In 1899 an officer of the army in Union Province wrote:  “In accordance with the orders of the secretary of war of our republican government of these islands, issued in compliance with royal decree, article 5, published on March 8.”  On September 1, 1898, the local presidente of the town of Mangatarem, writing to the head of the province, said that he had not furnished the estimates required because the elections provided for in “article 7 of the royal decree of the superior government, dated June 18 last,” had not been approved.  A young son of a member of Aguinaldo’s cabinet, writing to his father in September, 1899, spoke of the “royal decree of June 18, 1898.”—­P.I.R., 1188. 3.  In Romblon, in August, 1898, elections were held in compliance with the prescription of the “royal decree of June 18, 1898,” and Aguinaldo approved them, apparently without considering that this was an anomalous way of describing a decree of the dictator of the so-called republic.  On March 7, 1899, a general in the revolutionary service stated that an officer had been released from arrest by a “royal order.”  The attitude of mind which made men speak of Aguinaldo’s “royal orders” in 1898 did not change when he fled before the advance of the United States army.  His orders remained royal orders.  They were again and again referred to in this way.

[365] P.I.R., Books C-1.

[366] P.I.R., 1216. 1.

[367] P.I.R., 1216. 1.

[368] P.I.R., 223.

[369] P.I.R. 1133. 1.

[370] P.I.R., 1137. 4.

[371] Ibid., R., 1165. 2.

[372] P.I.R., 319. 1.

[373] Ibid., 3. 33.

[374] Ibid., 1022. 3.

[375] P.I.R., 1200.

[376] P.I.R., 907. 6.

[377] P.I.R., 39. 7.

[378] The following memorandum to accompany a letter from Senor Don Sixto Lopez, Secretary of Senor Don Felipe Agoncillo, to the Honorable the Secretary of State, written January 5, 1899, clearly sets forth this claim:—­

“Pursuant to the action of said congress a detailed system of government has been provided for and is actually maintained in all the portions of the Philippine Islands, except so much of the provinces of Manila and Cavite as is now in the actual possession of the American Army, such excepted part containing only about 3 per cent. of the population of the entire islands and an infinitely smaller proportion of their area.

“From the foregoing it will appear that the Philippine government is now, as it has been practically ever since the 16th of June, 1898, in substantially full possession of the territory of the people it represents.”—­Taylor Ex. 530 57 KU., Congressional Record, June 3, 1902, Vol. 35, part 6, p. 6217.

[379] Blount, p. 70.

[380] “September, 1898.

“Decree

“Although article 11, Chapter 2, of the Organic Decree of June 23 (1898) last, prescribes that the appointment of provisional representatives of Congress be given to persons who have been born or have resided in the provinces which they are to represent; taking into consideration the urgent necessity that said body enter upon its functions immediately, I hereby decree the following:—­