Lineage, Life and Labors of Jos Rizal, Philippine Patriot | Page 5

Spain, for that sense of honor
became temporarily blinded by a sudden but fatal gust of passion; and
it took the shock of the separation to rouse the dormant Spanish
chivalry.
Still in the main Rizal's judgment was correct, and he was the victim of
mistimed, rather than of misplaced, confidence, for as soon as the
knowledge of the real Rizal became known to the Spanish people,
belated justice began to be done his memory, and then, repentant and
remorseful, as is characteristically Castilian, there was little delay and
no half-heartedness. Another name may now be grouped with
Columbus and Cervantes among those to whom Spain has given
imprisonment in life and monuments after death--chains for the man
and chaplets for his memory. In 1896, during the few days before he
could be returned to Manila, Doctor Rizal occupied a dungeon in
Montjuich Castle in Barcelona; while on his way to assist the Spanish
soldiers in Cuba who were stricken with yellow fever, he was shipped
and sent back to a prejudged trial and an unjust execution. Fifteen years
later the Catalan city authorities commemorated the semi-centennial of
this prisoner's birth by changing, in his honor, the name of a street in
the shadow of the infamous prison of Montjuich Castle to "Calle del
Doctor Rizal."
More instances of this nature are not cited since they are not essential to
the proper understanding of Rizal's story, but let it be made clear once
for all that whatever harshness may be found in the following pages is

directed solely to those who betrayed the trust of the mother country
and selfishly abused the ample and unrestrained powers with which
Spain invested them.
And what may seem the exaltation of the Anglo-Saxons at the expense
of the Latins in these pages is intended only to point out the superiority
of their ordered system of government, with its checks and balances, its
individual rights and individual duties, under which men are "free to
live by no man's leave, underneath the Law." No human being can be
safely trusted with unlimited power, and no man, no matter what his
nationality, could have withstood the temptations offered by the chaotic
conditions in the Philippines in past times any better than did the
Spaniards. There is nothing written in this book that should convey the
opinion that in similar circumstances men of any nationality would not
have acted as the Spaniards did. The easiest recognized characteristic of
absolutism, and all the abuses and corruption it brings in its train, is
fear of criticism, and Spain drew her own indictment in the Philippines
when she executed Rizal.
When any nation sets out to enroll all its scholarly critics among the
martyrs in the cause of Liberty, it makes an open confession of guilt to
all the world. For a quarter of a century Spain had been ruling in the
Philippines by terrorizing its subjects there, and Rizal's execution, with
utter disregard of the most elementary rules of judicial procedure, was
the culmination that drove the Filipinos to desperation and arrested the
attention of the whole civilized world. It was evident that Rizal's fate
might have been that of any of his countrymen, and the thinking world
saw that events had taken such a course in the Philippines that it had
become justifiable for the Filipinos to attempt to dissolve the political
bands which had connected them with Spain for over three centuries.
Such action by the Filipinos would not have been warranted by a
solitary instance of unjust execution under stress of political excitement
that did not indicate the existence of a settled policy. Such instances are
rather to be classed among the mistakes to which governments as well
as individuals are liable. Yet even such a mistake may be avoided by
certain precautions which experience has suggested, and the nation that

disregards these precautions is justly open to criticism.
Our present Philippine government guarantees to its citizens as
fundamental rights, that no person shall be held to answer for a capital
crime unless on an indictment, nor may he be compelled in any
criminal case to be a witness gainst himself, nor be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of law. The accused must have
a speedy, public and impartial trial, be informed of the nature and cause
of the accusation, be confronted with the witnesses against him, have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and have the
assistance of counsel for his defense. Not one of these safeguards
protected Doctor Rizal except that he had an "open trial," if that name
may be given to a courtroom filled with his enemies openly clamoring
for his death without rebuke from the court. Even the presumption of
innocence till guilt was established was denied