The commission published a proclamation containing assurances that the U.S. did not intend exploitation of Filipinos, but their "advancement to a position among the most civilized peoples of the world", and announced "that the United States is ... anxious to establish in the Philippine Islands an enlightened system of government under which the Philippine people may enjoy the largest measure of home rule and the amplest liberty." The revolutionary government counterproposed a three-month armistice during which representatives of the two governments would meet and arrange terms for the settlement of the war. President McKinley's instructions to the Commission issued in Washington before the outbreak of hostilities had not authorized it to discuss an armistice.