PROCLAMATIONS. (continued 2)

The President thanks the officers and enlisted men of the army in the Philippines, both regulars and volunteers, for the courage and fortitude, the indomitable spirit and loyal devotion with which they have put down and ended the great insurrection which has raged throughout the archipelago against the lawful sovereignty and just authority of the United States. The task was peculiarly difficult and trying. They were required at first to overcome organized resistance of superior numbers, well equipped with modern arms of precision, intrenched in an unknown country of mountain defiles, jungles, and swamps, apparently capable of interminable defense. When this resistance had been overcome they were required to crush out a general system of guerrilla warfare conducted among a people speaking unknown tongues, from whom it was almost impossible to obtain the information necessary for successful pursuit or to guard against surprise and ambush.

The enemies by whom they were surrounded were regardless of all obligations of good faith and of all the limitations which humanity has imposed upon civilized warfare. Bound themselves by the laws of war, our soldiers were called upon to meet every device of unscrupulous treachery and to contemplate without reprisal the infliction of barbarous cruelties upon their comrades and friendly natives. They were instructed, while punishing armed resistance, to conciliate the friendship of the peaceful, yet had to do with a population among whom it was impossible to distinguish friend from foe, and who in countless instances used a false appearance of friendship for ambush and assassination. They were obliged to deal with problems of communication and transportation in a country without roads and frequently made impassable by torrential rains. They were weakened by tropical heat and tropical disease. Widely scattered over a great archipelago, extending a thousand miles from north to south, the gravest responsibilities, involving the life or death of their comrades, frequently devolved upon young and inexperienced officers beyond the reach of specific orders or advice.

Under all these adverse circumstances the army of the Philippines has accomplished its task rapidly and completely. In more than two thousand combats, great and small, within three years, it has exhibited unvarying courage and resolution. Utilizing the lessons of the Indian wars it has relentlessly followed the guerrilla bands to their fastness in mountain and jungle, and crushed them. It has put an end to the vast system of intimidation and secret assassination, by which the peaceful natives were prevented from taking a genuine part in government under American authority. It has captured or forced to surrender substantially all the leaders of the insurrection. It has submitted to no discouragement and halted at no obstacle. Its officers have shown high qualities of command, and its men have shown devotion and discipline. Its splendid virile energy has been accompanied by self-control, patience, and magnanimity.

With surprisingly few individual exceptions its course has been characterized by humanity and kindness to the prisoner and the non-combatant. With admirable good temper, sympathy, and loyalty to American ideals its commanding generals have joined with the civilian agents of the government in healing the wounds of war and assuring to the people of the Philippines the blessings of peace and prosperity. Individual liberty, protection of personal rights, civil order, public instruction and religious freedom have followed its footsteps. It has added honor to the flag, which it defended, and has justified increased confidence in the future of the American people, whose soldiers do not shrink from labor or death, yet love liberty and peace.

The President feels that he expresses the sentiments of all the loyal people of the United States in doing honor to the whole army which has joined in the performance and shares in the credit of these honorable services.

This general order will be read aloud at parade in every military post on the 4th day of July, 1902, or on the first day after it shall have been received.

ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of War.

By command of Lieutenant-General Miles:

H.C. CORBIN, Adjutant-General, Major-General, U.S.A.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas The Medicine Bow Forest Reserve, in the State of Wyoming, was established by proclamation dated May 22, 1902, under and by virtue of section twenty-four of the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891, entitled "An act to repeal timber-culture laws, and for other purposes," which provides "That the President of the United States may, from time to time, set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commercial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations and the limits thereof;"

And whereas it is further provided by the act of Congress approved June 4, 1897, entitled "An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1898, and for other purposes," that "The President is hereby authorized at any time to modify any executive order that has been or may hereafter be made establishing any forest reserve, and by such modification may reduce the area or change the boundary lines of such reserve, or may vacate altogether any order creating such reserve;"

And whereas the public lands in the State of Wyoming, within the limits hereinafter described, are in part covered with timber, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by setting apart and reserving said lands as a public reservation;

Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me by the aforesaid act of Congress approved June 4, 1897, do hereby make known and proclaim that the boundary lines of the aforesaid Medicine Bow Forest Reserve are hereby changed so as to read as follows:

