Part 16 (1/2)
Att.i.tude of the Spanish and the Friars toward Filipino Education.--The great mistake committed by the Spaniard was that he rarely welcomed the further progress of the native population, and the center of this opposition to the general enlightenment of the race was the friars. Thus those who had been the early protectors and educators, little by little, because of their extreme conservatism and their fear of loosening the ties that bound the Filipino to the church and to Spain, changed into opponents of his progress and enemies of his enlightenment; but the education which the church itself had given to the Filipino, and which had been fostered by the state and especially in recent times by the Jesuits, had made the Filipino pa.s.sionately ambitious for more enlightenment and freedom.
The Rule of Governor Torre.--Liberal Reforms.--In 1868, Queen Isabella II. of Spain was deposed, and a little later a revolutionary government, the ”Republic of Spain,” was founded. It was the brief triumph of that reforming and liberal spirit which for so many years had been struggling to free Spain from the burdens of aristocracy and ecclesiasticism.
The natural consequence was the sending of a liberal governor to the Philippines and the publication of liberal principles and reforms. This governor was General de la Torre. He was a brave and experienced soldier and a thorough democrat at heart. He dispensed with the formality and petty pomp with which the governors of Manila had surrounded themselves; he dismissed the escort of halberdiers, with their mediaeval uniforms and weapons, which had surrounded the governor-generals since 1581, and rode out in civilian's clothes and without ostentation. His efforts were directed to encouraging the Filipinos and to attaching them to Spain. In the eyes of the Spanish law, for a brief period, Spaniard and colonists had become equal, and La Torre tried to enforce this principle and make no distinction of race or birth. While Filipinos were encouraged and delighted, it is impossible to describe the disgust of the Spanish population and the opposition of the friars. La Torre was attacked and opposed, and the entire course of his governors.h.i.+p was filled with trouble, in which, naturally, liberal ideas gained wider and wider currency among the Filipinos.
Effect of the Opposition of the Friars.--The friars, being the most influential opponents of the Filipino, naturally came to be regarded by the Filipinos as their greatest enemies, and the anti-friar spirit daily spread and intensified. A party was formed which demanded that the friars vacate the parishes, and that their places be filled by secular priests, in accordance with the statutes of the Council of Trent. This party was headed by a native priest, Dr. Jose Burgos.
A Filipino Movement for Reform.--After the fall of the republic in Spain and the restoration of the monarchy, the administration in the Philippines attempted to extirpate the rising tide of liberal thought; but these ideas had taken root and could not be suppressed. The Filipino party, if so we may call it, continued to plan and work for reform. It numbered not only those of Filipino blood, but many of Spanish descent, born in the Philippines. There is no certain evidence that they were at this time plotting for independence, or that their actions were treasonable; but the fear and hatred felt by the Spaniards resulted frequently in the exile and punishment of known advocates of reform.
The Cavite Revolt.--In 1872 there occurred an important outbreak known as the Cavite Revolt. Two hundred native soldiers at the Cavite a.r.s.enal rose, killed their officers, and shouted ”Death to Spain!” They had fellow-conspirators among the troops in Manila, but owing to mistakes in their plans these failed to rise with them and the revolt was easily suppressed.
It was immediately followed by the arrest of a large number of Filipinos who had been conspicuous in La Torre's time and who were advocates of reform. This number included the three priests, Fathers Burgos, Zamora, and Gomez, besides Don Antonio Regidor, Don Joaquin Pardo de Tavera, Don Pedro Carillo, and others. A council of war condemned to death forty-one of the partic.i.p.ants in the Cavite riot, and these were shot on the morning of the 27th of January, 1872, on the Field of Bagumbayan. On the 6th of February a council of war condemned to death eleven more soldiers of the regiment of artillery, but this sentence was commuted by the governor to life imprisonment. On the 15th of February the same council of war sentenced to death upon the garrote, the priests Burgos, Zamora, Gomez, and a countryman, Saldua; and this sentence was executed on the morning of the 17th.
