The King at the Russian Legation.... A Royal edict.... Massacre or flight of cabinet ministers.... an excited city.... Japanese consternation.... provincial uprisings.... party reorganization.... The Independence Club.... trial of Queen’s murderers.... Appointment of Dr. Brown as adviseradviser to Finance Department.... The Independent.... The Waeber-Komura Convention.... material reforms.... reaction.... The Independence Arch.... Seoul-Chemulpo railway concession.... The new palace planned.... retrogressive signs.... postal and other administrative reforms.

When the public awoke to the momentous fact, a thrill of excitement and, generally, of approval went through the whole population of Seoul. The city hummed with excited humanity. The streets swarmed with the crowds bent upon watching the course of such stirring events.

Later in the day the King put forth an edict calling upon the soldiers to rally to his support and urging them to bring the heads of the traitors Cho Heui-yun, U PÖm-sun, Yi Tu-whang, Yi Pom-na, Yi Chin-ho and Kon Yong-jin. But later still this was toned down to read that these individuals should be seized and turned over to the proper authorities for trial.

The reason why the names of Kim Hong-jip, ChÖng Pyung-Ha and others of the former cabinet were not included was because they had already met their fate. As soon as it became known in the palace that the King had fled, these men saw that their lives were forfeited. O Yun-jung managed to escape to the country but was set upon and killed by the people, Cho Heui-Yun escaped, Yu Kil-jun was spirited away to Japan by the Japanese; but Kim Hong-jip and ChÖng Pyung-ha found no way of escape. Being seized by the Korean soldiers, were immediately rushed by the crowd and killed. Their bodies were hauled to Chong-no where they were stamped upon, kicked, bitten and stoned by a half-crazed rabble for hours. A Japanese who happened to be passing was set upon by the crowd and killed and several foreigners drawn to the spot by curiosity were threatened.

The King was shocked when he heard of the summary execution of the two ministers, whom he intended to give a fair trial. Two days later an edict was promulgated by the King deploring the impoverished state of the country and laying the blame upon himself; and concluded by remitting all arrears of taxes due up to July 1894. The new cabinet consisted of the following men Pak ChÖng-yang, Yi Yun-yong, An Kyung-su, Ko Yong-heui, Yun Chi-ho, Yun Yong-gu, Yi Wan-yong and Cho Pyung-jik.

To say that the Japanese were nonplussed by this coup on the part of the King would be to put it very mildly. All their efforts to consolidate their power in Korea and to secure there some fruit of the victory in the war just finished, had been worse than thrown away. The King had thrown himself into the arms of Russia and the whole Korean people were worked up to a white heat against Japan, comparable only with the feelings elicited by the invasion of 1592. It was a very great pity, for Japan was in a position to do for Korea infinitely more than Russia would do. The interests of Korea and Japan were identical or at least complementary and the mistake which Japan made in the latter half of 1895 was one whose effects will require decades to efface.

When the King thus wrenched himself out of Japanese hands the Japanese papers in Seoul bewailed the fact that the country was without a ruler, and almost directly advised the people to put someone else on the throne, and this without censure from the Japanese authorities. And it is well known among Koreans that there was a strong faction among the Koreans who were willing to attempt to put Yi Chun-yong, the grandson of the Ta-wun-gun on the throne, had that ambitious young man been possessed of the requisite amount of assurance. Fortunately such was not the case and the country was saved from further upheaval.

But the Japanese authorities though thrown into consternation by this radical movement of His Majesty did not give up hope of mending matters. The Japanese Minister saw the King at the Russian Legation and urged upon him every possible argument for returning to the palace. His Majesty, however, being now wholly relieved from anxiety as to his personal safety, enjoyed the respite too thoroughlythoroughly to cut it short, and so politely refused to change his place of residence. A large number of Japanese in Seoul became convinced that Japan had hopelessly compromised herself, and left the country, but the Japanese Government itself by no act or word granted that her paramount influence in the peninsula was impaired and with admirable sang froid took up the new line of work imposed upon her by the King’s peculiar action, meanwhile putting down one more score against Russia, to be reckoned with later.

The country was suffering from the excitement caused by the news of the Japanese diplomatic reverses, and the people in many districts rose in revolt and declared that they would drive all the Japanese out of the country. These efforts were however scattered and sporadic in their nature and were successfully quelled by Korean Government troops sent down to the various disaffected districts for this purpose.

Now that it was possible the King hastened to order a new investigation of the circumstances attending the death of the Queen. It was feared that this would result in a very sweeping arrest of Koreans and the punishment of many people on mere suspicion, but these fears were ill-founded. The trials were carried through under the eye of Mr. Greathouse the adviser to the Law Department and a man of great legal ability. Thirteen men were arrested and tried in open court without torture and with every privilege of a fair trial. One man Yi Whi-wha was condemned to death, four banished for life and five for lesser periods. This dispassionate trial was not the least of the signs which pointed toward a new and enlightened era in Korean political history.

