eaching sweep of the policies that
will be evolved. I have had such advantages in the assurance of the
authenticity of the information set forth in the chapters following,
that I may be permitted to name those it was my good fortune to consult
with instructive results; and in making the acknowledgments due. I
may be privileged to support the claim of diligence and success in
the investigations made, and that I am warranted in the issue of this
Story of the Philippines by the assiduous improvement of an uncommon
opportunity to fit myself to serve the country.

Indebtedness for kind consideration in this work is gratefully
acknowledged to Major-General Merritt, commanding the Philippine
Expedition; Major-General Otis, who succeeds to the duties of
military and civil administration in the conquered capital of the
islands; Admiral George Dewey, who improved, with statesmanship,
his unparalleled victory in the first week of the war with Spain,
and raised the immense questions before us; General F.V. Greene,
the historian of the Russo-Turkish war, called by the President to
Washington, and for whose contributions to the public intelligence
he receives the hearty approval and confidence of the people; Major
Bell, the vigilant and efficient head of the Bureau of Information
at the headquarters of the American occupation in the Philippines;
General Aguinaldo, the leader of the insurgents of his race in Luzon,
and His Grace the Archbishop of Manila, who gave me a message for the
United States, expressing his appreciation of the excellence of the
behavior of the American army in the enforcement of order, giving peace
of mind to the residents in the distracted city of all persuasions
and conditions, and of the service that was done civilization in the
prevention, by our arms, of threatened barbarities that had caused
sore apprehension; and, I may add, the Commissioner of the Organized
People of the Philippines, dispatched to Washington accompanying
General Greene; and of the citizens of Manila of high character,
and conductors of business enterprises with plants in the community
whose destiny is in the hands of strangers.

These gentlemen I may not name, for there are uncertainties that
demand of them and command me to respect the prudence of their
inconspicuity. This volume seems to me to be justified, and I have no
further claim to offer that it is meritorious than that it is faithful
to facts and true to the country in advocac