Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1900 — WAR DUE TO A PLOT. [ARTICLE]

WAR DUE TO A PLOT.

Filipino Document Sent to the Senate by the President. Copies of official Filipino documents captured by the American troops were sent to the Senate Tuesday by the President, in compliance with a resolution. The most interesting paper is a translation of the minutes of a meeting of the Filipino junta at Hong Kong on May 5, 1898, four days after the destruction of the Spanish squadron by the American ships under Admiral Dewey’s command. At that meeting it was decided to prepare the Filipino people to fight the United States if this Government declined to give them independence, and measures were taken to secure arms for the Tagalogs, thus confirming from official Filipino sources the belief that the outbreak against the American troops near Manila on Feb. 4, 1899, was the result of a carefully prearranged plot. At the junta’s meeting on May 5 Agninaido, who had just arrived at Hong Kong from Singapore, was elected president of the committee. He told of “negotiations” between himself and the American consul at Singapore. The latter had recommended that Aguinaldo confer with 'Admiral Dewey regarding the proposition that the Filipino leader go to Manila in one of the American cruisers. Aguinaldo did not wish to go without first securing a previous written agreement with Dewey, for he said if tiie latter once had him in power he might compel the signature of any agreement desirable. Therefore he urged the appointment of a committee to call upon Admiral Dewey and ascertain the intentions of the United States regarding the Philippines. Then, he said, if intervention by him were necessary, it would not be out.of the way for him to go to the Philippines, procuring by such means as hecould obtain succor for tiie fatherland. Unless there were a previous contract with Dewey, Aguinaldo further stated, the admiral might not “divide the armament necessary to guarantee the happiness of the fatherland.” He also refers to the fear that by taking up arms against Spain he would lose his share in the $400,000 which had been deposited in ilie Hong Kong and Shanghai banks for the purpose of ending the insurrection. The minutes show that Agoncillo favored sending Aguinaldo to the Philippines, where, as president, be “would be able to arouse them to combat the demands of tiie United States if the latter colonized the country, and would drive them (the Filipinos) if circumstances render it necessary to a titahic struggle for iheir independence, even if later they should succumb to the weight of the yoke of a new oppressor.” According to the minutes the members of the junta voted unanimously that Aguinaldo and the other officers of tiie Filipino republic should go at once to Luzon, organize the government, and take measures to bring about the independence of the republic. This action was taken nine months before the outbreak of hostilities between the Filipinos and American forces.