It was realized, however, that the establishment of a permanent peace must rest upon an appeal to the good will and self-interest of the natives.

The treatment of the conquered territories, therefore, was a matter of the highest concern not only with reference to the public opinion at home but to the lasting success of the military operations which had just been concluded.
There was as yet no law in the United States relating to the government of dependencies.

The entire control of the islands therefore rested, in the first instance, with the President and was vested by him, subject to instructions, in the Military Governor.

The army fortunately reflected fully the democratic tendencies of the United States as a whole.

In June, 1899, General Lawton encouraged and assisted the natives in setting up in their villages governing bodies of their own selection.
In August, he issued a general order, based upon a law of the islands, providing for a general system of local government into which there was introduced for the first time the element of really popular election.
In 1900, a new code of criminal procedure, largely the work of Enoch Herbert Crowder, at that time Military Secretary, was promulgated, which surrounded the accused with practically all the safeguards to which the Anglo-Saxon is accustomed except jury trial, for which the people were unprepared.
To advise with regard to a permanent system of government for the Philippines President McKinley appointed in January, 1899, a commission consisting of Jacob G.Schurman, President of Cornell University, Dean C.Worcester, who had long been engaged in scientific research in the Philippines, Colonel Charles Denby, for many years previously minister to China, Admiral Dewey, and General E.S.Otis.