Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1871-08-24
OUR COREAN ELEPHANT.
What Shall We Do? Go on or
Retreat?


Retreat?
As all cool-headed people supposed from
the first, our war elephant in the Corea
has proved to be exceedingly unmanage-
able Itis so easy to get into difficulty,
and hard to get creditably out of it, that
vainglorious writers chose the first and
were willfully blind to the second, SO
sure to come. But it has come, and we
have on our hands war in Corea which
is more fatal gift than any Siamese ele-
phantine present, which oppresses with
its magniiicence and impoverishes with
Its cost to keep. To be sure, we are just
now out of the difficulty so far as actual
hostilities are concerned, the American
feet having returned to Chica after the
resultless conclusion of the second battle.
1t was vain for Minister Low to protest
that his mission was peaceful; the Co
vey of the river, or any reconnoitering
with boats, was virtually opening hostile
operations. But the expedition per-
severed, and, fter fighting two battles, 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 ship
wrecked mariners with humanity or to
trade with foreigners hereafter. If our
| feet had killed every Corcan soldier and
had left the region of the Salee a bowling
wilderness, we should be no nearer the
solution of the difficulty than before.
Those fatalistic OrientalS have less re
gard for human life-their own or others
than the beasts that perish A few
score thousands people, more or -ess,
killed or captured, is of less account to
the Corean Government than similar
disaster to the shoals of fish which crowd
their coats. The average Oriental sub
| mits to the bowstring, OF rps up his own
bowels, with absolute composure. Ad
lniral Rodgers may have thought he had
propounded. a touching query when he
!
crowd of Corean prisoners which he had
captured; but the contcmptuous 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, ii is found impossible to sub
due Corea with the fleet now in the
Eastern Pacific, and as We have not de-
termined just how many Coreans must
be killed to compensate for the loss of the
Gen. Sherman and The refusal Of the bar
baIians to buy our prayer-books and
jack-kuives, there remained nothing but
to return to Che foo; and TO Chc-foo We
have, accordingly returned.
Shall we go on? TO retreat now, it i,
said, would be moral defect. Already
the Anglo Chinese journals-those ar
dent disciples of bombshell and gunboat
diplomacy-are dcnouncing the with
drawal to China as calculated TO convinc,
the Coreans of their own impregnability
and it is complained that the eXasperate(
barbarians have kidnapped two English
men and German, and have carried
them off into the interior, trussed to
bamboo, like their own harmless jingals
Not to go on feeding our elephant is to b.
at his mercy hereafter; the state of ou
castaways will be worse than before w
began. But to go on is to organize grea
I expedition, invade the kingdom, devastat
S ha nj I'll =
population to thousands.
Since Corea has become the battlefel
of American propagandism, everything
e -appertaining to the country takes on
J new interest. If we have nothing elst
IS we have brought forward to the notice c
e the civilized world long-isolated dis
e tant nation, happy in its seclusion, so ia
II as we can know, and prospering eve
o without the aid Of our superior civiliza
II ton. In connection with the latest dir
II patches from Ike far-off seat OF war, W
IL publish detailed history of the attempt
y of various civilized nations TO coerce tt
IL Coreans out of their shell of seciusiol
y This paper is prepared from official docl
y ments in the archives of our Governmen
VI and is illustrated by maps copied frol
of those made by former French and Amer
n can expeditions. The mass of inform;
rs ton thus succienctly stated is the fulle
;.na most complete ever printed in Il
ID United States. A review of its historic
1t facts and comparison with later event
Is however, is not specially encouraging
Sc ardent advoca tes Of the new crusade
's, the Corea.-N. 7. Tribune.
o