filipinos,” says General Anderson, North American Review for February, 1900.
24 Senate Document 208, p. 86.
25 Mr. McKinley’s instructions to