Not only in the country but in Seoul as well the prestige of Japan had suffered greatly by the events of the winter of 1895-96. After the Japan-China war the Koreans were divided into two distinct factions, one holding strongly with the Japanese and the other advocating a more conservative policy, but gradually as the political situation began to crystalize these two split into four, namely the Japanese faction, the King’s faction, the Queen’s faction, and the Ta-wun-gun’s faction. This is merely another way of saying that every strong political possibility will have its own faction in such a land as this, according as each man fancies that his champion will get supreme power and reward those who have followed in his train. The number of men who follow the standard of this or that party because of any altruistic or purely patriotic consideration is so small as to be a negligeablenegligeable quantity. When, therefore, it appeared that Japan’s star was setting in Korea there was a hasty shifting of political platforms and soon it appeared that there were only two, one of which favored Russian influence and the other conservative and very quiet, for the time being, until the extreme pro-Russian enthusiasm should subside somewhat. Of course the Ta-wun-gun’s had disappeared with the waning fortunes of the Japanese and the Queen’s faction had gone over to the Russians. It was the conservatives alone that held to their former position and desired no foreign interferance whatever. But many of those who had favored the Japanese joined the conservative party but unlike the “moss-back” conservatives wanted to do something actively to counteract Russian influence. They therefore worked to bring English and American influence into greater prominence. In the heart of this movement was born the “Independence Club.” It will be remembered that ever since the previous year Dr. Philip Jaisohn had been acting as adviser to the Privy Council. This council enjoyed considerable power at first but gradually fell to a secondary place, but now that new conditions had sprung up the element combatting the Russian influence took advantage of the presence of Dr. Jaisohn and other Koreans who had been educated abroad. The Russians seemed to look with complaisance upon this movement and in the Spring of this year seem to have made no effort to prevent the appointment of J. McLeavy Brown, L.L.D., as Adviser to the Finance Department, with large powers; which seemed to bear out the belief that the Russian Minister was sincere in his statement that Russia wished the King to be quite untrammelled in the administration of his government. It is this generous policy of Mr. Waeber that is believed to have caused his transfer later to another post, to be replaced by A. de Speyer who adopted a very different policy. However this may have been, things began to take on a very hopeful aspect in Seoul. Needed reforms were carried through; torture was abolished in the Seoul courts, a concession was given to an American company to construct a railway between Seoul and Chemulpo, Min Yong-whan was appointed special envoy to the coronation of the Czar, work was begun on the American mining concession granted the year before, various schools were founded, and the outlook on the whole was very bright indeed. It looked as if a solution had been found for the difficulties that afflicted the state and that an era of comparatively enlightened government was opening.

For some time there had existed a more or less secret organization among the Koreans, the single article of whose political creed was Independence both from China and Japan, or in other words Korea for Koreans. Now that the King had been relieved of Chinese suzerainty by the Japanese and of Japanese restraint by himself, this little society under the leadership of Dr. Philip Jaisohn blossomed out into what was called The Independence Club. The name but partially described the society, for while it advocated the complete independence of Korea it still more insistently advocated a liberal government, in the shape of a genuine constitutional monarchy in which the royal prerogative should be largely curtailed and the element of paternalism eliminated. At first the greater stress was laid upon the general principle of Korean IndependenceIndependence and to this the King in the joy of his newly found freedom heartily agreed. The royal sanction was given to the Independence Club and it was launched upon a voyage which had no haven, but ended in total shipwreck. This club, society was composed of young men many of whom were doubtless aroused for the time being to something like patriotic fervor but who had had no practical experience of the rocky road of Korean politics or of the obstacles which would be encountered. The cordiality of the King’s recognition blinded them to the fact that the real object of their organization, namely the definition of the royal prerogative, was one that must eventually arouse first the suspicion and then the open hostility of His Majesty and would become the slogan of all that army of self-seekers who saw no chance for self-aggrandisement except in the immemorial spoils system. These young men were armed with nothing but a laudable enthusiasm. They could command neither the aid of the Korean army nor the advocacy of the older statesmen, all of whom were either directly hostile to the movement or had learned caution through connection with previous abortive attempts to stem the tide of official corruption. The purpose of this club, so far as it knew its own mind, was a laudable one in theory but the amount of persistency, courage, tact and self-restraint necessary to carry the plan to a successful issue was so immensely greater than they could possibly guess, that, considering the youth and inexperience of the personnel of the society, the attempt was doomed to failure. They never clearly formulated a constructive plan by which to build upon the ruins of that system which they were bent upon destroying. Even had they cleared the way to such construction they could not have found a statesman in Korea of recognized standing and prestige, to act as master-builder, whose previous record would have made him acceptable to themselves or a fit exponent of their principles.

On April 7th the first foreign newspaper was founded by Dr. Philip Jaisohn. It was called The Independent and was partly in the native character. From the first it exerted a powerful influence among the Koreans and was one of the main factors which led to the formation of the Independence Club.

Both Japan and Russia were desirous of coming to an understanding as to Korea and on May 14th there was published the Waeber-Komura Agreement which was modified and ratified later under the name of the Lobanoff-Yamata Agreement. According to the terms of this convention both Powers guaranteed to respect the independence of Korea and not to send soldiers into the country except by common consent.

