dowed with inalienable rights, among which are life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness, to the customs and the laws of people which had come down from the Spain of Philip the Second and the Inquisition." 1

Root's opinion of McKinley after more than two years of official and personal intercourse may well be cited: "How wise and skilful he was! how modest and selfeffacing! how deep his insight into the human heart! how swift the intuitions of his sympathy! how compelling the charm of his gracious presence! He was so unselfish, so thoughtful of the happiness of others, so genuine a lover of his country and kind. And he was the kindest and tenderest friend who ever grasped another's hand. Alas that his virtues did plead in vain against cruel fate!" 2

As President McKinley was unable to secure the return to the Philippines of his first Commission, he appointed a new one: William H. Taft, Professor Dean C. Worcester of the University of Michigan, Luke E. Wright of Tennessee, Henry C. Ide of Vermont and Professor Bernard Moses of the University of California. It must be premised that Taft was Judge of the United States Circuit Court and the height of his ambition was a seat on the United States Supreme bench. He was designated as President of the Board and has thus told the story of his appointment: "It was in February, 1900, that in the court house in Cincinnati I received from Mr. McKinley a telegram which read like this, 'If you have no other engagement, you will do me a great favor by calling on me in Washington some time next week.' I

1 Military and Colonial Policy, Root, xiv, xv.

2 Ibid., 112.

did not know of any vacancy existing on the Supreme Court bench but I went to Washington just the same. Arriving at the White House I was ushered into the Cabinet room and there I met the President. 'Judge,' he said, 'I'd like to have you go to the Philippines.' I said, 'Mr. President, what do you mean by going to the Philippines?' He replied, 'We must establish a government there and I would like you to help.' 'But, Mr. President,' I said, 'I am sorry we have got the Philippines. I don't want them and I think you ought to have some man who is more in sympathy with the situation.' 'You don't want them any less than I do,' replied the President, 'but we have got them and in dealing with them I think I can trust the man who didn't want them better than I can the man who did.' You can readily understand," continued Taft, "the feelings of a man whose only object in going to Washington was the hope of finding a vacant cushion on the Supreme Court bench to be asked to go 10,000 miles from home. But after I had talked with Mr. McKinley and with Secretary Root I decided I would go and in a hurry. I went under the influence of Mr. McKinley's personality, the influence he had of making people do what they ought to do in the interest of the public service. Mr. McKinley said he would stand by me in the Philippines and he did." 1

The instructions to this Commission of April 7, 1900, addressed to the Secretary of War are properly called the magna carta of the Philippines. It is asserted by the editors of the Root volumes 2 that this paper was

1Speech of President-elect Taft, New York City, Dec. 13, 1908, Boston Herald.

Robert Bacon and James Brown Scott.

drafted by Root and with "trifling verbal changes" signed by the President.1 This is asserted by other writers and so far as I know not contradicted, so it may be recorded as a fact. As the military government was now supreme and it was desirable to avoid any conflict with the Civil Commission, both the general in command and the Commission were directed to report to the Secretary of War. The Commission should at first "devote their attention to the establishment of municipal government, in which the natives of the islands, both in the cities and in the rural communities, shall be afforded the opportunity to manage their own local affairs to the fullest extent of which they are capable, and subject to the least degree of supervision and control, which a careful study of their capacities and observation of the workings of native control show to be consistent with the maintenance of law, order, and loyalty." Next should be the organization of government in the large administrative divisions, the intent being to substitute civil for military control. On September 1, 1900, the legislative authority which had been exercised by the military governor should be transferred to the Civil Commission. "Exercise of this legislative authority," the instructions continued, "will include the making of rules and orders, having the effect of law, for the raising of revenue by taxes, custom duties and imports; the appropriation and expenditure of public funds of the islands; the establishment of an educational system throughout the islands; the establishment of a system to secure an efficient civil service; the organization and establishment of courts; the organization and

1 Military and Colonial Policy, 225.

establishment of municipal and departmental governments, and all other matters of a civil nature. Wherever civil governments are constituted under the directions of the Commission, such military posts, garrisons and forces will be continued for the suppression of insurrection and brigandage and the maintenance of law and order as the Military Commander shall deem requisite, and the military forces shall be at all times subject, under his orders, to the call of the civil authorities for the maintenance of law and order and the enforcement of their authority."

Natives of the islands should be preferred for the offices but they must be absolutely and unconditionally loyal to the United States. The government established is "not for our satisfaction or for the expression of our theoretical views, but for the happiness, peace and prosperity of the people of the Philippine Islands, and the measures adopted should be made to conform to their customs, their habits, and even their prejudices to the fullest extent consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable requisites of just and effective government."

Then followed, substantially, the Bill of Rights of the American Constitution; but the right to bear arms and trial by jury were not included in the enumeration of the safeguards of liberty. Education should be promoted and extended. This was an easy matter as the desire for education was almost universal and the wish to learn

English eager. With wisdom the direction to the Commission was: "Instruction should be given in the first instance in every part of the islands in the language of the people. In view of the great number of languages spoken by the different tribes, it is especially important to the prosperity of the islands that a common medium

of communication may be established, and it is obviously desirable that this medium should be the English language. Especial attention should be at once given to affording full opportunity to all of the islands to acquire the use of the English language." The comprehensive instructions ended with: A "high and sacred obligation rests upon the Government of the United States to give protection for property and life, civil and religious freedom and wise, firm and unselfish guidance in the paths of peace and prosperity to all the people of the Philippine Islands. I," said the President of the United States, "charge this Commission to labor for the full performance of this obligation, which concerns the honor and conscience of their country, in the firm hope that through their labors all the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands may come to look back with gratitude to the day when God gave victory to American arms at Manila and set their land under the sovereignty and the protection of the people of the United States." 1

The way was paved by the introduction of a bill from the Committee on the Philippines which, although not enacted, offered a statement from Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, who was in full sympathy with our possession of the Philippines. On March 7, 1900, he said: The "President, under the military power, which still controls and must for some time control the islands, could do all that this bill provides. We follow the well-settled precedents of Jefferson and Monroe. . . . We may safely tread in the footsteps of the author of the Declaration of Independence. He saw no contradiction be

1Messages and Papers of the President, Supplement, 139.