Jacinto's was an intellectually superior part in those first days. He prepared the organization. He synthetized the political ideal. He laid down the rules 

of conduct. He legitimized bloodshed by the saving grace of aspiration. Take the Cartilla away from the Katipunan and you have nothing left but a mere 

uprising. But, take the two together and judge the movement by its purpose, by its ideal, such as Jacinto conceived it, and you have a struggle for freedom, a 

political and social movement portentous in the history of the world, a scheme for an ideal organization seemingly transplanted from the minds of the 

reformers of old, and based on the dignity of labor, the recognition of women, the morality of private life, social equality, brotherhood of men, humanity, 

patriotism, and freedom of the country. 


Neither Jacinto's literature nor his mentality was original. He received his inspiration from Jose Rizal and Marcelo H. Del Pilar, who were the forerunners 

of the Revolution; from Freemasonry, of which he was an ardent disciple; and from the French Revolution, his model. He was a man moulded by the circumstances. 

He knew how to take advantage of the political doctrines he was reading and the sad lesson of his people. That was all, and it made of him a beautiful 

democratic figure which the tide of the revolution bore aloft to serve as a spiritual torch to the restless masses. And when he assumed the part of a mentor 

he did it in so worthy a manner that he saved the Venerable Society from the criticism of the profane and the slanders of the detractors. 


The movement so worthily initiated grew and ended in an equally worthy and noble manner. Several months elapsed. Emilio Aguinaldo replaced Bonifacio. 

Apolinario Mabini replaced Jacinto. The scattered hosts resumed their stations. It was no longer the Katipunan, confined to the Tagalog provinces, flying its 

red flag with the sun and the lone K in the center; it was now the Revolution of an entire people rising like one man, with the leadership of a president and 

the moral guidance of a legislature. It was the ephemeral republic founded in the frenzy of victory to give to the new citizens a law, a fatherland, a 

nationality. 


It would be difficult to point out in the history of human accomplishments so great a mission in a situation so pregnant with reverses and perils. The bonds 

which had bound the country to Spain for centuries had been suddenly broken; the Spanish government was being destroyed piecemeal; the laws which had so long 

been governing the customs, were suspended or at least disputed; the communities went without firmly established authority; the people were in arms against 

visible or invisible foes; war was threatening, acid everywhere the newly emancipated were celebrating with unbridled joy the liberty they had just won. A 

chaos, a catastrophe, seemed imminent. Then the creative genius of Apolinario Mabini came to the rescue as if Providence had called him to bring order out of 

chaos, light out of darkness, harmony out of confusion, in order to guide us with the light of his writings on the path beset with death, to steady our 

vacillating courage, to restrain unbridled enthusiasm, to appeal to reflection and- sense of responsibility, in short, to prepare that simple, but efficient 

administration which was noteworthy on account of its thorough adaptation to the requirements of those critical times.


It is, therefore, not strange that some have christened Mabini the Brain of the Revolution, while others have named him the Sublime Paralytic, and that all 

consider him the greatest civil glory of our Republic. It would not be astonishing, either, if some day a more careful historian will compile his articles of 

faith and his organic plans and decrees, group them together into a Code of Liberty and show to the world the type of a Malay statesman of gigantic mentality, 

attained without previous experience, without academic political culture; great because of his sagacity and foresight, and powerful because of his strength, 

his firmness and his patriotism. 


There is none, perhaps, among the great figures of our Revolution who was more prominent, one who excited either anger or admiration, implacable enmity or 

unconditional support. Neither the Spaniards nor the Americans ever had a more formidable foe and at the same time a more loyal friend. In Aguinaldo's 

counsels he represented indomitable tenacity, open fierceness, supreme authority. He had his own view of the situation and presented his program of government 

thus: a president with absolute powers; a representative Congress acting in an advisory capacity; a local government to suppress anarchy; a diplomatic service 

abroad working for the recognition of independence; a disciplined army in the service of the Revolution; strict morality; and ultimately independence or 

death. 


He followed this dogma to the letter while he was with the government. He was charged as an absolutist, while others called him Aguinaldo's black cabinet. 

Many pointed him out as an enemy of individual liberty and many more blamed him for the failure of the diplomatic negotiations. But the.fact is that both in 

and out of the government, the people continued to listen to him as if he were their oracle, and Filipinos, Americans and Spaniards alike rendered tribute to 

him as the eminent spokesman for the cause of the Revolution. 


True, we may say he was rather an absolutist in those days; but, who would not establish an imperative rule under abnormal circumstance? Who would not 

conceive of a plan of unity when classes swayed from discipline to anarchy, from concerted action to dispersion? This reveals to us why his unshaken firmness 

stood like a Gibraltar in the midst of the hopes and fears and troubles of his time. But when he traced his program for the times of peace, when he theorized 

on fundamental points of political philosophy, as he did in his admirable essay on the three powers of the State, nothing remained of the absolutist Mabini, 

for we see instead the most decided champion of popular government and democracy. 


He had the gifts of frankness, sincerity, and loyalty, something which seems impossible in a statesman of his type. He therefore encountered many adversaries 

with whom he had heated contests on the field of polemics. In this class of struggle he distinguished himself by his peerless dialectics, a deadly weapon 

which he wielded with skill and precision, displaying simultaneously solidity of argument, simplicity and clearness of diction, and gentlemanly pulchritude. 

And, while incidentally speaking of his literary style, let me state that although his words were uttered during epochs rife with impassioned disputes and 

political and religious hatred, he never lost the virtues of serenity of tone, simplicity of form, and purity of intention, as contrasted with other writers 

even of our time, whose effusions, "decked out in beads and war-paint like Apaches," resemble far more a philippic than a prayer to Liberty. 


Mabini bequeathed to posterity a few prophecies nearly all of which have come true. He predicted that the theory of annexation would be a myth, an 

impossibility. He predicted that the ideal of independence would become more and more firmly established in the hearts of the people, crowding out the dream 

of annexation. He predicted that a government of Filipinos aided by Amrericans would be a provisionally satisfactory plan until the recognition of 

independence. And, finally, he predicted, that the independence of the Philippines was not the aim, but only the means of the Revolution, the aim of the 

Revolution being the social emancipation of the whole Malayan race. 


Mabini's name has been chiselled and engraved in stone and bronze in the province he adored. His name has been given to streets and squares and his picture 

is seen everywhere side by side with Rizal's and Del Pilar's. His memory will endure in all hearts so long as we have a country to love. And if the 

Filipinos of the future, especially in case the Islands should then still be under foreign tutelage, ever seek a source of supreme inspiration in the moral 

greatness of an iron will, in the ardent zeal of a revolutionary, or in the omnipotence of a victorious constructive genius, let them gaze at the figure of 

the Sublime Paralytic, the irresistible, the colossal, the triumphant. 



Sources:
<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Gems of Philippine oratory; selections representing fourteen centuries of Philippine thought, carefully compiled from credible sources in substitution for the 

pre-Spanish writings destroyed by missionary zeal, to supplement the later literature stunted by intolerant religious and political censorship, and as 

specimens of the untrammeled present-day utterances, Austin Craig, Fajardo Press, Manila, 1924.
</li>
<li>
Photo credit: <a href="http://amabini.com/" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Phot credit">http://amabini.com/</a>
</li>
</ol>

A tribute to Apolinario Mabini, the Sublime Paralytic