Emilio Aguinaldo

“ And it could not be otherwise; a people which has given proofs of valor and long suffering in time of trouble and danger, and of industry and diligence in time of peace, is not intended for slavery; such a people is called to be great, to be one of the strongest arms of Providence to direct the destinies of humanity; such a people has sufficient resources and energy to free itself from the ruin and annihilation into which the Spanish Government has plunged it, and to claim a modest but honorable seat in the concert of free nations. ”

“ If it is true—and it is true—that a political revolution, well conceived, is the violent means which a people employs in order to recover the sovereignty which naturally belongs to it and which has been usurped and trampled upon by a tyrannical and arbitrary government, then the Philippine revolution could not have been more just, for the people have had recourse to it after exhausting all peaceful means counseled by reason and experience. ”

“ Taking reason as the only guide for their actions, justice as the only end, and honorable work as the only means, they call upon on all their Philippine sons, without distinction of class, to unite firmly together for the purpose of forming a society of nobility, not nobility of birth or pompous titles, but work and personal merit of each one—a free society where there shall be no egotism and personal politics that crush and annihilate, no envy and favoritism that debase, no bragging and charlatanry that make ridiculous. ”