Nevertheless, the great majority of Americans would doubtless have gladly favored a policy similar to that pursued in the case of Cuba, had it seemed in any way practicable.

Unfortunately, however, the Filipinos did not constitute a nation but only a congeries of peoples and tribes of differing race and origin, whom nearly four centuries of Spanish rule had not been able to make live at peace with one another.
Some were Christians, some Mohammedans, some heathen savages; some wore European clothes, some none at all.

The particular tribe which formed the chief support of Aguinaldo, the Tagalogs, comprised less than one half of the population of the island of Luzon.

The United States had taken the islands largely because it did not see any one else to whom it could properly shift the burden.

The shoulders of the Tagalogs did not seem broad enough for the responsibility.
The United States prepared, therefore, to carry on the task which it had assumed, while Aguinaldo, with his army circling Manila, prepared to dispute its title.