Beginning at the northwest corner of township seventeen (17) north, range eighty-one (81) west, sixth (6th) Principal Meridian, Wyoming; thence easterly to the northeast corner of said township; thence southerly to the northwest corner of section thirty (30), township seventeen (17) north, range eighty (80) west; thence easterly along the section lines to the northeast corner of section twenty-five (25), said township; thence northerly to the northwest corner of township seventeen (17) north, range seventy-nine (79) west; thence easterly along the township line to the northeast corner of section five (5), township seventeen (17) north, range seventy-eight (78) west; thence southerly along the section lines, allowing for the proper offset on the fourth (4th) Standard Parallel north, to the southeast corner of section thirty-two (32), township fourteen (14) north, range seventy-eight (78) west; thence easterly along the township line to the northeast corner of section four (4), township thirteen (13) north, range seventy-seven (77) west; thence southerly along the section lines, allowing for the proper offset on the third (3d) Standard Parallel north, to the point of intersection with the boundary line between the States of Wyoming and Colorado; thence westerly along said state boundary line to the point of intersection with the range line between ranges eighty (80) and eighty-one (81) west; thence northerly along said range line, allowing for the proper offset on the third (3d) Standard Parallel north, to the southeast corner of township fourteen (14) north, range eighty-one (81) west; thence westerly to the southwest corner of said township; thence northerly along the range line, allowing for the proper offset on the fourth (4th) Standard Parallel north, to the northwest corner of township seventeen (17) north, range eighty-one (81) west, the place of beginning.

Excepting from the force and effect of this proclamation all lands which may have been, prior to the date hereof, embraced in any legal entry or covered by any lawful filing duly of record in the proper United States Land Office, or upon which any valid settlement has been made pursuant to law, and the statutory period within which to make entry or filing of record has not expired: Provided, that this exception shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entryman, settler, or claimant continues to comply with the law under which the entry, filing, or settlement was made.

Warning is hereby expressly given to all persons not to make settlement upon the lands reserved by this proclamation.

The lands hereby excluded from the said reserve and restored to the public domain shall be open to settlement from date hereof, but shall not be subject to entry, filing, or selection until after ninety days' notice by such publication as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this sixteenth day of July, A.D. 1902, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-seventh.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the President: JOHN HAY, Secretary of State.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the act of Congress entitled, "An act to ratify and confirm a supplemental agreement with the Creek tribe of Indians, and for other purposes," approved on the thirtieth day of June, 1902, contains a provision as follows:

That the following supplemental agreement, submitted by certain commissioners of the Creek tribe of Indians, as herein amended, is hereby ratified and confirmed on the part of the United States, and the same shall be of full force and effect if ratified by the Creek tribal council on or before the first day of September, nineteen hundred and two, * * *

And whereas the principal chief of the said tribe has transmitted to me an act of the Creek national council entitled, "An act to ratify and confirm a supplemental agreement with the United States" approved the twenty-sixth day of July, 1902, which contains a provision as follows:

That the following supplemental agreement by and between the United States and the Muskogee (or Creek) Tribe of Indians, in Indian Territory, ratified and confirmed on the part of the United States by act of Congress approved June 30, 1902 (Public—No. 200.), is hereby confirmed on the part of the Muskogee (or Creek) Nation, * * *

And whereas paragraph twenty-two provides as follows:

The principal chief, as soon as practicable after the ratification of this agreement by Congress, shall call an extra session of the Creek Nation council and submit this agreement, as ratified by Congress, to such council for its consideration, and if the agreement be ratified by the National council, as provided in the constitution of the tribe, the principal chief shall transmit to the President of the United States a certified copy of the act of the council ratifying the agreement, and thereupon the President shall issue his proclamation making public announcement of such ratification, thenceforward all the provisions of this agreement shall have the force and effect of law.

Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby declare said agreement duly ratified and that all the provisions thereof became law according to the terms thereof upon the twenty-sixth day of July, 1902.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this eighth day of August, A.D. 1902, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-sixth.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

By the President: ALVEY A. ADEE, Acting Secretary of State.