onal
Government of the United States, shall have no direct administration
except of matters of purely general concern, and shall have only such
supervision and control over local governments as may be necessary to
secure and enforce faithful and efficient administration by local
officers.

The many different degrees of civilization and varieties of custom
and capacity among the people of the different islands preclude very
definite instruction as to the part which the people shall take in the
selection of their own officers; but these general rules are to be
observed: That in all cases the municipal officers who administer the
local affairs of the people, are to be selected by the people, and that
wherever officers of more extended jurisdiction are to be selected in
any way, natives of the islands are to be preferred, and if they can be
found competent and willing to perform the duties, they are to receive
the offices in preference to any others.

It will be necessary to fill some offices for the present with Americans
which after a time may well be filled by natives of the islands. As
soon as practicable a system for ascertaining the merit and fitness of
candidates for civil office should be put in force. An indispensable
qualification for all offices and positions of trust and authority in
the islands must be absolute and unconditional loyalty to the United
States, and absolute and unhampered authority and power to remove and
punish any officer deviating from that standard must at all times be
retained in the hands of the central authority of the islands.

In all the forms of government and administrative provisions which
they are authorized to prescribe the Commission should bear in mind
that the government which they are establishing is designed not for our
satisfaction, or for the expression of our theoretical views, but for
the happiness, peace, and prosperity of the people of the Philippine
Islands, and the measures adopted should be made to conform to their
customs, their habits, and even their prejudices, to the fullest extent
consistent with the accomplishment of the indispensable requisites of
just and effective government.

At the same time the Commission should bear in mind, and the people
of the islands should be made plainly to understand, that there are
certain great principles of government which have been made the basis
of ou