The summer of 1896 saw great material improvements in Seoul. The work of clearing out and widening the streets was vigorously pushed and although much of the work was done superficially some permanent improvement was effected, and the “squatters” along the main streets were cleaned out, it is hoped for all time. In July the concession for building a railway between Seoul and Wiju was given to a French syndicate. From subsequent events it appears that there was no fixed determination on the part of the French to push this great engineering work to a finish but merely to preempt the ground and prevent others from doing it. Russian influence doubtless accomplished this, and from that time there began to spring up the idea that Korea would be divided into two spheres of influence, the Japanese predominant in the south and the Russians in the north.

In spite of the favorable signs that appeared during the early months of 1896 and the hopes which were entertained that an era of genuine reform had been entered upon, the coming of summer began to reveal the hollowness of such hopes. The King himself was strongly conservative and never looked with favor upon administrative changes which tended to weaken his personal hold upon the finances of the country and he chafed under the new order of things. In this he was encouraged by many of the leading officials, who saw in the establishment of liberal institutions the end of their opportunities for personal power and aggrandisement. The old order of things appealed to them too strongly and it became evident that the government was rapidly lapsing into its former condition of arbitrary and partisan control. Open and violent opposition to such harmless innovations as the wearing of foreign uniforms by the students of Foreign Language Schools indicated too plainly the tendency of the time and the Russian authorities did nothing to influence His Majesty in the right direction. Judging from subsequent events it was not Russia’s policy to see an enlightened administration in Seoul. The political plans of that Power could be better advanced by a return to the status ante quo. The act of the government in substituting an Independence Arch in place of the former gate, outside the West Gate, which commemorated Chinese suzerainty, was looked upon, and rightly, by the more thoughtful as being merely a superficial demonstration which was based upon no deeper desire than that of being free from all control or restraint except such as personal inclination should dictate. The current was setting toward a concentration of power rather than toward a healthful distribution of it, and thus those who had hailed the vision of a new and rejuvenated state were compelled to confess that it was but a mirage.

Pressure was brought to bear upon the court to remove from the Russian Legation, and it was high time that such a move be made. As a matter of urgent necessity it was considered a not too great sacrifice of dignity to go to the Legation but to make it a permanent residence was out of the question. The King was determined however, not to go back to the palace from which he had fled. It held too many gruesome memories. It was decided to build the Myung-ye Palace in the midst of the Foreign Quarter with Legations on three sides of it. The site selected was the same as that which King Sun-jo used in 1593 when he returned from his flight to the north before the armies of Hideyoshi. He had lived here for some fourteen years while the Chang-dok Palace was building. The present King however intended it as a permanent residence, and building operations were begun on a large scale, but it was not until February of the following year that His Majesty finally removed from the Russian Legation to his new palace.

All during the latter half of 1896 the gulf between the Independence party and the conservatives kept widening. The latter grew more and more confident and the former more and more determined. Dr. Jaisohn in his capacity of adviser to the Council of State was blunt and outspoken in his advice to His Majesty and it was apparent that the latter listened with growing impatience to suggestions which, however excellent in themselves, found no response in his own inclinations. The Minister of Education voiced the growing sentiment of the retrogressive faction in a book called “The Warp and Woof of Confucianism” in which such extreme statements were made that several of the Foreign Representatives felt obliged to interfere and call him to account. A Chief of Police was appointed who was violently anti-reform. The assassin of Kim Ok-kyun was given an important position under the government. A man who had attempted the life of Pak Yong-hyo was made Minister of Law, and on all sides were heard contemptuous comments upon the “reform nonsense” of the liberal faction. And yet in spite of this the momentum of the reform movement though somewhat retarded had by no means been completely stopped. The Summer and Autumn of this year 1896 saw the promulgation of a large number of edicts of a salutary nature, relating to the more systematic collection of the national revenues, the reorganization of gubernatorial and prefectural systems, the definition of the powers and privileges of provincial officials, the further regulation of the postal system, the definition of the powers of the superintendents of trade in the open ports, the abolition of illegal taxation and the establishment of courts of law in the various provinces and in the open ports. As many of these reforms survived the collapse of the liberal party they must be set down as definite results which justify the existence of that party and make its overthrow a matter of keen regret to those who have at heart the best interests of the country.

All this time Russian interests had been cared for sedulously. The king remained in close touch with the Legation and Col. Potiata and three other Russian officers were put in charge of the Palace Guard, while Kim Hong-nyuk, the erstwhile water-carrier, continued to absorb the good things in the gift of His Majesty. And yet the Russians with all their power did not attempt to obstruct the plans of the subjects of other Powers in Korea. Mr. Stripling, a British subject, was made adviser to the Police Department, a mining concession was granted to a German syndicate; an American was put in charge of a Normal School, Dr. Brown continued to direct the work of the Finance Department and the work on the Seoul Chemulpo Railway was pushed vigorously by an American syndicate. The Russians held in their hands the power to put a stop to much of this, but they appeared to be satisfied with holding the power without exercising it.