VI.  All churches and places devoted to religious worship and to the arts and sciences, all educational institutions, libraries, scientific collections, and museums are, so far as possible, to be protected; and all destruction or intentional defacement of such places or properly, of historical monuments, archives, or works of science and art, is prohibited, save when required by urgent military necessity.  Severe punishment will be meted out for all violations of this regulation.

The custodians of all property of the character mentioned in this section will make prompt returns thereof to these headquarters, stating character and location, and embodying such recommendations as they may think proper for the full protection of the properties under their care and custody, that proper orders may issue enjoining the co-operation of both military and civil authorities in securing such protection.

VII.  The Commanding General, in announcing the establishment of military government, and in entering upon his duty as Military Governor in pursuance of his appointment as such by the government of the United States, desires to assure the people that so long as they preserve the peace and perform their duties toward the representatives of the United States they will not be disturbed in their persons and property, except in so far as may be found necessary for the good of the service of the United States and the benefit of the people of the Philippines.

Wesley Merritt,

Major-General, United States Army, Commanding.

The general orders following are full of curious interest, as they declare the true intent and meaning of the Philippine Expedition, and define the situation at Manila, with extraordinary precision, and are in the strictest sense by authority: 

Headquarters Department of the Pacific and Eighth Army Corps

Manila Bay, August 9th, 1898.

General Orders, No. 3.

1.  In view of the extraordinary conditions under which this Army is operating, the Commanding General desires to acquaint the officers and men composing it, with the expectations which he entertains as to their conduct.

You are assembled upon foreign soil situated within the western confines of a vast ocean separating you from your native land.  You have come not as despoilers and oppressors, but simply as the instruments of a strong free government, whose purposes are beneficent and which has declared itself in this war, the champion of those oppressed by Spanish misrule.

It is therefore the intention of this order to appeal directly to your pride in your position as representatives of a high civilization, in the hope and with the firm conviction that you will so conduct yourselves in your relations with the inhabitants of these islands, as to convince them of the lofty nature of the mission which you come to execute.

It is not believed that any acts of pillage, rapine, or violence will be committed by soldiers or other in the employ of the United States, but should there be persons with this command who prove themselves unworthy of this confidence, their acts will be considered not only as crimes against the sufferers, but as direct insults to the United States flag, and they will be punished on the spot with the maximum penalties known to military law.