<Li> Whitelaw Reid, a former diplomat and a former Vice Presidential nominee </Li> <P> The Spanish commission included the Spanish diplomats Eugenio Montero Ríos, Buenaventura de Abarzuza, José de Garnica, Wenceslao Ramírez de Villa - Urrutia, Rafael Cerero, as well as the French diplomat Jules Cambon . </P> <P> The American delegation, headed by former Secretary of State William R. Day--who had vacated his position as U.S. Secretary of State in order to head the commission--arrived in Paris on September 26, 1898 . The negotiations were conducted in a suite of rooms at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs . At the first session on October 1, the Spanish demanded that before the talks get underway the city of Manila, which had been captured by the Americans a few hours after the signing of the peace protocol in Washington, should be returned to Spanish authority . The Americans refused to consider this and for the moment it was pursued no further . </P> <P> Felipe Agoncillo, a Filipino lawyer representing the First Philippine Republic, was denied participation in the negotiation . </P>

The first american newspaper published in manila on september 10 1898