Lineage, Life and Labors of José Rizal, Philippine Patriot
changes which would avoid them; the residents of less worldly wise
communities would wait and suffer till too late, and then in blind
wrath would wreak bloody vengeance upon guilty and innocent alike.
Kalamba, a near neighbor of Binan, had other reasons for being known
besides its confiscation by the government. It was the scene of an
early and especially cruel massacre of Chinese, and about Francisco's
time considerable talk had been occasioned because an archbishop had
established an uniform scale of charges for the various rites of the
Church. While these charges were often complained of, it was the poorer
people (some of whom were in receipt of charity) who suffered. The
rich were seeking more expensive ceremonies in order to outshine the
other well-to-do people of their neighborhood. The real grievance was,
however, not the cost, but the fact that political discriminations
were made so that those who were out of favor with the government
were likewise deprived of church privileges. The reform of Archbishop
Santo y Rufino has importance only because it gave the people of the
provinces what Manila had long possessed--a knowledge of the rivalry
between the secular and the regular clergy.
The people had learned in Governor Bustamente's time that Church and
State did not always agree, and now they saw dissensions within the
Church. The Spanish Conquest and the possession of the Philippines
had been made easy by the doctrine of the indivisibility of Church
and State, by the teaching that the two were one and inseparable,
but events were continually demonstrating the falsity of this early
teaching. Hence the foundation of the sovereignty of Spain was
slowly weakening, and nowhere more surely than in the region near
Manila which numbered Jose Rizal's keen-witted and observing great
grandfather among its leading men.
Francisco Mercado was a bachelor during the times of these exciting
events and therefore more free to visit Manila and Cavite, and he was
possibly the more likely to be interested in political matters. He
married on May 26, 1771, rather later in life than was customary in
Binan, though he was by no means as old as his father, Domingo, was
when he married. His bride, Bernarda Monicha, was a Chinese mestiza
of the neighboring hacienda of San Pedro Tunasan, who had been early
orphaned and from childhood had lived in Binan. As the coadjutor priest
of the parish bore the same name, one uncommon in the Binan records
of that period, it is possible that he was a relative. The frequent
occurrence of the name of Monicha among the last names of girls of
that vicinity later on must be ascribed to Bernarda's popularity
as godmother.
Mr. and Mrs. Francisco Mercado had two children, both boys, Juan and
Clemente. During their youth the people of the Philippines were greatly
interested in the struggles going on between England, the old enemy
of Spain, and the rebellious English-American colonies. So bitter was
the Spanish hatred of the nation which had humiliated her repeatedly
on both land and sea, that the authorities forgot their customary
caution and encouraged the circulation of any story that told in favor
of the American colonies. Little did they realize the impression that
the statement of grievances--so trivial compared with the injustices
that were being inflicted upon the Spanish colonials--was making upon
their subjects overseas, who until then had been carefully guarded from
all modern ideas of government. American successes were hailed with
enthusiasm in the most remote towns, and from this time may be dated
a perceptible increase in Philippine discontent. Till then outbreaks
and uprisings had been more for revenge than with any well-considered
aim, but henceforth complaints became definite, demands were made
that to an increasing number of people appeared to be reasonable,
and those demands were denied or ignored, or promises were made in
answer to them which were never fulfilled.
Francisco Mercado was well to do, if we may judge from the number of
carabaos he presented for registration, for his was among the largest
herds in the book of brands that has chanced to be preserved with the
Binan church records. In 1783 he was alcalde, or chief officer of the
town, and he lived till 1801. His name appears so often as godfather
in the registers of baptisms and weddings that he must have been a
good-natured, liberal and popular man.
Mrs. Francisco Mercado survived her husband by a number of years,
and helped to nurse through his baby ailments a grandson also named
Francisco, the father of Doctor Rizal.
Francisco Mercado's eldest son, Juan, built a fine house in the center
of Binan, where its pretentious stone foundations yet stand to attest
how the home deserved the pride which the family took in it.
At twenty-two Juan married a girl of Tubigan, who was two years his
elder, Cirila Alejandra, daughter of Domingo Lam-co's Chinese godson,
Siong-co. Cirila's father's silken garments were preserved by the
family until within the memory of persons now living, and it is likely
that Jose Rizal, Siong-co's great-grandson, while in school at Binan,
saw these tangible proofs of the social standing in China of this
one of his ancestors.
Juan Mercado was three times the chief officer of Binan--in 1808, 1813
and 1823. His sympathies are evident from the fact that he gave the
second name, Fernando, to the son born when the French were trying
to get the Filipinos to declare for King Joseph, whom his brother
Napoleon had named sovereign of Spain. During the little while that the
Philippines profited by the first constitution of Spain, Mercado was
one of the two alcaldes. King Ferdinand VII then was relying on English
aid, and to please his allies as well as to secure the loyalty of his
subjects, Ferdinand pretended to be a very liberal monarch, swearing
to uphold the constitution which the representatives of the people
had framed at Cadiz in 1812. Under this constitution the Filipinos
were to be represented in the Spanish Cortes, and the grandfather of
Rizal was one of the electors to choose the Representative.
