And yet here in Aguinaldo's own handwriting is the record of the fact that on January 10, 1899, he ordered the murder of the American commander.
"The attack which Aguinaldo was preparing to deliver upon and in Manila was not to be a mere raid such as the bandits of Cavite were in the habit of making upon the defenceless towns.

The plan was a piece of calculated savagery in which murder and outrage were considered means to accomplish a purpose.

The servants were to kill their employers; organized bands, dressed in the dress of civilians, living in the city of Manila under the government of the Americans, in many cases employed by the Americans, were to suddenly fall upon the barracks of the American soldiers and massacre the inmates; all Americans in the streets were to be killed, the city was to be fired and its loot was to be the reward of loyalty to Aguinaldo.

If this plan had been carried out no white man and no white woman would have escaped.

The reinforcements from the United States would have arrived to find only the smoking ruins of Manila.