St.Clair wrote him a letter taking him roundly to task for this claim, in the following very interesting terms:-- "I felt it to be my duty to let Pratt know that you still hold that you and Santos have evidence that will controvert his, (and) he was, of course, extremely disappointed, because he (is) quite aware of what took place in Spanish, and as to turning of his conversation into a pretense of agreement he knows nothing.

He says very truly: 'My own party, the Democrats, will say if they read this book--If this man takes it upon himself to be a Plenipotentiary without authority, we had better not employ him any more--I frankly cannot understand your action, as to its unwisdom I have no doubt at all.' "Admiral Dewey goes home, it is believed, to advise the President on Naval and Colonial Affairs, he knows exactly what did take place and what did not, and I should know if he had any ground to think that the slightest promise was made by Pratt to Aguinaldo he would declare it unauthorized and decline to sanction it.

I am certain Pratt reported what he supposed took place accurately; he had no surety on what you might have said, naturally.
"And, curiously, you never mentioned to me anything of the agreement as having taken place then, nor in the paper you communicated to me was there any mention of one, nor did Pratt know of any.

It is only more recently that the fiction took shape.

'The wish father to the thought,' or the statement repeated till it has become believed by the--, [37] this is common.
"Now I would like to urge you, from the practical point of view, to drop any such foolishness.