Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

13 6 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Rizal was reaching a climax in his zealous nationalistic labours,
and when his principles and doctrines were finding their way
into the hearts of his countrymen, he was deported, and later
submitted to a court-martial for treason, and finally was shot
to death. Before dying he dedicated a poem to his country
lamenting the fact that he could not see the dawn of her liberty,
but that he was happy to give his blood to tinge its waking
ray.
This public life of Rizal symbolizes the hopes and struggles
of the Filipinos during the propaganda period. Happy is the
nation like ours that could always count, in every period of
its history, with providential men who have learned to rise in
dignity, in responsibility and in the spirit of sacrifice! There
were two leaders in this propaganda: Rizal in its integral nationalism, and Del Pilar in its political labors; and then there
were a corps of assistants in the Peninsula and agents and
propagandists in the Philippines, all select, intelligent and active.
The Filipino colony in Europe, particularly in Spain, had
of course certain petty differences, but in general they worked
as they should have worked. Their differences were excusable
because they were new in the work of organization, they did
not have the tradition of public service, neither in spirit nor
in practice,-and young as they were, in the fire of their enthusiasm, they desired to be able to do something immediately,
explicitly, openly, to help their poor country. They discussed
all possible means and ways, and realized many great things.
They founded newspapers, published books and pamphlets, organized meetings and banquets, made friends with the leaders
of the government, formed liberal and masonic associations,
in order to organize the Filipinos in the struggle, and to enlist
on their side Spaniards with open minds. It was a colony in
which all were represented: thinkers and tribunes, men of letters
and artists, aristocrats and bohemians, arid cultivators of science
or mere University students.
As a matter of fact they were able to count among themselves
great characters, great minds. The man worthy of special
mention, after Rizal, was the already referred to Marcelo H.
del Pilar, the most conscientious of all the political workers at
that time. With his preparation in the science of law and