The Spread of Secret Organizations.--Masonry.--New ground for fear was now found in the spread of secret organizations, which were denounced as Free Masonry. This is a very ancient inst.i.tution which, in Protestant countries like England and America, has a very large members.h.i.+p, and in these countries its aims are wholly respectable. It has never in any way been connected with sedition or other unworthy movements. Its services are, in fact, largely of a religious character and it possesses a beautiful and elaborate Christian ritual; but in Latin countries Masonry has been charged with political intrigue and the encouragement of infidelity, and this has resulted in clerical opposition to the order wherever found. The first Masonic lodge in the Philippines was established about 1861 and was composed entirely of Spaniards. It was succeeded by others with Filipino members.h.i.+p, and in one way or another seems to have inspired many secret organizations.
The ”Liga Filipina,” and Dr. Rizal.--Large numbers of Filipinos were now working, if not for independence, at least for the expulsion of the friars; and while this feeling should have been met by a statesmanlike and liberal policy of reform, the government constantly resorted to measures of repression, which little by little changed the movement for reformation into revolution.
In 1887 the ”Liga Filipina,” was formed by a number of the younger Filipino patriots, chief among whom was Dr. Jose Rizal y Mercado. Rizal, by his gifts, his n.o.ble character, and his sad fate, has gained a supreme place in the hearts of Filipinos and in the history of the Islands. He was born in 1861 at Calamba, on Laguna de Bay, and even as a child he was affected with sadness at the memory of the events of 1872 and with the backward and unhappy condition of his countrymen. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Ateneo Munic.i.p.al in Manila, and his family having means, he was enabled to study in Spain, where he took a degree in medicine, and later to travel and study in France, England, and Germany.
It was in this latter country that he produced his first novel, Noli Me Tangere. He had been a contributor to the Filipino paper published in Spain, ”La Solidaridad,” and, to further bring the conditions and needs of his country to more public notice, he wrote this novel dealing with Tagalog life as represented at his old home on Laguna de Bay and in the city of Manila. Later he published a sequel, El Filibusterismo, in which even more courageously and significantly are set forth his ideas for reform.
His work made him many enemies, and on his return to Manila he found himself in danger and was obliged to leave. He returned again in 1893, and was immediately arrested and sentenced to deportation to Dapitan, Mindanao. Here he remained quietly in the practice of his profession for some years.
The Katipunan.--Meanwhile the ideas which had been agitated by the wealthy and educated Filipinos had worked their way down to the poor and humble cla.s.ses. They were now shared by the peasant and the fisherman. Especially in those provinces where the religious orders owned estates and took as rental a portion of the tenants'
crop, there was growing hatred and hostility to the friars. The ”Liga Filipina” had been composed of cultivated and moderate men, who while pressing for reform were not inclined to radical extremes, nor to obtain their ends by violent means.
But there now grew up and gradually spread, until it had its branches and members in all the provinces surrounding Manila, a secret a.s.sociation composed largely of the uneducated cla.s.ses, whose object was independence of Spain, and whose members, having little to lose, were willing to risk all. This was the society which has since become famous under the name of ”Katipunan.” This secret a.s.sociation was organized in Cavite about 1892. Its president and founder was Andres Bonifacio. Its objects were frankly to expel the friars, and, if possible, to destroy the Spanish government.
Rebellion of 1896.--A general attack and slaughter of the Spaniards was planned for the 20th of August, 1896. The plot was discovered by the priest of Binondo, Padre Gil, who learned of the movement through the wife of one of the conspirators, and within a few hours the government had seized several hundred persons who were supposed to be implicated. The arrests included many rich and prominent Filipinos, and at the end of some weeks the Spanish prisons contained over five thousand suspects. Over one thousand of these were almost immediately exiled to far-distant Spanish prisons--Fernando Po, on the west coast of Africa, and the fortress of Ceuta, on the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile the Katipunan was organizing its forces for struggle. On the 26th of August, one thousand insurgents attacked Caloocan, and four days later a pitched battle was fought at San Juan del Monte. In this last fight the insurgents suffered great loss, their leader, Valenzuela, was captured and, with three companions, shot on the Campo de Bagumbayan. The rising continued, however, and the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija were soon in full rebellion. The center of revolt, however, proved to be Cavite, This province was almost immediately cleared of Spaniards, except the long neck of land containing the town of Cavite and protected by the fleet. Here the insurgents received some organization under a young man, who had been prominent in the Katipunan--Emilio Aguinaldo.
