machinery of government in each province for all matters of justice, taxes, and police, an army of some 30,000 men at his beck, and his whole people a unit at his back, Aguinaldo formally inaugurated his permanent government--permanent as opposed to the previous provisional government--with a Constitution, Congress, and Cabinet, patterned after our own, [133] just as the South American republics had done before him when they were freed from Spain, at Malolos, the new capital, on September 15, 1898. The next day, September 16th, at Washington, President McKinley delivered to his Peace Commissioners, then getting ready to start for the Paris Peace Conference, their letter of instructions, directing them to insist on the cession by Spain to the United States of the island of Luzon "at least." [134] In other words, the day after the little Filipino republic, gay with banners and glad with music, started forth on its journey, Mr. McKinley signed its death-warrant. The political student of 1912 may say just here, "Oh, I read all that in the papers at the time, or at least it was all ventilated in the Presidential campaign of 1900." Mr. McKinley's instructions to the Paris Peace Commission were not made public until after the Presidential election of 1900. To be specific, they were first printed and given out to the public in 1901, in Senate Document 148, having been extracted from the jealous custody of the Executive by a Senate resolution. It was not until then that the veil was lifted. By that time, no American who was not transcendental enough to have lost his love for the old maxim, "Right or wrong, my country," cared to hear the details of the story. The Filipinos and "our boys" had been diligently engaged in killing each other for a couple of years, and the American people said, "A truce to scolding; let us finish this war, now we are in it." But to return from the death-warrant of the Philippine republic signed by Mr. McKinley on September 16th, to its christening, or inauguration, the day before. Mr. Millet gives an intensely interesting account of the inaugural ceremonies of September 15th, which as Manila correspondent of the London Times and Harper's Weekly he had the good fortune to witness. Says he: The date was at last * * * fixed for September 15th. A few days before Aguinaldo had made a triumphant entry into Malolos in a carriage drawn by white horses, and there had been a general celebration of his arrival, with speeches, a gala dinner, open air concerts, and a military parade. Mr. Higgins (an Englishman), the manager of the Railway, kindly offered to take me up to Malolos to witness the ceremony of the inauguration of the new government. * * * The only other passenger was to be Aguinaldo's secretary * * * a small boyish-looking young man. * * * [135] It seems there had been a strike of the native employees of the railway up the road.