52
BUILDERS OF.A NATION
nine months later, in August 1896, the first cry of rebellion was uttered at Balingtawak, although the Katipunan had been going on since 1892 when it was organized by reason of Rizal's deportation to Dapitan. This readiness of the popular mind to answer the call of organIzation during the preceding seven or eight years is due no other cause than the long preparation which I have tried brief!y to trace. Jose Rizal, Marcelo H. del Pilar and Graciano Lopez Jaena were at the head of the last stage of the campaign. Let Ul') praise them, f or they knew how to place our country on the path toward ' her redemption! They have not been ahle to guide her to the last haven for they lacked time, but they put our country in a condition to Bail by herself, embracing her ideal. For the safe of this ideal, our land fought against the Spaniards; she also fought against America, on account of some misunderstanding, until her strength was exhausted. She subsequently submitted to American sovereignty, but always true to her ideal, and with the firm hope that her' rights, for which she has been striving for almost a century, will be recognized. It is being shown that her hopes are not in vain; that they rest on a strong foundation, supported by the work and self-denial of many generations, and that the day is not far when they are at last fulfilled, under the proteCting shade of the Stars and Stripes. Ah! the appearance of Miss M. M. Norton's book could not be more timely! It comes out as a brief in our favor at a time when the final verdict in our cause is about to be given, and Miss Norton's views are of great weight and importance for they are based on historical facts which bring home to us the truth of these words, put by Rizal in the lips of one of his characters: "Not all slept during the night of our forefathers."
Translated from the Spanish by Sefior Bocobo.