The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-28 00:00:00

1863.

A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY.

A curious article has been published in the Atlantic
Monthly, giving dates, names of officials and vessels of war,
as if intended to be taken as literal fact. It is a history of
Philip Nolan, who is described as having been, in 1805, a
lieutenant in the United States army, and who became itn-
plicated with Burr in some of his schemes of " treason."
Nolan was tried by court-martial, found guilty, and when
asked if he had anything to say why he had not been
faithful to the United States, he replied, " the
United States I I wish I may never hear of the United
States again." The court-martial, it is said, took him at
his word, and sentenced him to be henceforth a man with-
out a country. The authorities at Washington approved
the sentence, and, immediately after, Nolan was trans-
ported to a Government vessel bound on a long cruise.
From that time up to the hour of his death—a period of
nearly 60 years—the United States became to him as if
they never had existed. Whenever the vessel upon which
he was embarked approached this country he was trans-
ferred to one outward bound. The name of the United
States was never mentioned in his hearing. All books and
papers, before going to him, were carefully examined, and
every allusion to this country completely removed. Re
was so surrounded that under no circumstance was any-
thing relating to the United States mentioned in his hear-
ing. During his last sickness, and a few hours before his
death, his physician, in obedience to his urgent entreaties,
gave him a summary of the changes which occurred from
1807 down to May, 1863, during all which time not one
syllable relative to this country had ever reached him.
He is stated to have died on the United States corvette
Levitt', t on the 11th of May of the present year. "I tell
Yon, says the doctor, "it was a hard thing to condense
the history of half a century into that talk with a sick man.
And Ido not now know what I told him—of emigration
and the means of it ; of steamboats and raihoads and tele-
graphs; of inventions, and books, and literature; of the
colleges and West Point, and the Naval School ; but with
the queerest interruptions that ever you heard. You see
it was Robinson Crusoe asking all the accumulated ques-
tions of 56 years. I told him everything I •coull think
of that would show him the grandeur of his country
and of its prosperity, but I could not make up my mouth
to tell him a word about this infernal rebellion. And
he drank it in, and enjoyed it as I cannot tell
you. He grew more and more silent, yet I never
thought he was tired or faint. I gave him a glass of water,
but he just wet his lips, and told me not to go away. Then
he asked me to bring the Presbyterian Book of Public
Prayer' which lay there, and said with a smile it would Open
at the right place, and so it did. There was his double red
mark dower the page, and I knelt down and read, and he re..
peated with me,—' For ourselves and our country, 0 gra-
cious God, we thank Thee, that, notwithstanding our mani-
fold transgressions of Thy holy laws, Thou hest continued
to us Thy marvellous kindness,' and so on to the end of that
thanksgiving. Then he turned to the end of the same book,
and I read the words more familiar to me, ' Most heartily
we beseech Thee with Thy favour to behold anc: bless Thy
servant, the President of the United States, and all others
in authority,' and the rest of the Episcopal collect. Dan-
forth,' said he, ' I have repeated those prayers night and
morning; it is now t 55 years.' And then he said he would
go to sleep. He bent me down over him and kissed me, I
thought he was tired and would sleep. I knew he was
happy, and I wanted him to be alone. But in an hour,
when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had
breathed his life away. We looked in his Bible, and there
was a slip of paper, written, ' Bury me in the sea—it has
been my home, and I love it. But will not some one set
up a stone for my memory at Fort Adams or at Orleans,
that my disgrace may not be more than I ought to bear 11
Say on it—ln memory of Philip Nolan, lieutenant in the
army of the United States. He loved his country as no
other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at
her hands.'