All these open ports are the gateways of a commerce that must steadily and healthfully increase, and which under stable and just government would rapidly enlarge. So long as there is uncertainty as to the political status of the Land of Morning Calm, the chief importance of the maritime gateways into the country will be strategic and military, rather than commercial. A permanent settlement of the political question, in debate ever since the modern renascence of Japan, ought to act on the development of the natural resources of Corea as the warm spring rains act upon soil long chilled and fallow under winter’s frost. Few regions, whether we consider its geographical location for commerce, the fertility of its soil, its animal wealth, the richness of its mineral deposits, or [[457]]the abundance of its treasures in the sea, are more highly favored than Corea. When man, society, and government in the peninsula answer Nature’s challenge and match the opportunity, the world will find that history’s storehouse of surprises has not been empty. Toward the development of the kind of man needed, the Christian missionaries are, above all other teachers and forces, working, and with every sign of promise. [[458]]
CHAPTER L.
INTERNAL POLITICS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE.
The preponderating influence of China was the mainspring in the intricate machinery of old Corean politics, though within the two clearly defined parties in Seoul there are also factional and family differences. “From 1834 to 1864 the royal clan was shorn of much of its power, all offices were in the hands of the Kim clan, whose head, Kim Pyong-gi, was virtually ruler of the land for the years ending that epoch.” The Kims hoped to continue the lease of their power, but the Tai-wen Kun humbled this clan and exalted his own, meanwhile doing much for the common people and compelling the yangban to bear a share of the burdens of government in paying a house tax. In his whole course toward these predatory gentry, he was “a blundering anticipator” of the great reforms of 1894. He began the suppression of the Tong-haks. He was a great builder of public edifices, not only in Seoul, but in the provinces. He protected the country against the foreigner. He meant well in his ignorance, but he knew nothing of the world at large. His first lease of power came to an end in 1873.
The first Corean noblemen, Kim and Pom, left their homes in 1875 to travel in lands beyond China. They went to Japan, and coming back, boldly told the King what they had seen and advocated the adoption of Western civilization. They tried to win over the powerful Min clan and the Queen to a liberal policy, but this to the Regent, Tai-wen Kun, meant nothing else than Christianity and radical reform, which involved popular education. That is exactly the sort of reform that every Confucian mandarin in any country of Asia hates most heartily, because he sees in the general enlightenment of the people the end of the power of the literati. The bold and crafty statesman, who, as Prince Parent, held his son the King as his puppet and had already shed the blood of thousands of native Christians, nearly succeeded in putting the [[459]]two young champions of Western civilization to death. When the American treaty negotiations were impending, the Min clansmen held aloof until China, as represented by Li Hung Chang, gave the nod. Then they showed so much energy in the matter as to seem to foreigners the party of progress. This roused the wrath of the Regent, who determined to crush the Min clan and to nullify the treaty. We have seen how, in July, 1882, by a masterly appeal to local bigotry and superstition, he directed the soldiers’ riot into a revolt against the pro-Chinese clan. After destroying, as he imagined, their leading men and the Queen, he seized the government himself, enjoying for a few days full lease of power.
When the news of the usurpation reached China and Japan, a fleet with soldiers was despatched from each country. The Chinese force landed first, marched to Seoul, built forts to command the river against the Japanese, and established their camp inside the walls. By this move China held a new lien on her “vassal state.” The Chinese general made his formal call on the Tai-wen Kun, and when this lord of the land returned the courtesy, he was seized and deported to China. Meanwhile the Queen, for whom a palace maid had suffered vicarious death, together with some of her chief helpers and advisers, re-entered the palace October 9, 1882. The star of the Min clan was again in the ascendant.
Thus the results of the Regent’s smart trickery were not pleasant for the Coreans, for now they had both the Chinese and the Japanese soldiers encamped in the capital and on the ground where nearly three hundred years before they had met in battle. By good discipline on both sides, collision between the soldiers was avoided, but the Government at once made provision to replace the foreign soldiery by native troops. Four battalions of Corean infantry were organized and put under Chinese drill masters, introduced by the Min leaders. Fourteen young men, mostly members of Progressive families, were sent to Tokio to study in the military school.
The treaty negotiated by Commodore Shufeldt was promptly ratified by the United States Senate, and on February 26th President Chester A. Arthur sent in the name of General Lucius H. Foote as Minister to Corea. Reaching Chemulpo May 13th in the U.S.Ss. Monocacy, the formal ratifications of the treaty were exchanged in the capital May 19th. The same cannon, and served [[460]]by some of the same sailors that in 1871 had shelled the Han forts,[1] peacefully saluted the new national flag, emblazoned with the proofs of Corea’s intellectual servitude to Chinese philosophy and fantastic traditions. Keeping clear of the native factions, Mr. Foote dealt as directly as possible with the sovereign. He made an earnest plea for the toleration of religion, a promise to proclaim which was secured from the King.
The Corean Government responded to the American courtesy by despatching a special mission, consisting of eleven persons headed by Min Yong Ik, which arrived in San Francisco September 2d. President Arthur being then in New York, these quaintly apparelled Oriental strangers were given audience in the parlor of the Fifth Avenue Hotel. After three months’ stay in the eastern cities, one part of the embassy, headed by Han Yong Sik, returned home by way of San Francisco. A few days later, on the U.S.Ss. Trenton (afterward lost at Samoa) with Ensign G. C. Foulke (afterward of the Doshisha University, Kioto) and Lieutenant J. G. Bernadou, U.S.N. (afterward distinguished in the Spanish-American War of 1898, on the U.S.Ss. Winslow), as naval attachés to the American legation in Seoul, Min Yong Ik and two other Coreans returned home by way of Europe and the Suez Canal.