misunderstanding with the United States there existed a character that
commanded the admiration of both sides. Rizal's writings revealed to
the Americans aspirations that appealed to them and conditions that
called forth their sympathy, while the Filipinos felt confidence,
for that reason, in the otherwise incomprehensible new government
which honored their hero.

Rizal was already, and had been for years, without rival as the idol
of his countrymen when there came, after deliberation and delay, his
official recognition in the Philippines. Necessarily there had to be
careful study of his life and scrutiny of his writings before the head
of our nation could indorse as the corner stone of the new government
which succeeded Spain's misrule, the very ideas which Spain had
considered a sufficient warrant for shooting their author as a traitor.

Finally the President of the United States in a public address at
Fargo, North Dakota, on April 7, 1903--five years after American
scholars had begun to study Philippine affairs as they had never
been studied before--declared: "In the Philippine Islands the
American government has tried, and is trying, to carry out exactly
what the greatest genius and most revered patriot ever known in the
Philippines, José Rizal, steadfastly advocated," a formal, emphatic
and clear-cut expression of national policy upon a question then of
paramount interest.

In the light of the facts of Philippine history already set forth
there is no cause for wonder at this sweeping indorsement, even
though the views so indorsed were those of a man who lived in
conditions widely different from those about to be introduced by
the new government. Rizal had not allowed bias to influence him in