Note 23 — Chapter III · Anderson and Aguinaldo

Yet General Anderson’s letter to the Adjutant-General of the army of July 18th23 uses the words “since reading the President’s instructions to General Merritt,” etc., showing that he had a copy of them; and those instructions order and direct (see ante) that as soon as the commanding general of the American troops arrives he is to let the Filipinos know that “the powers of the military occupant are absolute and supreme and immediately operate upon the political condition of the inhabitants.” A charitable view of the matter would be that, technically, those were Merritt’s orders, not Anderson’s. But the whole scheme was to conceal the intention to assume supreme authority and keep Aguinaldo quiet “until,” as General Merritt afterwards expressed it in his report, “I should be in possession of the city of Manila, * * * as I would not until then be in a position to * * * enforce my authority, in the event that his [Aguinaldo’s] pretensions should clash with my designs.”24