Page:American Boy's Life of William McKinley.djvu/301

Rh exact words, but it was what he meant and the policy which he carried out to the letter.

President McKinley had appointed a Philippine Commission to go to Manila and deal with the Philippine question as justly and humanely as possible. This commission now issued a proclamation calling on the rebels to surrender and promising them the many good things enumerated above. But many of the more ignorant could not read the proclamation after they received it, and some of the leaders went among the people and said it was merely a Yankee trick, and that if they submitted they would be treated worse than when under Spanish rule. So the proclamation did little good, and the war went on, laying the country waste for miles around and involving the continued loss of brave lives.

One of the most gallant fighters in the Philippines at this time was Major-general Henry W. Lawton, who had made for himself such a record at the battle of El Caney. Lawton was a veteran of the Civil War, and had spent years in tracking the Indians of the West. He was fearless to the last