ABSTRACT
From the beginning, the colonialism of the United States was undercut by a strong current of anti-imperialism, and American policy was characterized by a “vacillation in motives and aims almost to the very end of the colonial regime.” By the narrowest of margins the Senate had decided in 1899 to proceed with the annexation of the Philippines, but the nation lacked the will to pay the full cost of complete subjugation of the islands. The possibility of a long, brutal campaign to suppress insurgency, or of extensive commitment of funds and personnel for direct district-by-district American rule of a faraway land did not agree with either the democratic conscience or the budget. By 1899, the United States was already looking for Filipino leaders with whom a modus vivendi could be arranged, a means of saving not only the costs of repression and local administration, but also what was left of her ideals and self-image.
