Islands], and to secure with the least possible delay the
benefits of a wise and generous protection of life and
property, I have named Jacob G. Schurman, Rear-Admiral
George Dewey, Major-General Elwell S. Otis, Charles Denby,
and Dean C. Worcester to constitute a Commission to aid in
the accomplishment of these results....

"The Commissioners will endeavor,... to ascertain what
amelioration in the condition of the inhabitants and what
improvements in public order may be practicable, and for
this purpose they will study attentively the existing social
and political state of the various populations particularly
as regards the forms of local government, the administration
of justice, the collection of customs and other taxes, the
means of transportation and the need of public improvements.

"They will report to the State Department according to the
forms customary or hereafter prescribed for transmitting and
preserving such communications, the results of their
observations and reflections, and will recommend such
Executive action as may from time to time seem to them wise
and useful....

"It is my desire that in all their relations with the
inhabitants of the Islands the Commissioners exercise due
respect for all the ideals, customs, and institutions of the
tribes and races which compose the population, emphasizing
upon all occasions the just and beneficent intentions of the
Government of the United States.'