Emilio Aguinaldo's message on June 23, 1898

by Emilio Aguinaldo

If it is true—and it is true—that a political revolution, well conceived, is the violent means which a people employs in order to recover the sovereignty which naturally belongs to it and which has been usurped and trampled upon by a tyrannical and arbitrary government, then the Philippine revolution could not have been more just, for the people have had recourse to it after exhausting all peaceful means counseled by reason and experience.

The former Kings of Castile bound themselves to regard the Philippines as a sister nation, associated with Spain in perfect unison of views and interests, and by the constitution of 1812, promulgated at Cadiz on the occasion of the war of Spanish independence, these islands were represented in the Spanish Cortes; but the interests of the monastic corporations, which have always met with unconditional support from the Spanish Government, have take from them this sacred duty, and the Philippines have been excluded from the Spanish constitution and the people left to the mercy of the discretionary and arbitrary powers of the general government.

Under such circumstances the people clamored for justice, and asked of the mother country the recognition and restitution of their secular rights by means of reforms which would gradually assimilate them with Spain. But their voices were promptly drowned and the reward of their abnegation was exile, martyrdom, and death. The religious corporations, with whose interests—always opposed to those of the Philippine people—the Spanish Government has identified itself, jeered at these claims and answered, with the knowledge and consent of that same Government, that the liberty of Spain had cost blood.

What other recourse was there left to the people to recover their lost rights? They had no other means but force, and, convinced of this, they have had recourse to the revolution.

And now they no longer limit their claims to the assimilation with the political constitution of Spain, but ask for definite separation from her; they are fighting for their independence, firmly convinced that the time has come when they can and must govern themselves.

So they have constituted a revolutionary government, based upon wise and just laws, adapted to the abnormal conditions through which they are passing, and at the same time preparing them to become a true republic. Taking reason as the only guide for their actions, justice as the only end, and honorable work as the only means, they call upon on all their Philippine sons, without distinction of class, to unite firmly together for the purpose of forming a society of nobility, not nobility of birth or pompous titles, but work and personal merit of each one—a free society where there shall be no egotism and personal politics that crush and annihilate, no envy and favoritism that debase, no bragging and charlatanry that make ridiculous.

And it could not be otherwise; a people which has given proofs of valor and long suffering in time of trouble and danger, and of industry and diligence in time of peace, is not intended for slavery; such a people is called to be great, to be one of the strongest arms of Providence to direct the destinies of humanity; such a people has sufficient resources and energy to free itself from the ruin and annihilation into which the Spanish Government has plunged it, and to claim a modest but honorable seat in the concert of free nations.

Given at Cavite, June 23, 1898.

EMILIO AGUINALDO.

Source: Communications Between the Executive Departments of the Government and Aguinaldo, Etc.. Washington. United States Senate. 1900. pp. 94–95.