It would appear, therefore, that the President had more information on this subject than was transmitted by General Anderson!

Not only did the latter passively refrain from recognizing Aguinaldo’s pretensions, but on July 22, 1898, he wrote to him as follows:—­

“I observe that your Excellency has announced yourself Dictator and proclaimed martial law.  As I am here simply in a military capacity, I have no authority to recognize such an assumption.  I have no orders from my government on the subject.” [66]

The effort to keep Americans in ignorance of the true state of affairs was kept up until further deception was useless.  Consul Williams, for instance, wrote on June 16, 1898:—­

“For future advantage, I am maintaining cordial relations with General Aguinaldo, having stipulated submissiveness to our forces when treating for their return here.  Last Sunday, 12th, they held a council to form provisional government.  I was urged to attend, but thought best to decline.  A form of government was adopted, but General Aguinaldo told me today that his friends all hoped that the Philippines would be held as a colony of the United States of America.” [67]

Yet on Sunday, June 12, Aguinaldo had in reality proclaimed the independence of the Philippines.  Few Americans at this time knew any Spanish and none understood Tagalog, so that it was comparatively easy to deceive them.  What Consul Williams reported was what Aguinaldo considered it expedient to have him believe.

The following undated letter from Aguinaldo to Mabini, supposed to have been sent at this time, is of especial interest in this connection:—­

“My dear Brother:  I do not want to go there [where the addressee is] until after the visit of the American Consul, because I do not wish the negotiations to end in an ultimatum, and in order that you may tell him all that is favourable for the cause of our Nation.  I charge you with the task of giving him a reply, and if he should ask about me tell him that since the time of his last visit there I have not recovered from my illness.  If anything important should happen we can communicate with each other by telegraph, using a code in matters that require secrecy.” [68]

In a letter supposed to have been written during November, 1898, prepared for Aguinaldo’s signature and addressed to Senor McKinley, President of the Republic of the United States of North America, but apparently never sent, Aguinaldo renews the charge [69] previously made in his “Resenia Veridica,” that Pratt and Dewey promised independence.  It need not be further discussed.

The climax was finally reached in an official protest against the Paris Treaty written by Agoncillo in Paris on the 12th of December, 1898, in which occurs the following:—­

“The United States of America, on their part, cannot allege a better right to constitute themselves as arbitrators as to the future of the Philippines.