Note 127 — THE PHILIPPINES, 1860–1898—SOME COMMENT AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Doubtless Rizal felt that his people had made progress toward social independence in the five years that followed, till the Katipunan outbreak came; but he condemned that beforehand as a foolish venture, and reprobated it as harmful to Filipino interests before his death. Though in a sense this was a movement for independence, we have seen that only vague ideas of a political organization were in the minds of the leaders, while the deluded masses who followed them with, for the most part, bolos only, had virtually no idea of such an organization, except that Filipinos should succeed Spaniards.127 The prematurely commenced revolt, as it gained at the outset, some defensive advantages over the bad military organization of Spain, developed ideas and aspirations quite beyond the early crude dreams of its leaders; they were really surprised at their own (temporary) success, and emboldened thereby.128 Even after the loss of Cavite, when the revolutionists were hemmed in and hiding in the Bulakan Mountains, they put forward, in an “Assembly” at Biak-na-bató, a more comprehensive and ambitious political program (a Filipino Republic, in short) than had ever before been drawn up by Filipinos.129 We know also that no small part was played by the “reign of terror” in turning even the moderate Filipinos against Spanish rule as an entirety. We should be far from the truth if we should say that this Tagálog rebellion, and the demonstrations of sympathy with it in other provinces, brought the Filipino people together in a unanimous sentiment for independence. That it did greatly stimulate this feeling is certain. He would be a bold man who would now assert that independence was not the common aspiration, when outside pressure suddenly pricked the bubble of Spanish authority in 1898 and released the people for the free expression of their sentiments. But he is equally bold who asserts that the Filipino people had been suddenly and miraculously transformed into a real nation by these events, or that the Aguinaldo government had the support of or really represented the whole country, above all of the most sober-thinking Filipinos.