The American insistence on the evacuation by Aguinaldo's
army of the strategic points along the Manila Bay area, the refusal of
the American military authorities to allow the Filipino soldiers to
enter the city after its surrender, and the American limitation of the
areas to be occupied by the Filipino troops after the mock battle of
Manila, led progressively to the deterioration of Filipino-American
relations. The misunderstandings that followed these incidents climaxed
in the signing of the Treaty of Paris without consultation with the
Filipinos. McKinley issued his co-called "Benevolent Assimilation"
Proclamation on December 21, 1898. Gen. Elwell Otis, who received the
proclamation published it on January 4, 1899 with some amendments
inserted in such a way as not to coney the meanings of the original
"sovereignty," "protection," and "right of cession". But Gen. Miller
published the original copy of the proclamation. A copy fell into the
hands of the officials of the Revolutionary Government. The proclamation
was immediately subjected to severe attacks. Attempts, however, were
made by mixed commission of Filipinos: Florentino Torres, Ambrosio
Flores, and Manuel Argueles and Americans: Gen. R. P. Hughes,Col. James
F. Smith, and Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Crowder to relax the tension
between the two peoples, but the Americans members of the commission
tried to prolong the sessions without trying to improve the situation
because they were waiting for the American reinforcements which were
then on their way to Manila. Finally, on February 4, 1899, an American
sentry shot a Filipino soldier, resulting in the outbreak of the
Filipino-American hostilities. On February 4, Private Willie Grayson,
with two other members of his patrol, advanced ahead of the village in
San Juan to ascertain whether there were Filipino soldiers in t he
vicinity. Suddenly four armed men appeared before Grayson. He said
later, recounting the event:
"I yelled "Halt!"...the man
moved. L challenged with another "Halt!" Then he immediately shouted
"Halto!" to me. Well I thought the best thing to do was to shoot him. He
dropped. *** We retreated to where our six other fellows were I said,
"Line up fellows; the Enemy are in here all through these yards." We then retreated to the pipe line and got behind the water work main and stayed there all night. It was some minutes after our second shots before Filipinos began firing.
The Filipinos fought at a disadvantage, for they had no sufficient arms
with which to fight the enemy. But it took the Americans almost three
years to conquer the Filipinos.
