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On and after the fourth day of July, nineteen hundred and one, until it shall be otherwise ordered, the President of the Philippine Commission will exercise the executive authority in all civil affairs in the government of the Philippine Islands heretofore exercised in such affairs by the Military Governor of the Philippines; and to that end the Hon. William H. Taft, President of the said Commission, is hereby appointed Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands. Such executive authority will be exercised under and in conformity to, the instructions to the Philippine Commission, dated April seventh, nineteen hundred, and subject to the approval and control of the Secretary of War of the United States. The municipal and provincial civil governments, which have been, or shall hereafter be, established in said islands, and all persons performing duties appertaining to the offices of civil government in said islands, will, in respect of such duties, report to the Civil Governor. 


"The power to appoint civil officers, heretofore vested in the Philippine Commission or in the Military Governor, will be exercised by the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Commission. 



"The Military Governor of the Philippines is hereby relieved from the performance, on and after the said fourth day of July, of the civil duties hereinbefore described; but his authority will continue to be exercised, as heretofore, in those districts in which insurrection against the authority of the United States continues to exist, or in which public order is not sufficiently restored to enable provincial civil governments to be established under the instructions to the Commission dated April seventh, nineteen hundred." 

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In describing the inauguration of Governor Taft as Civil Governor of the Philippines, the Associated Press states that the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Arellano, and that one "feature of the inaugural address was the announcement that on September 1, 1901, the Commission would be increased by the appointment of three native members, Dr. Pardo DeTavera, Benito Lagarda, and Jose Luzuriaga."



[*] - On file at the War Department




Facts about the Filipinos. [Vol. 1, no. 10] 
Philippine Information Society. 
Collection: The United States and its Territories, 1870 - 1925

The appointment of William H. Taft as Civil Governor of the Philippine Islands - The Inagauration of Civil Rule on July 4, 1901