These are very serious charges.  I shall prove, chiefly by the Insurgent records, that each of them is false.  I ask the forbearance of my readers if, in the three chapters which I devote to these matters, I quote documentary evidence at length.  When original documents or extracts from them tell a clear and reasonably concise story, I sometimes insert them bodily in the text.  In other cases I give my own version of the facts which they set forth, but give the full text in foot-notes.  In nearly all instances references are given to sources of documentary information.  I greatly regret that Taylor’s narrative, with its very numerous supporting documents, is not readily accessible to the student of history.  It ought to have been published, but never got beyond the galley-proof stage.  In referring to it, I am therefore obliged to use the word Taylor followed by the letters and figures designating the page of this galley proof on which the passage referred to is found.  Whenever possible I give the War Department numbers [6] of Insurgent documents, but in a few cases can give only the exhibit numbers assigned by Taylor in printing the documents.

As his exhibits are serially arranged it is easy to find any one of them.  Copies of his work may be found in the War Department and in the office of the Chief of the Philippine Constabulary.

Referring to the charge that the Insurgents were deceived, even had deceit been practised as claimed, Aguinaldo would have had no just ground for complaint, for he himself not only frankly advocated its use, but deliberately employed it in his dealings with the Americans, as clearly appears in records hereinafter cited. [7] However, most Americans hold to a standard very different from his.  Was it departed from in this instance?

Aguinaldo has specifically and repeatedly charged that Pratt and Dewey promised him the recognition of the independence of the Philippines by the United States. [8]

Judge Blount has referred to the “de facto alliance between the Americans and Aguinaldo,” and has dwelt at length on “promises, both expressed and implied,” which were subsequently repudiated by Consul Pratt, Admiral Dewey and Generals Anderson and Merritt, constantly suggesting, even when he does not specifically charge, bad faith on the part of these officers of the United States. [9]

On analyzing his statements we find that he is disereetly non-committal as to exactly what were the expressed promises, nor does he make it so plain as might be desired what legitimate inferences were deducible from the acts of the Americans in question.  He quotes an alleged statement of General Anderson to the effect that:—­

“Whether Admiral Dewey and Consuls Pratt, Wildman, [10] and Williams [11] did or did not give Aguinaldo assurances that a Philippino government would be recognized, the Phillippinos certainly thought so, judging from their acts rather than from their words.  Admiral Dewey gave them arms and ammunition, as I did subsequently at his request.” [12]