Chapter 27Four days before Christmas, President McKinley
confirmed the worst fears of the Filipino people, when he issued
something he called the Proclamation of Benevolent
Assimilation. In it, he declared that the U.S. should annex
the Philippines “with all possible dispatch” by using military
force if necessary.
The proclamation came on the heels of
testimony before Congress by Brigadier General Robert Hughes,
General Otis’s chief of staff. Hughes told members of Congress that
Filipinos who wanted freedom had “no more idea of its meaning than
a shepherd dog.”
McKinley’s proclamation insisted that the
U.S. acquisition of the Philippines was based on altruism. America
came to the Philippines “not as invaders or conquerors, but as
friends, to protect the natives in their homes
