The Americans expect trouble in the Philippines. There is no
confirmation of the Spanish report that insurgents are gathering to attack Manila, but it seems certain that the Ta gal leaders, with Aguinaldo at their head, and, as Americans believe, with secret encouragement from Germany, are defying the United States, that they demand complete independence, and that they have set up some kind of a provisional govern- ment. They refuse to give up Iloilo, threatening to burn the city first, and are cutting off American stragglers. They threaten, moreover, if defeated, to keep up a guerilla war for years. Some negotiations appear, however, to be going on, for the Admiral in command delays shelling the city, and the General hesitates to shed blood until any other course is hopeless. Local Americans and Spaniards both condemn the American Government, but President McKinley is probably right in exhausting every method of conciliation. Apart from morality, which greatly influences him, a peaceful submission of the Tagala would make his task easier in the Senate, where Senator Hoar and others accuse him of violating the first principle of American constitutional life,—that the consent of the governed is essential to a Government. As no Government ever has the consent of more than a majority, and as the United States crushed their own rebellion by force of arms, there is not much in the argument ; but the President would be very glad if the excuse for using it disappeared. He has left the Generals a free hand.
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