democracy was sown in Korea through this movement, and that the
leaders of the present Independence Movement in Korea are mostly
members of the old Independence Club, who somehow escaped with
their lives from the wholesale persecution that followed the
collapse of the Independence Club. Six out of the eight cabinet
members elected by the people this year, (1919) were the former
active members of the Independence Club."

Among the Independents arrested was Syngman Rhee. The foreign community,
which in a sense stood sponsor for the more moderate of the Independents,
brought influence to bear, and it was understood that in a few days the
leaders would be released. Some of them were. But Rhee and a companion
broke out before release, in order to stir up a revolt against the
Government By a misunderstanding their friends were not on the spot to help
them, and they were at once recaptured.

Rhee was now exposed to the full fury of the Emperor's wrath. He was thrown
into the innermost prison, and for seven months lay one of a line of men
fastened to the ground, their heads held down by heavy cangues, their feet
in stocks and their hands fastened by chains so that the wrists were level
with the forehead. Occasionally he was taken out to be tormented, in
ancient fashion. He expected death, and rejoiced when one night he was told
that he was to be executed. His death was already announced in the
newspapers. But when the guard came they took, not Rhee, but the man
fastened down next to him, to whom Rhee had smuggled a farewell message to
be given to his father after his death. His sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment.

Lying there, the mind of the young reformer went back to the messages he
had heard at the mission school He turned to the Christians' God, and his