A real republic must be founded not upon a few brilliant men to compose the governing group but upon a people trained in self-restraint and accustomed to govern by compromise and concession, not by force.

To endure it must be based upon a solid foundation of self-control, of self-respect and of respect for the rights of others upon the part of the great majority of the common people.

If it is not, the government which follows a period of tumult, confusion and civil war will be a government of the sword.

The record the Philippine republic has left behind it contains nothing to confirm the belief that it would have endured, even in name, if the destinies of the islands had been left in the hands of the men who set it up.
The national assembly met on the appointed day in the parish church of Barasoain, Malolos, which had been set aside for the meetings of congress.

This body probably had then more elected members than at its subsequent meetings, but even so it contained a large number of men who were appointed by Aguinaldo after consultation with his council to represent provinces which they had never even seen.
From a "list of representatives of the provinces and districts, selected by election and appointment by the government up to July 7, 1899, with incomplete list of October 6, 1899" [381] I find that there were 193 members, of whom forty-two were elected and one hundred fifty-one were appointed.