LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter III

       Table of Contents

Anderson and Aguinaldo

       Table of Contents

      Well, honor is the subject of my story.

      Julius Cæsar, Act. I, Sc. 2.

      The destruction of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898, ten days after the outbreak of the war with Spain, having necessitated sending troops to the Philippines to complete the reduction of the Spanish power in that quarter, Major-General Wesley Merritt was on May 16th selected to organize and command such an expedition.

      “The First Expedition,” as it was always distinguished, by the officers and men of the Eighth Army Corps, there having been many subsequent expeditions sent out before our war with the Filipinos was over, was itself subdivided into a number of different expeditions, troops being hurried to Manila as fast as they could be assembled and properly equipped in sufficient numbers. The first batch that were whipped into shape left San Francisco under command of Brigadier-General Thomas M. Anderson, on May 25th, and arrived off Manila, June 30th. General Merritt did not arrive until July 25th. It was General Anderson, therefore, who broke the ice of the American occupation of the Philippines.

In his annual message to Congress of December, following,1 summing up the War with Spain and its results, Mr. McKinley gives a brief account of the First Expedition. After recounting Admiral Dewey’s victory of May 1st previous, he states that “on the seventh day of May the Government was advised officially of the victory at Manila, and at once inquired of the commander of the fleet what troops would be required.” President McKinley does not give the Admiral’s answer, though he does state that it was received on the 15th day of May. The Admiral’s answer appears, however, in the Report of the Navy Department for 1898, Appendix, page 98. It was: “In my best judgment, a well-equipped force of 5000 men.” But the President’s message does state that he at once sent a “total force consisting of 641 officers and 15,058 enlisted men.”

The difference of view-point of the Admiral and the President is clear from the language of both. In recommending 5000 troops, the Admiral had said they would be necessary “to retain possession [of Manila] and thus control Philippine Islands.” This counted, of course, on the friendship of the people, as in Cuba. “I had in view simply taking possession of the city.” said Admiral Dewey to the Senate Committee in 1902.2

      The purpose of the President in sending three times as many troops as were needed for the purpose Admiral Dewey had in mind is indicated in his account of what happened. After describing the taking of Manila by our troops on August 13th, the presidential message says:

By this the conquest of the Philippine Islands, virtually accomplished when the Spanish capacity for resistance was destroyed by Admiral Dewey’s victory of May 1st, was formally sealed. Скачать книгу