The development of Philippine politics

OPPOSITION TO AMERICAN SOVERPIGNTY

proclamation read, "the future control, disposition, and
government of the Philippine Islands are ended to the
United States." In the same proclamation the President
instructed the military authorities to extend by force American sovereignty over the Philippines, although the Senate
had not yet ratified the treaty. The President said:
In performing this duty, the military commander of the
United States is enjoined to make known to the inhabitants
of the Philippine Islands that in succeeding to the sovereignty of Spain, in severing the former political relations,
and in establishing a new political power, the authority of
the United States is to be exerted for the securing of the
persons and property of the people of the Islands and for
the confirmation of all their private rights and relations.
It will be the duty of the commander of the forces of occupation to announce and proclaim in the most public manner
that we come not as invaders or conquerors, but as friends,
to protect the natives in their homes, in their employments,
and in their personal and religious rights. All persons who,
either by active aid or by honest submission, cooperate
with the Government of the United States to give effect
to these beneficent purposes will receive the reward of its
support and protection. All others will be brought within
the lawful rule we have assumed, with firmness if need be,
but without severity, so far as possible...
Finally, it should be the earnest wish and paramount
aim of the military administration to win the confidence,
respect, and affection of the inhabitants of the Philippines
by assuring them in every possible way that full measure
of indih ial rights and liberties which is the heritage of
free peoples, and by proving to them that the mission of
the United States is one of benevolent assimilation, substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule.
From this document the Filipino people learned in an
unmistakeable manner that they were to be deprived of the
boon for which they were fighting-independence. They
realized what they had never for a moment dreamed in the
beginning, that their bloody struggle bad brought them only
a change of masters. True it is that in the manifesto they
were promised individual rights and protection of their
property, but these promises implied not inherent rights,
but mere grants from an absolute sovereign.