ness in declaring that the protectorate is the only means of making peace.

"Words fail me when I try to express my gratitude for your significant attitude toward my humble person. But I understand you: fear nothing. I shall never fail to be worthy of your confidence. My acts are linked to one another, and the lack of a single stepping stone will make the ascent to triumph difficult. Fear nothing, beloved people; for I have consecrated to you my entire existence. I have defended and will defend your ideals in the fields, upon the mountains, and in the cities,- everywhere. It matters not that I succumb and die; for, just as the sun dies as the shades of night fall, to arise again with new heat and splendor on the following morn, so shall I arise again, to im part to you all the fire of my new life, all the energies of my new existence. And to thee, beloved country,

"Give me in turn, O Flower of my love,

A grave to sleep among thy flowers.'

"Let my last glance fall upon thy splendid sky, my last sigh be lost amid the echoes of thy triumph, my body rest in this beloved soil, that my lips may forever kiss it, that my body may feel thy patriotic fire, and my spirit thy immortal nationality.

"Fear not, beloved people, and follow me. The sun of liberty has risen in our hemisphere. A black cloud hides its splendor; but it is not a storm-cloud of death and destruction, but of life, of beneficent rain. Let us make ready. Let us prepare our mountains, our valleys, our towns; for without preparation the abundant rain may convert itself into desolation and ruin for us.

"Alas that our fields, our mountains, should be strewn with dead bodies and with ruins, that in every home there should be an orphan, a widow, the fruit of war! Would that I might lead you along other paths than those of violence!

"On one side behold the American people demanding the acknowledgment of their sovereignty to fulfil their interna

FILIPINO INTERPRETATION OF OATH.

47

tional obligations; on the other the Filipino, at their head Aguinaldo, demanding their interior independence till the last drop of blood is shed. Are there any honorable means of uniting these two extremes? The Philippine people respond unanimously, The protectorate! Let the American people, then, speak.

"I drink to the eternal fraternal alliance between the American and Filipino peoples, both free. I drink to the supreme authority of America, and that it may so direct our people that no Filipino will ever need to take up arms in defence of his rights and liberties. I drink that the amnesty may be more ample, more liberal, more generous, that it may serve as the most efficacious means of pacification. I drink to peace, and that it may not be ephemeral and worthless to endure but a day, but everlasting and eternal, founded on justice."

The sentiments expressed in this speech hardly accord with the oath of allegiance to our government to which Paterno had so recently subscribed. That Paterno himself saw no discrepancy is a most significant comment upon the Filipino interpretation of the oath.

3. "The National Comite of the Filipinos."

During the spring and summer of 1900 the "National Comite of the Filipinos" was formed, "To the end that each town may be able to guard the sacred interests of our country in these present circumstances; to be prepared to give the necessary assistance to the people carrying arms, who are struggling for our independence; and to assist in the political and diplomatic action of our Comites' abroad and the successful prosecution of our cause by our foreign policy."

This "Comite" seems to have been an expression of the "Nationalist Party, which aspires to independence," mentioned in the draft of resolutions drawn up by the Peace

Movement (given on page 38 above). What connection the "Comite" had with the Katipunan is not apparent, but it seems to have had the same ultimate aim.

A document entitled "Bases of the Comite," signed T. Sandico, "The Superior Chief of the Republican Guard," states that the duties of the Comite shall be "to watch over the moral, material, and political welfare" of the country; to work for independence; to aid the guerrillas with money, arms, men, and information; to hinder the Americans in every possible way; to organize a body of secret police; to secure unity of all elements, "because in union there is strength"; and "to endeavor that the principles of Equality, not only before the law, but in social intercourse, be at all times respected"; but "The Comite shall not exercise any authority, neither should it administer justice."

The document further states: "These rights and duties are only of a provisional character, seeing that Congress [i.e., the Filipino Congress] alone can authorize them: in the first place, because the greater part of these rights and duties are made only to meet the existing condition of war; and, in the second place, some rights ought to be given by Congress and approved by the executive sanction of the President of the [Filipino] Republic."

Many letters, which have since been captured, written to Filipino authorities by foreign representatives, bear the stamp of the "Comite Central Filipino"; and one letter, dated Manila, March 12, 1900, indicates that a very secret organization of the Comite was about to be formed in that city, made up of Filipinos supposed by the American authorities to be Americanistas. The Manila correspondent (who signs a fictitious name) speaks of "waiting for authority" from Aguinaldo to complete the organization of the Comite, and mentions the "materials of war" which the Filipinos in Manila can supply the revolutionists in order that they may prepare "for a long war."

"Perseverance, perseverance, and more perseverance, that is our doctrine.

LIBERTY BETTER THAN RICHES.

49

"We do not hope for salvation from foreign intervention. The key to our future is in our own hands: the key is our own constancy. . . . We are men, and men who know that dignity is worth more than sacrifices; that liberty, even with poverty, is worth more than life enslaved by riches; that death is worth more than the indefinite humiliation of our children. Much work for the present, and much faith for the future. . . . We here [in Manila] also are struggling, and not with less danger than in the field, as we are in the hands of the enemy; and, if they suspect us, they force us out of the bosom of our country and cast us to the bottom of Honolulu, if we should be fortunate enough not to be This is very hard to think of, but it does not frighten us. We continue, and always will continue, the campaign; we will do our duty."

The tendency of the Filipinos, illustrated by this letter, to play a double part, on the one hand professing great love for the United States, on the other supplying the insurrectos with every aid in their power,― has existed from the earliest days, and has all along formed one of the greatest difficulties confronting our government.

4. The Ricarte Plot.*

July 1, 1900, the civil guard of Manila captured the insurgent Generals Ricarte and Estrella, who boldly admitted that they had come to the city to effect an uprising. Papers seized with General Ricarte proved that the plot had been of long standing, having been first submitted to General Trias in December, 1899. The original organization had comprised less than two hundred Filipinos, each of whom was obliged to fill out the following blank:

Captured insurgent documents, shown to the editors by the courtesy of the War Department.

SWEAR UPON MY HONOR as a Filipino citizen that I offer all my strength for the success of the undertaking whose purpose is to conquer in the face of all nations new honor for my native land.

"At the same time I swear to faithfully obey all orders whatsoever of my chiefs, and in testimony of all of which I sign this oath with the blood which runs in my own veins.

It was soon found, however, that so small an organization could accomplish nothing; and during the spring a regiment called the Vibora Infantry was raised in Manila and throughout the southern district. It was intended that this regiment should number three thousand men, each member agreeing to put to death any other member who should prove a traitor to the undertaking. When the word was given, these men were to take possession of the city, burning some of the foreign commercial houses, their idea being that they could thus show the foreign nations as well as the Americans that the Filipinos were factors to be considered. Among the captured papers are some half-dozen letters written to General Ricarte during June, the substance of them being that every Filipino who had been interviewed, whether in Manila or outside the city, was ready to join in the plot.

Various delays occurred, until the civil guards of Manila got drift of the plot, and, as has been said, captured the leaders. According to the Manila newspaper, The American, when Ricarte was "asked if he wished to take the oath of allegiance, he said: 'Certainly not. When a man was in the right, he ought to stand up for that right, and, if necessary, die for it.' And that he proposed to do."† The plot is

* There were 186 of such signatures found.

† Ricarte was deported to Guam in January, 1901.