sumptuous and admired, where they adore the same God of the Sinai and
Golgotha, where severs and ostensive cult is rendered to Immaculate
Virgin Mary and to the Saints you have on your altars and none dare
to destroy, attack or prostitute them.

"There then are seminaries, convents, missions, fraternities, schools,
everything Catholic, richly furnished, well kept up and perfectly
managed to the glory of the religion.

"There resides His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, a wise Roman Catholic
prelate, American citizen, who recently and on occasion of the
present war, has ordered, with consent of His Sanctity, that all
the catholic clergy of the American nation raise daily prayers to
the Most High to obtain the triumph of the arms of their country,
for the good of religion and humanity, which cause, in the present
conflict legitimately and unquestionably represents that government.

"And just as Christ, to be Messiah, had to be according to the
prophecies, Jew and of the Tribe of Judah, that is: By right of his
political fatherland, as by that of his native soil, of the chosen
people, thus amongst you who ever wants to be a clergyman or merit
being canon, dignitary, provisor, bishop, archbishop and cardinal,
must as an indispensable condition, have been born on your proper
soil, as is occurring absolutely in all the civilized nations of the
old and new world, with the only exception of the Philippines.

"There may be priests, religious congregations, nuns and convents, but
submissive to the laws of the country and obliged to admit in their
bosom as formerly happened in these isles, as estimable and superior
members of such institutions, those feel a vocation for a conventual
life, as the noble and generous people of North America will demand,
and will, do not doubt it, recognize these your legitimate rights.

_Filipinos and Countrymen._

"The protection of the great American Republic will make you respected
and considered before the cultured powers, legitimately constituted;
and your personality will be proclaimed and sanctioned everywhere.

"We have the duty to exact the rights we have just proclaimed and the
'natives' in all the isles and in all their different races, as well
as the 'Mestizo Sangley,' as the 'Mestizo Espanol,' and the 'Son of
the Country,' we all have the honorable duty of defending ourselves
against the whip and the contempt of the Spaniards, accepting the
protection and direction of the humane