The acts of cruelty which were
brought to my notice were hardly credible. I sent word to Aguinaldo
that he must treat his prisoners kindly, and he said he would."
I believe that I have fully demonstrated the truth of these
statements. Blount was thoroughly familiar with Dewey's testimony
before the Senate Committee, in which they occur, but he did not
mention them.
I cannot close this discussion of Insurgent rule without quoting
extracts from a remarkable document written by Isabelo Artacho
in October, [347] 1899. It was entitled "Declaration Letter and
Proclamation" and was addressed to the Filipino people. While it is
probable that Artacho was impelled to tell the truth by his hatred for
Aguinaldo, tell the truth he did, and his rank and standing entitle
his statements to consideration:--
"Study the work of the insurrection; see if it is, as is said, the
faithful interpretation of your wishes and desires.
"Go through your towns, fields, and mountains. Wherever you see an
insurgent gun or bolo you will find girls and faithful wives violated,
parents and brothers crying for the murder of a son or of a brother;
honest families robbed and in misery; villages burned and plundered
for the benefit of a chief or a General; you will see fresh and living
signs yet of those horrible crimes perpetrated with the greatest
cynicism by those who call themselves your liberators! Liberators
because they wear red pants, or a red shirt, or carry on their hats
a piece of red cloth or a triangular figure!
"Here, a president stabs a man, perhaps the most honest of the village,
simply for having implored mercy for a creature arbitrarily inflicted
with the _cepo_ [an oblong square piece of heavy wood divided into two
parts, with a lock at each end and six or more holes in the middle
to confine the feet of prisoners]; there, a dying man, suspended
by the feet in a _cepo_, raised from the level of the ground, by
another president who has charged him with an unproved crime; there
a poor woman falsely charged and driven by petty officers with their
bayonets for having objected to their invasion into her house, or shop,
they being supposed to be, each, Justice itself, '_Justicia_,' and to
be obeyed as images of the Gods; there, generals who murder without
fear, for an insignificant motive, creatures whose members are being
mutilated, or their flesh cut in slices and afterwards roasted and
given them to eat; there, officers braining a girl who has refused
to accede to their sensual wishes, the lifeless body of the victim,
pierced with shots, after having been made use of, is thrown into the
river.
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