Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot

In the Philippine Islands the American Government has tried, and is trying, to carry out exactly what the greatest genius and most revered patriot ever known in the Philippines, José Rizal, steadfastly advocated, —Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, in a public address at Fargo, N. D., April 7, 1903. Philippine Money and Postage Stamps, with the Rizal Portrait Page ii The Portrait of Rizal in 1883 Painted in Oil by Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo. Page iii Lineage Life and Labors of José Rizal Philippine Patriot A Study of the Growth of Free Ideas in the Trans-Pacific American Territory By Austin Craig Assistant Professor Oriental History University of the Philippines Author of “The Study of José Rizal,” “El Lineaje del Doctor Rizal,” Etc. Introduction by James Alexander Robertson, L.H.D. Manila Philippine Education Company 1913 Page iv Page v Dedication To the Philippine Youth The subject of Doctor Rizal’s first prize-winning poem was The Philippine Youth, and its theme was “Growth.” The study of the growth of free ideas, as illustrated in this book of his lineage, life and labors, may therefore fittingly be dedicated to the “fair hope of the fatherland.” Except in the case of some few men of great genius, those who are accustomed to absolutism cannot comprehend democracy. Therefore our nation is relying on its young men and young women; on the rising, instructed generation, for the secure establishment of popular self-government in the Philippines. This was Rizal’s own idea, for he said, through the old philosopher in “Noli me Tangere,” that he was not writing for his own generation but for a coming, instructed generation that would understand his hidden meaning. Your public school education gives you the democratic view-point, which the genius of Rizal gave him; in the fifty-five volumes of the Blair-Robertson translation of Philippine historical material there is available today more about your country’s past than the entire contents of the British Museum afforded him; and you have the guidance in the new paths that Rizal struck out, of the life of a hero who, farsightedly or providentially, as you may later decide, was the forerunner of the present régime. But you will do as he would have done, neither accept anything because it is written, nor reject it because it does not fall in with your prejudices—study out the truth for yourselves. Page vi Introduction In writing a biography, the author,…