tic will some day be ashamed to
describe as "buying the inhabitants of the Philippines at two dollars a
head."[12]

[12] There has been so much misconception and misrepresentation
about this payment of twenty millions that the following exact
summary of the facts may be convenient.

When Spain sued for peace in the summer of 1898, she had lost
control of the Philippines, and any means for regaining control.
Her fleet was sunk; her army was cooped up in the capital, under
the guns of the American fleet, and its capture or surrender had
only been delayed till the arrival of reinforcements for the
American Army, because of the fears expressed by foreigners and
the principal residents of Manila that the city might be looted
by natives unless American land forces were at hand in strength
ample to control them. The Spanish army did so surrender, in
fact, shortly after the arrival of these reinforcements, before
the news of the armistice could reach them.

In the protocol granting an armistice, the United States exacted
at once the cession of Porto Rico and an island in the Ladrones,
but reserved the decision as to the control, disposition, and
government of the Philippines for the treaty of peace, apparently
with a view to the possibility of accepting them as further
indemnity for the war.

When the treaty came to be negotiated, the United States required
the cession of the Philippines. Its Peace Commissioners stated
that their Government "felt amply supported in its right to
demand this cession, with or without concessions," added that
"this demand might be limited to the single ground of indemnity,"
and pointed out that it was "not now putting forward any claim
for _pecuniary_ indemnity, to cover the enormous cost of the
war." It accompanied this demand for a transfer of sovereignty
with a stipulation for assuming any existing indebtedness of
Spain incurred for public works and improvements of a pacific
character in the Philippines. The United States thus asserted its
right to the archipelago for indemnity, and at the same time
committed itself to the principle of payment on account of the
Philippine debt.

When it became necessary to put the Philippine case into an
ultimatum, the Peace Commissioners did n