John R. M. Taylor
Encyclopedia
John Roger Meigs Taylor was a captain of the US 14th Infantry. He was placed in charge of what became known as the Philippine Insurgent Records. That is, the collection of documents seized from Philippine revolutionaries during the Philippine-American war
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Taylor was a West Point graduate of 1889 and served in the Boxer Rebellion
in China in 1899. Subsequently he was transferred to the Philippines
in the same year. General Elwell Otis, Military Governor of the Philippines, instructed him to collate original documents captured from "insurgents' and to translate them for the US War Department and the US Senate.
where he supervised the filing, selection and translation of a representation of some of the 200,000 documents. For 5 years Taylor supervised the transcription and translation (from Spanish or Tagalog) of these pre-selected documents in order to present what he claimed would be a "truthful version" of the Philippine revolution and the subsequent war between the Philippine revolutionaries and the American colonialists.
Taylor ordered the Government Printing Office to typeset galley proofs, with two volumes dedicated to his analytical history of US-Philippine relations and three other volumes containing 1,340 supporting papers of original documents. Then Secretary of War William Howard Taft
decided to defer its publication for fear of antagonizing both Americans and Filipinos. In 1909 a second attempt was made to publish the volumes when President Taft's former secretary Jame LeRoy wrote a scathing critique objecting to its publication. The Bureau of Insular Affairs then abandoned the project. It was subsequently published in the Philippines in 1968 by the Eugenio Lopez Foundation.
John R. M. Taylor was not shy in stating his opinions. "The mass of the people of the Philippines--the men who work and have no desire to live from contributions levied upon their neighbors--welcomed the crushing of the Katipunan." Also more damaging: "The government which Aguinaldo established did not represent the aspirations of the men who were bet entitled to be consulted. He played upon his people as an instrument... he deceived the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Filipinos in Hong Kong alive; fraud and murder were the instruments upon which he relied to cut out the path for his ambition."
In the 1968 foreword to the publication of John Taylor's magnum opus, historian Renato Constantino
wrote that notwithstanding the openly anti-Filipino bias, the collection of original documents itself would "make available to Philippine scholars a part of the voluminous file of original documents of the Philippine Revolution."
In June 2007 Filipiniana.net, a "digital library" website of material related to the Philippines, published a "Virtual Philippine Revolutionary Records" web page.
Philippine-American War
The Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine War of Independence or the Philippine Insurrection , was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the United States which arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following...
.
Taylor was a West Point graduate of 1889 and served in the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
in China in 1899. Subsequently he was transferred to the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
in the same year. General Elwell Otis, Military Governor of the Philippines, instructed him to collate original documents captured from "insurgents' and to translate them for the US War Department and the US Senate.
The "Insurgent Papers"
In 1901 he returned to the US and was detailed to the Bureau of Insular AffairsBureau of Insular Affairs
The Bureau of Insular Affairs was a division of the United States War Department that oversaw United States administration of certain territories from 1902 until 1939....
where he supervised the filing, selection and translation of a representation of some of the 200,000 documents. For 5 years Taylor supervised the transcription and translation (from Spanish or Tagalog) of these pre-selected documents in order to present what he claimed would be a "truthful version" of the Philippine revolution and the subsequent war between the Philippine revolutionaries and the American colonialists.
Taylor ordered the Government Printing Office to typeset galley proofs, with two volumes dedicated to his analytical history of US-Philippine relations and three other volumes containing 1,340 supporting papers of original documents. Then Secretary of War William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
decided to defer its publication for fear of antagonizing both Americans and Filipinos. In 1909 a second attempt was made to publish the volumes when President Taft's former secretary Jame LeRoy wrote a scathing critique objecting to its publication. The Bureau of Insular Affairs then abandoned the project. It was subsequently published in the Philippines in 1968 by the Eugenio Lopez Foundation.
John R. M. Taylor was not shy in stating his opinions. "The mass of the people of the Philippines--the men who work and have no desire to live from contributions levied upon their neighbors--welcomed the crushing of the Katipunan." Also more damaging: "The government which Aguinaldo established did not represent the aspirations of the men who were bet entitled to be consulted. He played upon his people as an instrument... he deceived the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Filipinos in Hong Kong alive; fraud and murder were the instruments upon which he relied to cut out the path for his ambition."
In the 1968 foreword to the publication of John Taylor's magnum opus, historian Renato Constantino
Renato Constantino
Renato Constantino was an influential Filipino historian. He was a known leftist historian of the Philippines. He is the father-in-law of political commentator Randy David.-Works:*The Philippines: A Past Revisited...
wrote that notwithstanding the openly anti-Filipino bias, the collection of original documents itself would "make available to Philippine scholars a part of the voluminous file of original documents of the Philippine Revolution."
Re-evaluation
In 2002 American historian John M. Gates (College of Wooster, Ohio) wrote: "Capt. Taylor paid a severe penalty for his attempt to write the history of a highly controversial event. A victim of political censorship, he died never knowing how important his work would become to a future generation of scholars."In June 2007 Filipiniana.net, a "digital library" website of material related to the Philippines, published a "Virtual Philippine Revolutionary Records" web page.