id not go to Manila to harm the Filipinos who have the
misfortune to become infatuated with the malicious vanity of those
who have surrounded themselves with a cloud of superstition and all
the inventions of falsehood. It was necessary that Americans should
protect themselves, or yield the country to the destructiveness of
barbarism, and they have defended Americanism and civilization.

The dragging of field pieces to bear upon our pickets was with the
purpose of bringing American soldiers into contempt, at once, and
to force fighting ultimately. The poor men who became victims were
deluded and carried their defiance to an intolerable pitch. In the
same style employed when he demanded that General Anderson should
consult him about getting on Philippine soil, Aguinaldo attempted to
intimidate General Otis by inviting a conference, and avowing that he
would make war if any more troops were sent to Manila. He would have
bloodshed, and is responsible for it, so far as he is an accountable
being. It is of the horrors of war that the blood of brave men is
shed on both sides of a controversy that has been appealed to the
arbitrament of arms, though the origin of the affray may be obscure
and the issue uncertain. In the bloodshed around Manila the case is
clear and the conclusion certain, and there is the compensation that
the heroism, enterprise, activity and dash and continuance of the
American soldiers under the most trying circumstances, flame forth,
and the glory of our soldiers is equal to that of our sailors in the
judgment of the men of all nations.

There is something more in this second clash of arms at Manila. It
is difficult to find ground harder to carry in offensive movements
than the sultry thickets in which the Filipinos were hidden, but
our soldiers obeyed all orders to advance with alacrity, energy
and enthusiasm, and were eager for their work. The men who can
do what ours did at Manila can do anything that may rationally be
dared. And in this story of Manila is the testimony that after the
volunteers have been seasoned, they do keep step with the dread music
of war with the regulars of any race or people, and there can be no
national retreat from the duty destiny defines in the Philippines,
any more than from the States of the valley that is the heart of the
country--the valley watered by the Ohio, the noblest river in the
world, that flows westward in the course of empire.

The dispatches of General Otis