Speech #570012951

It is said that the only reason why Manila has not been taken and burned is because a vast majority of its population is in perfect accord with the insurgents. In view of these statements of our consul. in view of the activity of the leaders of the insurrection in foreign countries months before our war against Spain. in view of their attempt some months before that event to enter into negotiations with the United States for arms to carry on their insurrection. as shown somewhere. although I have not the paper before me. it is idle and vain to claim. as has been claimed in this body. that there was not a fully and completely developed revolution against the power of Spain going on in that country before we appeared on the scene with either our military or naval forces. or to claim that that revolution. which had been going on from August. 1896. was closed by the treaty of December 14. 1897. That treaty was simply an incident in the revolution. an incident which had occasioned the deportation of certain of the leaders of the revolution. but those who were left behind. finding that the Spanish Government did not propose to carry out the terms of that treaty. continued the revolution. and it was rampant at the time of our declaration of war with Spain. It is equally vain for anybody to undertake to deny that the aspiration of the revolutionists was for independence and that we knew it. It has been said that independence was an afterthought on the part of certain ambitious Filipino leaders. but from the beginning to the end. for months before our war. during the entire war. and ever since. the object of the Filipino people has been independence. and nothing else. and everybody who had anything to do with that war on our part knew it to be so.