Aguinaldo's
manifesto was issued as a protest against President McKinley's
December 21, 1898 Benevolent
Proclamation asserting that America intended to rule
the Philippines. Aguinaldo's response was considered tantamount
to a declaration of war.
January
5, 1899
General Otis styles himself Military Governor
of these Islands, and I protest one and a thousand times and with
all the energy of my soul against such authority. I proclaim solemnly
that I have not recognized either Singapore or in Hong Kong or
in the Philippines, by word or in writing, the sovereignty of
America over this beloved soil. On the contrary, I say that I
returned to these Islands on an American warship on the 19th of
May last for the express purpose of making war on the Spaniards
to regain our liberty and independence. I stated this in my proclamation
of the 24th of May last, and I publish it in my Manifesto addressed
to the Philippine people on the 12th of June. Lastly, all this
was confirmed by the American General Merritt himself, predecessor
of General Otis, in his Manifesto to the Philippine people some
days before he demanded the surrender of Manila from the Spanish
General Jaudenes. In that Manifesto it is distinctly stated that
the naval and field forces of the United States had come to give
us our liberty, by subverting the bad Spanish Government, And
I hereby protest against this unexpected act of the United States
claiming sovereignty over these Islands. My relations with the
United States did not bring me over here from Hong Kong to make
war on the Spaniards for their benefit, but for the purpose of
our own liberty and independence. . .
Source:
The Statutes At Large of the United States of America from March
1897 to March 1899 and Recent Treaties, Conventions, Executive
Proclamations, and The Concurrent Resolutions of the Two Houses
of Congress, Volume XXX, published by the U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1899. Copy courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress, Asian
Division.
|
