The Portland daily press., 1865-10-24
Tuesday Morning, Oct. "a, 1865.
aThe nan without . Country. !.

his SOIneWudI reLldlhdDlS tdiS, WHICH ma
ny readers viii doubtless remember, is inclu-
ded in a volume Of reprints from the atlantic
Monthly, just issued by Ticknor and Fields,
and called Atlantic Tales" The author, Mr..
E. e. Hale, appends to it the following curious
note, which should serve to set at rest all dis
cussion as to the truth of the singular narra-
tive:
This story was written in the summer of
1868, as contribution, however humble, to-
wards the formation Of just and true nation
al sentiment, or sentiment of love to the ma
ton. 1t was at the time when Mr.. Vallandig-
ham had been sent across the border 1t was
my wish, indeed, that the story might be
printed before the autumn elections Of that
year,-as my Testimony" regarding the prin-
ciples involved in them,-but circumstances
delayed its publication till the December num-
Der of the Atlantic appeared. ak*i
1t is wholly fiction, founded on fact"
The facts on which it is founded are these
that Aaron Burr sailed down the Mississippi
River in 1906, again in 1905, and was tried for
treason in 1907. The rest, with one excep-
tion to be noticed, is all fictitious
1t was my intention that tie story should
have been published with no authors name
than that Of Captain Frederick Ingham, U s.
N. Whether writing under his name or my
own, 1 have taken no liberties with history
other than such as every writer of fiction is
privileged to take,-indeed, must take, If fc-
tion is to be written at all.
The story having been once published, it
passed out of my hands. From that moment
it has gradually acquired different accessories,
for which am not responsible. Thus have
heard it said that at one bureau of the Navy
Department they say that Nolan was pardon
ed, in fact, and returned home to die At
another bureau, am told, the answer to ques-
tions is, that, though it is true that an officer
was kept abroad all his life, his name was not
Nolan. A venerable friend Of mine in Boston,
who diseredits all tradition, still recoects this
"Nolan court.martial" One OF the most ac-
curate of my younger friends had noticed
Nolan's death in the newspaper, but recollec-
ted "that it was in September, and not in Ali-
gust" A lady in Baltimore writes me, he
lieve in good faith, that Nolan has two widow
ed sisters residing in that neighborhood. A
correspondent of the Philadelphia Despatch
believed "the article untrue, as the United
States corvette Levant was lost at sea, nearly
three years since, between San Francisco and
San juan" may here remark that this I'M
certainty as to the place of her loss rather
adds to the probability of her turning up af-
ter three years in lat. deg II min. s., long
131 deg. w. A writer in the New Orleans Pi-
cayune, in careful historical paper, explained
at length that l had been mistaken all
through; that Philip Nolan never went TO sea,
but to Texas; that there he was shot in bat
tie, March 21, 1901, and by orders from Spain
every fifth man of his party was to be shot,
had they not died in prison. Fortunately,
however, he left his papers and maps, which
fell into the hands OF a friend OF the Plea
yunes correspondent. The friend proposes to
publish them,-and the public will then have,
it is to be hoped, the true history of Philip No
Ian, the man without country.
With all these combinations, however, I had
nothing to do. / can only repeat that my
Philip Nolan is pure fiction. l cannot send
his scrap-book to my friend who asks forit be-
cause have it not to send.
remember when l was collecting materi-
al for my story, that in General Wilkinson 5
galimatias, which he calls his Memoirs" is
frequent reference to JorlIins-like partner of
his, of the name OF Nolan, who, at some time
near the beginning of this century, was killed
in Texas. Whenever Wilkinson found HIM
self in rather deeper bog than usual, he used
to justify himself by saying that he could not
explain such or such charge because "the
papers referring to it were lost when Mr.. No
Ian was imprisoned in Texas Finding this
mythical character in the mythical legends OF
a mythical time, | took the liberty to give him
abrother, rather more mythical, whgse adven-
lures should be on the seas. 1 had the i'm
preston that Wilkinson's friend was named
Stephen,-and as such he is spoken Of in this
story at page 40. As this book goes to press,
/ find that the New Orleans paper is right in
saving that the Texan hero was named Philip.
I am yery sorry that changed him inadyert-
emily to Stephen. 1t is too late for me to
change back again. / remember to have
heard a distinguished divine preach on st.
Philips day, by accident, discourse on the
life Of the Evangelist Stephen. Ii such a mis-
take can happen in the best regulated of pull
pits, l must be pardoned for mistaking Philip
for Stephen Nolan. The reader viii observe
that he was dead some years before the action
of this story begins. In the same connection
| must add that Mr. p. Nolan, teamster in
Boston. whose horse and cart venture to
recommend to an indulgent public, is no rela-
ton OF the hero of this tale. -
= If any reader considers the invention of a
brother too great liberty to take in fiction, l
venture to remind him that SITS sixty years
since" and that l should have the highest aII-
thority in literature even for much greater lib
critics taken with annals so far removed rom
our time. -;ei
A Boston paper in noticing the story OF My
Double" contained in another part of this col
lection, said it was highly inaDrOb0ble / have
always agreed with that critic. I. confess /
have the same opinion of the story of Philip
Nolan. 1t passes on ships which had no exis-
tence, is vouched for by officers who never
lived. Its hero is in two or three places at the
same time, under process wholly impossible
under any conceivable administration Of af
fairs. In reply, therefore, to kind adviser
in Connecticut, who told me that the story
must be apologised for, because it was doing
great injury to the national cause by asserting
such continued cruelty of the Federal Govern,
ment through half-century, must be per
mitted to saw that the public, like the Supreme
Court of the United States, may be supposed
"to know something"