Lineage, Life and Labors of Jos Rizal, Philippine Patriot | Page 8

nations just as men had duties toward their fellow-men. He
established here Liberty through Law, and provided for progress in
general education, which should be a safeguard to good government as
well, for an enlightened people cannot be an oppressed people. Then he
went to war against the Philippines rather than deceive them, because
the Filipinos, who repeatedly had been tricked by Spain with
unfulfilled promises, insisted on pledges which he had not the power to
give. They knew nothing of what was meant by the rule of the people,
and could not conceive of a government whose head was the servant

and not the master. Nor did they realize that even the voters might not
promise for the future, since republicanism requires that the
government of any period shall rule only during the period that it is in
the majority. In that war military glory and quick conquest were
sacrificed to consideration for the misled enemy, and every effort was
made to minimize the evils of warfare and to gain the confidence of the
people. Retaliation for violations of the usages of civilized warfare, of
which Filipinos at first were guilty through their Spanish training,
could not be entirely prevented, but this retaliation contrasted strikingly
with the Filipinos' unhappy past experiences with Spanish soldiers. The
few who had been educated out of Spain and therefore understood the
American position were daily reënforced by those persons who became
convinced from what they saw, until a majority of the Philippine people
sought peace. Then the President of the United States outlined a policy,
and the history and constitution of his government was an assurance
that this policy would be followed; the American government then
began to do what it had not been able to promise.
The forerunner and the founder of the present regime in these Islands,
by a strange coincidence, were as alike in being cruelly misunderstood
in their lifetimes by those whom they sought to benefit as they were in
the tragedy of their deaths, and both were unjustly judged by many,
probably well-meaning, countrymen.
Magellan, Legaspi, Carriedo, Rizal and McKinley, heroes of the free
Philippines, belonged to different times and were of different types, but
their work combined to make possible the growing democracy of
to-day. The diversity of nationalities among these heroes is an added
advantage, for it recalls that mingling of blood which has developed the
Filipinos into a strong people.
England, the United States and the Philippines are each composed of
widely diverse elements. They have each been developed by adversity.
They have each honored their severest critics while yet those critics
lived. Their common literature, which tells the story of human liberty
in its own tongue, is the richest, most practical and most accessible of
all literature, and the popular education upon which rests the freedom

of all three is in the same democratic tongue, which is the most widely
known of civilized languages and the only unsycophantic speech, for it
stands alone in not distinguishing by its use of pronouns in the second
person the social grade of the individual addressed.
The future may well realize Rizal's dream that his country should be to
Asia what England has been to Europe and the United States is in
America, a hope the more likely to be fulfilled since the events of 1898
restored only associations of the earlier and happier days of the history
of the Philippines. The very name now used is nearer the spelling of the
original Philipinas than the Filipinas of nineteenth century Spanish
usage. The first form was used until nearly a century ago, when it was
corrupted along with so many things of greater importance.
The Philippines at first were called "The Islands of the West," as they
are considered to be occidental and not oriental. They were made
known to Europe as a sequel to the discoveries of Columbus.
Conquered and colonized from Mexico, most of their pious and
charitable endowments, churches, hospitals, asylums and colleges, were
endowed by philanthropic Mexicans. Almost as long as Mexico
remained Spanish the commerce of the Philippines was confined to
Mexico, and the Philippines were a part of the postal system of Mexico
and dependent upon the government of Mexico exactly as long as
Mexico remained Spanish. They even kept the new world day, one day
behind Europe, for a third of a century longer. The Mexican dollars
continued to be their chief coins till supplanted, recently, by the present
peso, and the highbuttoned white coat, the "americana," by that name
was in general use long years ago. The name America is frequently to
be found in the old baptismal registers, for a century or more ago many
a Filipino child was so christened, and in the '70's Rizal's carving
instructor, because so many