Mr. Fish to Mr. Low
Sir: With reference to your dispatch of the 20th of June last, (No. 74,) detailing the events connected with the expedition to Corea, I have to inform you that the Department approves your general course of proceeding on the occasion referred to, but thinks that your communications should have been addressed to the principal minister of foreign affairs instead of the King. Their being thus addressed may be appealed to as justification for their not being received.
It is to be regretted that in the communication of June 18 (inclosure No. 17) by Mr. Drew, acting secretary of legation, addressed to Li, guardian general of Fu-Ping prefecture, the declaration of intention to make “a prolonged stay in the vicinity of the capital” was made, and was accompanied by the expression of a determination “to retain the dispatch until means are found to forward it to its destination.” This refers to a dispatch which the Coreans had declined to receive. This declaration was not carried out. The minister left Corea about sixteen days after its date without having found means to forward the dispatch to its destination. But for this unfulfilled promise or threat the Coreans would be without justification in alleging that all that had been contemplated or intended had been accomplished.
I am, &c.,