We saw above that in a letter written July 21st, the day before the telegram about the "people expect independence," which letter must have reached Washington within thirty days, General Anderson not only notified Washington all about Aguinaldo's government and its pretensions, but stated that at the request of Admiral Dewey he had made no protest against it. [90] Yet straight on through the period of General Merritt's sojourn in the Islands, which began July 25th, and terminated August 29th, we find no protest ordered by Washington, and we further find the purpose of the President as announced in the instructions to Merritt, "The powers of the military occupant are absolute and supreme" throughout the Islands, not only not communicated to the Filipino people, but deliberately suppressed from the proclamation published by General Merritt pursuant to those instructions. [91] Comments and conclusions are usually impertinent and unwelcome save as mere addenda to facts, but in the light of the facts derivable from our own official records, is it any wonder that General Anderson, a gallant veteran of the Civil War, and perhaps the most conspicuous figure of the early fighting in the Philippines, delivered an address some time after he came back home before the Oregon Commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States [92] on the subject, "Should republics have colonies?" and answered the question emphatically "No!" CHAPTER IV MERRITT AND AGUINALDO There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. Julius Caesar, Act IV., Sc. 2. Major-General Wesley Merritt's account of the operations of the troops under his command in the First Expedition to the Philippines may be found in volume i., part 2, War Department Report for 1898. He left San Francisco accompanied by his staff, June 29, 1898, arrived at Cavite, Manila Bay, July 25th, received the surrender of the city of Manila August 13th, and sailed thence August 30th, in obedience to orders from Washington to proceed without unnecessary delay to Paris, France, for conference with the Peace Commissioners. According to General Merritt's report, about the time he arrived Aguinaldo had some 12,000 men under arms, with plenty of ammunition, and a number of field-pieces. The late lamented Frank D. Millet has preserved for us, in his Expedition to the Philippines, some valuable and intimate studies of this army of Filipino besiegers whom our troops found busily at work when they arrived in the Islands: