New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-15
DIR COREAN ELEPHANT.

As all cool headed people supposed from the
first, our war elephant in the Corea has
proved to be exceedingly manageable. 1t
is so easy to get into difficulty, and so hard
to get creditably out of it, that vainglorous
writers chose the first and were willfully blind
to the second, so sure to come. But 1t has
come, and we have on our hands war IN
Corea which is a more fatal gift than any
Samese elephantine present, which Expresses
with its magniicence and impoverishes with
its cost of keep. To be sure, we are just
now out of the difficulty so far as actual
hostilties are concerned, the American fleet
having returned to China after the re-
sultless conclusion of the second battle. 1t
was vain for Minister Low to protest that his
mission was peaceful; the Coreans had ex-
pressly declared that survey OF the river, or
any accommodating with boats, was virtually
opening hostile operations. But the expedi-
ton persevered, and, after fighting two bat
ties, we have reached no other conclusion
than this: The war must be long and expen-
sive, and we cannot be sure that even an
utter devastation of the country will
make the Coreans more willing to
treat shipwrecked mariners with human
ity or to trade with foreigners hereafter
If our fleet had killed every Corean soldier
and had left the region of the Salee howl
ing Wilderness we should be no nearer the
solution of the difficulty than before. Those
fatalistic Orientals have less regard for
human life-ther own or Others-than the
beasts that perish. few score thousand
people, more or less, killed or captured, is Of
l. 70 bo Gnuarnmpnf than
a similar disaster to the shoals of fish which
crowd their coasts. The average Oriental
submits to the bowstring, or rips up
his own bowels, with absolute composure.
Admiral Rodgers may have thought he
had propounded a touching query when
he asked what should be done with a
great crowd of COrean prisoners which he had
captured but the contemptuOus reply that he
might do what he liked with them was just
what the authorities of a people lavish of
human life were sure to give. Since, then, it
is found impossible to subdue Corea with the
fleet now in the Eastern Pacific, and as we
have not determined just how many Coreans
must be killed to compensate for the loss of
the Gen. Sherman and the refusal of the bar
barians to buy our prayer-bOOks and jack
knives, there remained nothing but to return
to Che-foo; and to Che-foo we have, accord
ingly, returned.
Shall we go ONT To retreat now, it is said,
would be a moral defeat. Already the Anglo
Chinese jOurnals-thOse ardent disciples of
bombshen and gunboat diplomacy-are de-
nouncing the withdrawal to China as calcu-
lated to convince the COreans of their own
impregnability and it is complained that the
exasperated barbarians have kidnapped two
Englishmen and a German, and have carried
them off into the interior, trussed to bamboo,
like their own harmless jingals. Not to 60 on
feeding our elephant is to be at his mercy
hereafter; the state of our castaways will be
worse than before we began. But to go on is
to organize a great expedition, invade the
kingdom, devastate the country, and reduce
the millions of population to thousands.
Since Corea has become the battlefield of
American gandism, everything appertain-
ing to the country takes on a new interest
If we have done nothing else, we have brought
forward to the notice of the civilized world a
long-isolated distant nation, bapp. in its Sc
cluson, SO far as we can know, aid prosper
ing even without the aid of our superior civili-
cation. In connection with the latest dis
patches from the far-Off seat of war, we pub
lish detailed history of the attempts of vari-
GUS civilized nations to coerce the Coreans out
of their shell of seclusion. This paper is pre-
pared from official documents IN the archives
of our Government, and is illustrated by maps
copied from those made by former French and
American expeditions. The mass of informa-
ton thus succnctly stated is the fullest and
most complete ever printed in the United
States. A review of its historical facts and
comparison with later events, however, is not
specially encouraging to ardent advocates OF
the new crusade in the Corea.