During the next twenty-five years the history of the connection of the
Philippines with Spain is mainly a record of the breaking and renewing
of the King's oaths to the constitution, and of the Philippines
electing delegates who would find the Cortes dissolved by the time
they could get to Madrid, until in the final constitution that did
last Philippine representation was left out altogether. Had things
been different the sad story of this book might never have been told,
for though the misgovernment of the Philippines was originally owing
to the disregard for the Laws of the Indies and to giving unrestrained
power to officials, the effects of these mistakes were not apparent
until well into the nineteenth century.
Another influence which educated the Filipino people was at work during
this period. They had heard the American Revolution extolled and its
course approved, because the Spaniards disliked England. Then came
the French Revolution, which appalled the civilized world. A people,
ignorant and oppressed, washed out in blood the wrongs which they had
suffered, but their liberty degenerated into license, their ideals
proved impracticable, and the anarchy of their radical republic was
succeeded by the military despotism of Napoleon.
A book written in Tagalog by a friar pointed out the differences
between true liberty and false. It was the story of an old municipal
captain who had traveled and returned to enlighten his friends at
home. The story was well told, and the catechism form in which, by
his friends' questions and the answers to them, the author's opinions
were presented, was familiar to Filipinos, so that there were many
intelligent readers, but its results were quite different from what
its pious and patriotic author had intended they should be.
The book told of the broadening influences of travel and of education;
it suggested that liberty was possible only for the intelligent, but
that schools, newspapers, libraries and the means of travel which the
American colonists were enjoying were not provided for the Filipinos.
They were further told that the Spanish colonies in America were
repeating the unhappy experiences of the French republic, while
the "English North Americans," whose ships during the American
Revolution had found the Pacific a safe refuge from England,
had developed considerable commerce with the Philippines. A kindly
feeling toward the Americans had been aroused by the praise given to
Filipino mechanics who had been trained by an American naval officer
to repair his ship when the Spaniards at the government dockyards
proved incapable of doing the work. Even the first American Consul,
whose monument yet remains in the Plaza Cervantes, Manila, though,
because of his faith, he could not be buried in the consecrated ground
of the Catholic cemeteries, received what would appear to be a higher
honor, a grave in the principal business plaza of the city.
The inferences were irresistible: the way of the French Revolution
was repugnant alike to God and government, that of the American
was approved by both. Filipinos of reflective turn of mind began to
study America; some even had gone there; for, from a little Filipino
settlement, St. Malo near New Orleans, sailors enlisted to fight
in the second war of the United States against England; one of them
was wounded and his name was long borne on the pension roll of the
United States.
The danger of the dense ignorance in which their rulers kept the
Filipinos showed itself in 1819, when a French ship from India having
introduced Asiatic cholera into the Islands, the lowest classes of
Manila ascribed it to the collections of insects and reptiles which
a French naturalist, who was a passenger upon the ship, had brought
ashore. However the story started, the collection and the dwelling
of the naturalist fared badly, and afterwards the mob, excited by
its success, made war upon all foreigners. At length the excitement
subsided, but too much damage to foreign lives and property had been
done to be ignored, and the matter had an ugly look, especially as
no Spaniard had suffered by this outbreak. The Insular government
roused itself to punish some of the minor misdoers and made many
explanations and apologies, but the aggrieved nations insisted, and
obtained as compensation a greater security for foreigners and the
removal of many of the restraints upon commerce and travel. Thus the
riot proved a substantial step in Philippine progress.
Following closely the excitement over the massacre of the foreigners
in Manila came the news that Spain had sold Florida to the United
States. The circumstances of the sale were hardly creditable to the
vendor, for it was under compulsion. Her lax government had permitted
its territory to become the refuge of criminals and lawless savages
who terrorized the border until in self-defense American soldiers under
General Jackson had to do the work that Spain could not do. Then with
order restored and the country held by American troops, an offer to
purchase was made to Spain who found the liberal purchase money a
very welcome addition to her bankrupt treasury.
Immediately after this the Monroe Doctrine attracted widespread
attention in the Philippines. Its story is part of Spanish history. A
group of reactionary sovereigns of Europe, including King Ferdinand,
had united to crush out progressive ideas in their kingdoms and
to remove the dangerous examples of liberal states from their
neighborhoods. One of the effects of this unholy alliance was to
nullify all the reforms which Spain had introduced to secure English
assistance in her time of need, and the people of England were greatly