The governor-general, Blanco, a humane man, who afterwards for a short time commanded in Cuba, was recalled, and General Polavieja replaced him. The Spanish army at the beginning of the revolt had consisted of but fifteen hundred troops, but so serious was the revolt regarded that Spain, although straining every energy at the moment to end the rebellion in Cuba, strengthened the forces in the Philippines, until Polavieja had an army of twenty-eight thousand Spaniards a.s.sisted by several loyal Filipino regiments. With this army a fierce campaign in Cavite province was conducted, which after fifty-two days' hard fighting ended in the defeat of the insurgents and the scattering of their forces.
Death of Dr. Rizal.--For the moment it looked as though the rebellion might pa.s.s. Then the Spanish government of Polavieja disgraced itself by an act as wanton and cruel as it was inhuman and impolitic.
Four years Dr. Rizal had spent in exile at Dapitan. He had lived quietly and under surveillance, and it was impossible that he could have had any share in this rebellion of 1898. Wearied, however, with his inactivity, he solicited permission to go as an army doctor to the dreadful Spanish hospitals in Cuba. This request was granted in July, and Rizal had the misfortune to arrive in Manila at the very moment of discovery of the rebellion in August. Governor Blanco hastened to send him to Spain with a most kindly letter to the minister of war, in which he vouched for his independence of the events which were taking place in Manila.
His enemies, however, could not see him escape. Their persecution followed him to the Peninsula, and, upon his arrival in Spain, Rizal was at once arrested and sent back to Manila a prisoner. His friend Blanco had gone. Polavieja, the friend and tool of the reactionary party, was busy punis.h.i.+ng by imprisonment, banishment or death all Filipinos who could be shown to have the slightest part or a.s.sociation in the movement for reform. And by this clique Dr. Rizal was sentenced to execution. He was shot early on the morning of December 30, 1896. [94] At his death the insurrection flamed out afresh. It now spread to Pangasinan, Zambales, and Ilocos.
End of the Revolt by Promises of Reform.--Polavieja returned to Spain, and was succeeded by Gen. Primo de Rivera, who arrived in the spring of 1897. The Spanish troops had suffered several recent reverses and the country swarmed with insurgents. The policy of Primo de Rivera was to gain by diplomacy where the energy of his predecessor had failed. In July, 1897, an amnesty proclamation was issued, and in August the governor-general opened negotiations with Aguinaldo, whose headquarters were now in the mountains of Angat in Bulacan. Primo de Rivera urged the home government to make some reforms, which would greatly lessen the political importance of the friars. He was vehemently opposed by the latter, but it was probably upon the promise of reform that Aguinaldo and his fellow-insurgents agreed, for the payment of 1,700,000 pesos, to surrender their arms, dismiss the insurgent forces, and themselves retire from the Islands. This agreement was made, and on December 27, 1897, Aguinaldo left the port of Sual for Hongkong.
The Spanish Misrule Ended.--Conditions in the provinces still continued very unsatisfactory, and in its very last hours the Spanish government lost the remnant of its prestige with the people by a ma.s.sacre in Calle Camba, Binondo, of a company of Bisayan sailors. Ten days after this occurrence a revolt blazed out on the island of Cebu. Had events taken their course, what would have been the final conclusion of the struggle between Spaniards and Filipinos it is impossible to say. On the 25th day of April the United States declared war upon Spain, and the first day of May an American fleet reached Manila harbor, and in the naval fight off Cavite, Spanish dominion, which had lasted with only one brief interruption for 332 years, was broken.
CHAPTER XIII.
AMERICA AND THE PHILIPPINES.