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Who Aguinaldo Is.
Emilio Aguinaldo was born March 22, 1869, at Cavite, Viejo.
When twenty-five years old he was elected Mayor of Cavite.
On August 21, 1896, Aguinaldo became leader
of the insurgents. The revolution started on
that day.
He fought four battles with the Spaniards
and was victorious in all. He lost but ten
men, to the Spaniards 125.
On December 24, 1897, a peace was
established between Aguinaldo and the
Spanish.
Aguinaldo received $400,000, but the rest of
the conditions of peace were never carried
out.
In June last Aguinaldo issued a
proclamation, expressing a desire for the
establishment of a native administration in
the Philippines under an American
protectorate.
In an interview with a World correspondent
at that time he expressed himself as
grateful to Americans.
In July he issued a proclamation fixing the
12th day of that month for the declaration
of the independence of the Philippines.
In November Aguinaldo defied General Otis,
refusing to release his Spanish prisoners.
The Cabinet on December 2 cabled General
Otis to demand the release of the prisoners.
Emilio Aguinaldo, Military
Dictator of the
Filipinos
Aguinaldo The Man.
In his features, face and skull Aguinaldo
looks more like a European than a Malay.
He is what would be called a handsome man,
and might be compared with many young men in
the province of Andalusia, Spain. If there
be truth in phrenology he is a man above the
common. Friends and enemies agree that he is
intelligent, ambitious, far-sighted, brave,
self-controlled, honest, moral, vindictive,
and at times cruel. He possesses the quality
which friends call wisdom and enemies call
craft. According to those who like him he is
courteous, polished, thoughtful and
dignified; according to those who dislike
him he is insincere, pretentious, vain and
arrogant. Both admit him to be genial,
generous, self-sacrificing, popular and
capable in the administration of affairs. If
the opinion of his foes be accepted he is
one of the greatest Malays on the page of
history. If the opinion of his friends be
taken as the criterion he is one of the
great men of history irrespective of
race.--The Review of Reviews.
Facts from Felipe Agoncillo's Letter in
Leslie's Magazine
Sixty per cent, of the inhabitants can read
and write.
The women in education are on a plane with
the men.
Each town of 5,000 inhabitants has two
schools for children of both sexes. The
towns of 10,000 inhabitants have three
schools. There are technical training
schools in Manila, Iloilo, and Bacoler. "In
these schools are taught cabinet work,
silversmithing, lock-smithing, lithography,
carpentering, machinery, decorating,
sculpture, political economy, commercial
law, book-keeping, and commercial
correspondence, French and English; and
there is one superior college for painting,
sculpture and engraving. There is also a
college of commercial exports in Manila, and
a nautical school, as well as a superior
school of agriculture. Ten model farms and a
meteorological observatory are conducted in
other provinces, together with a service of
geological studies, a botanical garden and a
museum, a laboratory and military academy
and a school of telegraphy."
Manila has a girl's school (La Ascuncion) of
elementary and superior branches, directed
by French, English and Spanish mothers,
which teaches French, English literature,
arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry,
topography, physics, geology, universal
history, geography, designing, music,
dress-making and needle-work. The capital
has besides a municipal school of primary
instruction and the following colleges:
Santa Ysabel, Santa Catolina, La Concordia,
Santa Rosa de la Looban, a hospital of San
Jose, and an Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul,
all of which are places of instruction for
children. There are other elementary schools
in the State of Camannis, in Pasig, in Vigan
and Jaro.
The entire conduct of the civilization of
the Philippines as well as local authorities
are in the hands of the Philipinos
themselves. They also had charge of the
public offices of the government during the
last century.
There is a medical school and a school for
mid-wives.
"All the young people and especially the
boys, belonging to well-to-do families
residing in the other islands go to Manila
to study the arts and learn a profession.
Among the natives to be ignorant and
uneducated, is a shameful condition of
degradation."
"The sons of the rich families began to go
to Spain in 1854" to be educated.
Felipe Agoncillo Emissary of the
Filipinos to the United
States.
When the Spaniards first went to the islands
"they found the Philipinos enlightened and
advanced in civilization." "They had
founderies for casting iron and brass, for
making guns and powder. They had their
special writing with two alphabets, and used
paper imported from China and Japan." This
was in the early part of the sixteenth
century. The Spanish government took the
part of the natives against the imposition
of exhorbitant taxes, and the tortures of
the inquisition by the early settlers.
The highest civilization exists in the
island of Luzon but in some of the remote
islands the people are not more than
"enlightened." The population embraced in
Anguinaldo's dominion is 10,000,000,
scattered over a territory in area
approaching 200,000 square miles. The
Americans up to this time have conquered
only about 143 square miles of this
territory.
What takes place in the South concerning the
treatment of Negroes is known in the
Philippines. The Philipino government on the
27th of February, 1899, issued from Hong
Kong the following decree warning the
Philipino people as follows:
| "Manila has witnessed the most
horrible outrages, the confiscation
of the properties and savings of the
people at the point of the bayonet,
the shooting of the defenseless,
accompanied by odious acts of
abomination repugnant barbarism and
social hatred, worse than the doings
in the Carolinas." They are told of America's treatment of the black population, and are made to feel that it is better to die fighting than become subject to a nation where, as they are made to believe, the colored man is lynched and burned alive indiscriminately. The outrages in this country is giving America a bad name among the savage people of the world, and they seem to prefer savagery to American civilization, such as is meted out to her dark-skinned people. |
History of Negro Soldiers in the Spanish-American War, and other items of Interest, 1899